Our beautiful earth is in need of our help.

Most of us have realized it’s our job to assist in the rescue of our planet, but sometimes we might feel frozen to do so. On days when our regular schedule seems overwhelming, how can we still put time and energy into saving our environment?

Well, here is what we do.

Like any seemingly gigantic task, we begin where we are and we take wee baby scoots in the right direction. We don’t have to change everything, we just choose to alter a few routines here and there.

As Rumi said, “There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”

Here are 10 painless ideas that will plant a big juicy one on our mother planet:

1. Make a shower buddy.

While it won’t be the one thing that will save our earth, who doesn’t like some encouragement to get steamy and clean with a partner in tow? Showering with a buddy or loved one, even once a week, can be a simple (and playful) way to save 35 gallons of water according to this report.

2. Swap bulbs to LEDs.

As explained to me by this article, LED’s are the most progressive lighting option when considering energy saving. They use one third of the electricity of a regular incandescent bulb and last 10 times longer.

(We just bought a set from the local hardware store that change colors—funky and environmental suave in one go!)

3. Paper napkin, cut.

Truly, paper napkins are not always a necessity (even if we were raised on them). One study says that the average American uses six napkins a day—astoundingly, 2,200 a year.

If we cut back to one per meal, it would literally save billions of bleached white squares hitting our overflowing landfills.

4. Buy local when possible.

Shopping for food produced closer to home makes sense. We save on the carbon footprint it would take to get it here while supporting our local economy too, and Farmers Markets are a great place to chill and meet friends!

5. Tote your reusable coffee mug or water bottle with pride.

When I look into a garbage bin downtown, I see them overflowing with empty, disposable coffee cups and plastic water bottles.

Shana Lebowitz at greatist writes that 17 million barrels of oil are used annually in the production of one-time use water bottles.

Packing our own coffee mug and water bottle with us means we can not only be guilt-free about regular caffeine and aqua fueling, but also make a classy statement to the world that we are conscious about waste.

Now that’s sexy!

6. Pay bills online.

This article reports that 18.5 million trees worth of wood could be saved every year if we all switched to paying our bills online. That’s one beautiful forest we just allowed to stand with the ease of banking from home; changing consumption to conservation is that breezy.

7. Give our stuff away.

In the case of the environment, sharing is caring.

Giving things that we are no longer using to friends or a local shelter helps prevent our earth from using her limited resources to make unnecessary new ones. This reminds me of the three R’s from school days: Reduce, reuse and recycle.

8. Stop pre-heating the oven.

The need to preheat an oven is mostly an old wives tale, reports say. Unless we are bakers of bread or pastries, we don’t need our oven at a steady heat from the get go. We can pop our food in at the same time as turning the oven on, with no poor effect except sweet hydro savings.

9. Play with our veggies.

Many of us have already bought a ticket on this train, but if we needed to be convinced, just one meatless meal a week can help save forests and lakes, not only animals.

According to some estimates, it takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef, and close to 55 square feet of de-forested land to raise it.

10. If you tinkle be a sweetie, don’t flush what’s below the seattie.

Letting that yellow mellow really does help. According to one study, if we flush just once less a day we save five gallons of water.

This might be an uncomfortable habit to change to, but when we are caught with our bowl full, we can just say it’s for our planet, and suddenly we appear spirited revolutionaries.

By being mindful with our daily routine we can make a positive improvement to the tread we leave on our planet. She deserves these small and easy steps to assist her toward better health, and we deserve the warm feeling we get when we give them to her.

Let’s make positive change, today, and get our environmental consciousness rolling. We can get mobilized around our earth’s regeneration.

P.S. Remember to turn off the lights before bed tonight!

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Relephant Read:

12 Crazy Easy Ways to Go Green & Save Money.

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Author: Sarah Norrad

Editor: Toby Israel

Images: elephant journal // Emi De Fazio/Unsplash

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