How To Be More Sustainable

Everyone can take steps to help reduce their impact on the environment. By taking action and making your lifestyle more sustainable, you help preserve the environment for your future self and future generations. You can begin living more sustainably, even with small steps.

There are a few easy ways to boost how sustainable you are. Let’s take a look at four different ways to live more sustainably.

4 ways to live more sustainably

If you’re wondering how to be more sustainable at home, here are some steps you can take to achieve a more sustainable lifestyle.

1. Reduce single-use plastic

Did you know The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report From Pollution to Solution, published in 2021, estimated that the amount of plastic waste entering the ocean will reach between 23-37 million tons per year by 2040? Even at a glance, you can appreciate the magnitude of this.

In their article How to reduce the impacts of single-use plastic products, they shared several ways to be more sustainable by helping phase out single-use plastic products (SUPPS) that are causing harm to the environment. Here are two tips you can take advantage of at home.

Consider reusable alternatives

Reusable alternatives to SUPPs not only reduce your impact on the environment, but they can also help you save money. For example, bring bags for carrying purchases, cups for beverages, or containers for goods that need to be stored after they’re weighed if your supermarket allows it. You may even find your local coffeeshop gives you a small discount if you bring your own plastic cup!

Consider reusing single-use plastic

While you should always try to avoid using SUPPs if you can, in situations where you need to use a SUPP, consider reusing them if possible. For example, items such as bags, bottles, spoons, or forks could be kept at home to be reused.

2. Reduce food waste

Addressing food waste is another way you can help achieve a more sustainable lifestyle. WRAP, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to enhancing circular (sustainable) living, released the 2022 report Reducing Household Food Waste and Plastic Packaging.

This report highlights how up to 40% of food produced globally becomes food waste that contributes between 8% and 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions. More specifically, 70% of post-farm food waste in the UK originates from the home.

Their report primarily focused on the steps that suppliers and retailers could take to reduce food waste, but they also highlighted one important step individuals could take to help cut back on food waste.

Refrigerate below 5°C at home

WRAP tested a wide variety of products and how storing them in a fridge at 4°C affected their shelf life compared to being stored in a fridge at 9°C or when storing food at ambient temperatures.

The results varied, but the shelf life for all products tested showed major improvements. Foods stored at 4°C lasted 26-130% longer compared to foods stored in the fridge or between 200-720% longer compared to foods stored at ambient temperatures.

Other simple tips to reduce food waste

The World Resources Institute (WRI) also discusses additional steps you can take in their article The Global Benefits of Reducing Food Loss and Waste, and How to Do It. These steps include:

Understanding the difference between use-by and best-by labels

You can avoid unnecessary food waste by ensuring you know which type of label is being used. Use-by dates indicate when food must be consumed before it starts to go bad and could make you sick. Best-by dates indicate when a food will still be of optimal quality and still have the most flavour and best texture possible.

Ensuring you’re storing different foods in optimal conditions

While it might seem evident that foods like ice cream or meat need to be stored in a certain way to last for as long as possible, it’s less obvious with some foods. For example, keeping apples in a bowl might seem perfectly fine, but you can extend their shelf life by multiple weeks by keeping them in the fridge.

Using your freezer to preserve leftovers

Freezing food is a great way to extend its shelf life since it stops most bacteria from growing on the food. While not all foods are suitable for freezing and thawing later, many types of food are. Check if the food is freezer-friendly and then store it properly in an air-tight container or freezer bag in your freezer.

3. Conserve water

Sure, the UK gets a bad rap for being pretty wet and gloomy. But today’s reality is somewhat different, with the UK experiencing some of its highest temperatures in recent years.

The National Centre for Atmospheric Science reported in their article 2024: UK’s fourth warmest year on record highlights urgency for climate action that 2024 was the fourth warmest year on record, with only 2023, 2022, and 2014 reporting higher temperatures. These increasing temperatures are likely the cause of weather extremes, including periods of higher rainfall followed by droughts, making it incredibly important to ensure water isn’t wasted.

The World Wildlife Federation (WWF) shared its top 10 water-saving tips that can help you conserve water in your home. Here are a few of the best ways to be more sustainable when it comes to your water usage.

