As our society grows more and more aware of the negative effects that our consumerist lifestyles are having on the environment, many people are seeking to make changes in their lives to help make a difference. We can no longer ignore the damage that is being done to our planet, and everyone needs to strive to make a difference wherever they can. This necessity has given rise to the popularity of eco living.
What is Eco Living?
“Eco Living” simply means living one’s life in a way that attempts to have the smallest negative impact on the environment that you can. This can take many forms such as recycling, avoiding single-use plastics, buying local whenever possible, and more. Living in an ecofriendly way means making intentional decisions in our daily lives that work towards sustainability.
Those decisions may look like choosing to ride a bike to work instead of driving, buying from a farmers market instead of a large, chain grocery store, or using a reusable mug at a coffee shop instead of a disposable cup that you will throw away once it’s empty. Eco living is all about making small choices every day that add up to reducing your impact on the environment.
Eco living can also look very different for different people. A single person who lives in a busy downtown area will have a very different lifestyle then a family in a suburban area. Both lifestyles have benefits and drawbacks when it comes to sustainability, and eco living will look very different for both of them.
How do you start Eco living?
Many people look at eco living and think that it’s not possible for them to make any meaningful changes in their life. Maybe they don’t think they have the money for sustainable swaps, or they don’t have the time or energy to cook at home, or they can’t easily recycle where they live. They see the extreme examples of people who can fit all their trash for a year in a mason jar, or who don’t even own a car and bike everywhere and feel like they can’t make a difference.
However, real change doesn’t come from a few people adopting extreme lifestyles. It comes from many people making small changes over time towards greater sustainability. Eco living can be as simple as starting to cook one meal a week at home, or use a reusable water bottle instead of buying bottles of water every day. Everyone has some areas where they can practice eco living. It doesn’t have to be a massive lifestyle change overnight! For many people, one of the hardest areas to fit into a Eco Friendly lifestyle is e-commerce or online shopping.
Why is e-commerce bad for the environment?
E-commerce is usually not the most sustainable or environmentally friendly option. Shipping products directly to customers has a large carbon footprint, from the trucks used to deliver mail to the extra packaging that shipping individual products creates. The sites where online shopping occurs, also have an environmental impact that includes the servers that power the sites, and the employees that run them.
E-commerce has also made quick, impulse purchases incredibly convenient and easy which results in people buying more than they need, in addition to buying products that they don’t need at all. This expenditure of energy and creation of waste ends up having a sizable impact on the environment. So where does this leave the online shopper desiring to live a more eco friendly lifestyle? Do you have to abandon online shopping entirely?
How does EcoCart help this?
Online shopping doesn’t have to be as environmentally damaging as you might think.When it comes to the negative effects, EcoCart provides a simple, easy, and effective way to minimize the carbon footprint and environmental impact of online shopping. Simply install the EcoCart chrome extension, and whenever you visit a supported shopping site, press the green button that pops up and EcoCart does the rest!
When you make a purchase EcoCart will donate on your behalf to carbon offset projects that help to mitigate the impact of your online shopping. This lets you responsibly and intentionally utilise the many benefits and advantages of e-commerce, while offsetting its many negative effects. Shopping online doesn’t have to be bad for the environment, and now with EcoCart there’s a better way to shop online!
Look for achievable solutions!
It’s easy to feel guilty when you see the effects that online shopping has on the environment, but it’s often the easiest, most affordable, or most convenient way to purchase the products that you need or want. With EcoCart, you don’t have to feel bad about the negative impacts your orders could have on the environment. You can help create positive change in the world—all for free!
