Earth Day Activities

Today is Earth Day and it’s all about the environmental movement that we have been in since the 1970s. I like to look at it as “Celebrating The Planet.”

A method of finding new ways to be more environmentally friendly is to examine favorite hobbies and think of tweaks you can make to benefit the environment. I love to cook and spend a lot of time in the kitchen, so my plan is to focus most of my efforts in that space. If you are a foodie like me, you can look around your kitchen to find ways that your love of cooking can be joined together to create eco-friendly activations. Many of these options can also be applied to our in-office work routines as well.

Here are seven ways to Green your routine in honor of Earth Day:

1. Say goodbye to bottled water and choose filtered. Bottled water is wasteful – energy is used to produce, ship and dispose of plastic water bottles. It’s easy to replace it with filtered water. Water filtering pitchers are inexpensive, which cannot always be said about bottled water that needs to be restocked.
2. Reconsider how you store leftovers. Be cautious when buying containers to store your food in. Look for eco-friendly options such as glass or ceramic containers, and always make sure that they’re BPA free.
3. Run dishwasher only when it is full. This way you will be conserving water and energy. Also, you can opt to go with efficient settings like letting the dishes air dry rather than using heat. Remember you can always dry them by hand too.
4. Use Nontoxic Cleaning products. There are so many brands available to choose from nowadays. My favorites are Method, Ecover and The Honest Co..
5. Opt for Fair Trade. Buy fair trade organic coffee, teas, clothing and accessories.
6. Make eco-friendly food choices. The 100-mile diet: local first; organic for high consumption foods. When ordering lunch how about going vegetarian or even vegan for one day of the week, hello #MeatlessMonday! Cutting down on meat can have a huge impact on the health of the planet. Also, make an adventure out of it and check out your local farmers market for a weekend activity. I really enjoy Dallas’s Farmers Market.
7. Plant Something! Buy your favorite herbs and/or flowers and start a little garden. Recently I just purchased some fantastic mint, basil and oregano from Central Market. It’s fun to get your hands dirty and you’re also saving money growing your own!