Eco Friendly Business

When you wake up in the morning and roll out of bed, the last thing on your mind is “how am I going to effect the environment today.” Although this may sound silly, this statement is something everyone needs to consider. While I too am guilty of shortcuts and luxuries that are not so eco-friendly, I’ve decided to become more aware of my impact. The ideas that follow are food for thought in the sense of being more eco-friendly.

Coffee and Commute

When you take a shower, get ready and head to work in the morning are you going to stop by a coffee shop or drive alone to work? Have you considered bringing your own reusable coffee mug to the café or riding your bike to work instead?

While neither of these alternate ideas seems time efficient, they do help with your impact on the earth. Of course if there is public transportation available or carpooling, those are other great ways to get around with less impact on the earth. Unfortunately smaller places do not offer public transportation, but carpooling is always an option.

In the sense of commuting it is important to look at cutting back on emissions and the time effect on your commute. In most large areas there are carpool lanes that you can use when traveling with two or more in a vehicle. This is a way to encourage people to drive together, because the carpool lane is almost never stopped.

Eating Out

Another daily habit when you’re busy working is going out to lunch. While making your lunch and putting it in reusable containers is great, we don’t all have the time. Also meetings tend to go along with lunch. To make this experience a little more earth-friendly you can order smaller portions of food so that you don’t have to take any home or ask for a paper take home box.

We usually don’t think about containers, but styrofoam and non-recyclable plastics are actually really bad for the environment. Make sure the food venue uses a paper material as a take-home container. These are bio-degradable and keep food just as well as plastic or styrofoam.

Water Bottles

While drinking water is a necessity for life, there are alternatives to grabbing a bottle at the convenient store. Plastic water bottles are not necessary if you have a water bottle that you fill every day before work. Then you save yourself the money of over a dollar per twelve ounce bottle and make less impact on the earth.

Even though you can recycle plastic bottles, most rural areas do not offer a recycle pick up and many end up in the trash.

There are many types of water bottles. Personally I use a stainless steel one that has a spout made out of BPA free plastic. Many water bottles on the market contain BPA which is a chemical in plastic that is not good for you. Make sure when you purchase a water bottle, whether it be stainless steel or plastic, it says BPA free.

Think Green

While these ideas can seem to be a bit much, they actually are simple ways you could change your daily routine to make less impact on the environment. If you’re thinking “one person isn’t much,” think again. Every person counts. Each person influences someone in their life. Then over time more people join in and there is that much less impact.