Switch to showers

Showers use significantly less water than baths, so consider switching to showers to greatly reduce your water consumption. If you’re already a shower user, set a timer to further control the amount of water you use. It’s great zoning out in the shower, but your water and energy bills will thank you the less time you spend in there.

Install low-flow aerators

You can also consider installing a low-flow shower head or tap to get the same pressure from a tap without using more water.

Use alternatives to sprinklers

A water butt can help you avoid using water from the tap to water your plants while cooking water (however, avoid any water with salt) can help you get even more out of the water you do use in your garden.

Don’t leave the tap running

A running tap can use as much as six litres of water per minute, so be sure to turn the tap off if you don’t need to leave it running.

Make the most of your dishwasher

Dishwashers already offer incredible water savings compared to washing dishes by hand. However, you can get even more out of each load by ensuring your dishwasher is packed correctly and is full before you run it.

4. Conserve energy in your home

Energy conservation is another way many people can help reduce their environmental impact. If you’re wondering, “How is conserving energy sustainable living?”, there are several ways that reducing your energy consumption or changing your energy sources can positively affect the environment. These include:

• Reducing your reliance on energy produced by limited fossil fuels.
• This reduces the release of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, including carbon dioxide emissions, produced by fossil fuels.
• By reducing the release of greenhouse gases, you help reduce the rate of global warming.

In addition to this, energy conservation also helps you reduce your energy bills and save money.

To help reduce your overall energy consumption, here are some quick tips to save energy courtesy of the Energy Saving Trust, including a few easy ways to be more sustainable.

Completely turn off devices

The majority of devices don’t turn themselves off completely when you press the off button. Instead, they run in a low-energy standby mode. While this may reduce the impact of a single device dramatically, having multiple devices in standby mode can result in higher energy consumption than you might expect. If you can, completely turn off a device to avoid this type of phantom or ghost power usage. This may require turning it off at the wall, but be aware that this may cause parts of the device, such as clocks and timers, to function incorrectly.

Draught-proof your doors and windows

During the winter months, you might turn to gas or electricity to heat your home and avoid the chilling effects of the cold. However, without proper draught-proofing, you may lose heat through gaps under doors or between windows, or in other unexpected ways. While getting a professional to assist you with draught-proofing your home may cost money in the short run, it can help you save energy in the long run.

Improve your hot water cylinder insulation

Much like draughts that unexpectedly draw heat energy from your home, poorly insulated hot water cylinders may be “bleeding” heat energy into the air. This means you’ll need more energy to maintain the temperature of the hot water. You can take advantage of insulation to reduce the heat lost by your hot water cylinder, which means you’ll require less energy to keep your water hot.

Use less hot water by showering

Showering isn’t only a great way to save water. It’s also a great way to reduce the amount of energy you use to keep your water warm, especially when compared to the amount of hot water, and, therefore, energy you’d require for a bath. This is because you use less hot water, which means less energy is required to reheat the cold water entering your hot water cylinder.

Turn off unnecessary lights

Much like standby mode on devices can unexpectedly add up to higher energy usage than you’d expect, lights, especially non-LED bulbs, can also add up. If you don’t need light in a room, turn the lights off, and if you haven’t already done so, switch to energy-efficient LED bulbs to further reduce your overall energy consumption.

Improve your sustainability by switching to a renewable energy provider

While reducing your use of SUPPs, food waste, water, and energy are ways to be more sustainable, another way is to choose more sustainable solutions, including sourcing your energy from green energy suppliers. By choosing greener sources of energy, you can still consume energy and reduce your impact on the environment at the same time.

We can help you on your path to sustainability

We help our customers understand sustainability by clarifying renewable energy terms, and we ensure their energy consumption is as sustainable as possible by utilising renewable sources.

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For example, our So Fixed and So Flex Green tariffs are 100% renewable energy, making it a great solution for grid-sourced sustainable energy. We also provide other green energy solutions, including solar panels, batteries, and heat pumps. These solutions reduce your impact on the environment without forcing you to completely cut back on your energy consumption, making them ideal for a more sustainable lifestyle.

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