Green Your Routine: A Transition From Mindless Consumerism to Mindful Consumption

By Omar Abad

There is a truth to the saying, "Go green and save green." We are so entangled in our busy routines that we tend to overlook how our day-to-day behaviors impact the environment, and how much it costs us over a period of time. The eco-conscious choices recommended in this book not only have a positive environmental impact, but also create sufficient financial savings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: Jun 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9780228828167

Book preview

Dedication

To our future generations who, too, deserve to relish this beautiful planet as we have for millenniums.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter 1 Recycling Misinterpreted

Chapter 2 Bring Your Own Bottles, Bags and Cups

Single-Use Water Bottles

Single-Use Plastic Bags

Single-Use Coffee Cups

Chapter 3 Re-evaluate Your Daily Routine

Electricity Consumption

Canned Beverages

Food and Water Wastage

Chapter 4 Rethink Your Transportation and Travel

Suburban and Rural Commute

City and Downtown Commute

Short-Haul Travel

Chapter 5 Change Your Upgrade Habits

Fewer Wardrobe Refreshes

Hold Back Your Inner Geek

Chapter 6 Zero Investment Eco-Conscious Journey

Chapter 7 Misplaced Faith

Useful References

Introduction

A few months ago, my former colleague and I carpooled to a client’s location. Being creatures of habit, we arrived at the site well in advance, so we decided to grab a quick lunch at a coffee shop across the road before meeting with our client.

It was my turn to order. I ordered a couple of eggs (yes, eggs . . . I eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner), and I extended my reusable coffee tumbler to the cashier to refill with black coffee.

My colleague said to me, Man, that thing travels with you everywhere.

Embarrassed, I responded, Well, I try not to use paper cups. We create too much unnecessary waste.

My colleague shrugged. Yeah, that’s true, but I’ve stopped worrying about it. We’re all screwed anyway.

Why would you say that? I asked, a bit taken aback by his fatalist attitude.

Man, we’re so far into this climate mess . . . I just don’t think we can recover. He gestured at my coffee mug. Do you really think your actions will make a difference?

A little perplexed by his perspective, a little agitated that he had undermined my effort, and a little impassioned by the choices that I had made, I replied, Yeah, actually I do. I do my part where I can. If you and a few million more people did the same, we would definitely be in a much better place than where we’re heading.

Well, good for you, he said, although he was looking at me like I was some wet-behind-the-ears eight-year-old on a Save the Turtles mission. Me, I’m just gonna order my coffee in a regular cup.

Hence, my motivation to write this book.

To help others like me who care about the future of our planet and convince people like my colleague that it’s worth the effort to make more informed decisions about their consumption behaviors. Also, my semi-idealistic personality naturally draws me to fact-backed arguments. So, rather than looking up facts every time I get into a climate catastrophe–type discussion, it just made sense to start compiling them in one place. And now, this book is an opportunity to share some of them with you.

This book identifies a handful of eco-friendlier alternatives to the wasteful consumption that has become par for the course in our society. These suggestions are based on steps I have personally taken to reduce my ecological footprint and that I have found not too cumbersome to adapt—because, let’s face it, if something is going to make our lives significantly more difficult, most of us aren’t going to do it. Each one of the choices suggested here has tangible financial and environmental impacts, which are approximated alongside these suggestions.

It’s not only about how much we consume, but also about how we consume. The objective of the suggestions discussed in this book is not to put a hard stop to our consumption habits, but to identify some impactful choices that we can make within our limits—choices that will generate both financial and carbon footprint savings.

Christiana Figueres, one of the key leaders behind the Paris Climate Agreement, said in TED’s Countdown campaign launch hosted in New York City, For centuries we have been on a consumer extract-and-consume mentality . . . The way we go about our life and the way businesses are created is extract, use, discard . . . that linear extraction to discard can no longer be the case . . . We have to go into a circular economy . . . Because, frankly, we are running out of resources.

That’s what this book is about. If we all choose to make a few changes to benefit the environment, it will make a difference. And, in doing so, we stand to make significant financial savings. Who doesn’t like to save money? The future of the planet is clearly in our hands, and adopting a we’re all gonna die anyway attitude is definitely not going to help anyone. I have a strong belief in fate and destiny. But my belief in putting up a fight in uncongenial situations is even stronger. So, let’s put up a fight against environmental deterioration and together take control of our actions to make a difference.

Each of the suggested eco-friendlier choices you will find in this book has been given a rating across three key factors: Ease of Adaptability, Financial Savings and Environmental Savings. And each of these factors is assessed over an adult’s working lifetime. An adult’s working lifetime is the time measure that I’ve used to assess the above-stated impact rating. Let’s assume this period to be 45 years. The average period after university graduation at 22 or 24 years of age, up to retirement at 65 or 67 years of age.

So how do we evaluate the impact of our choices over the three factors?

Ease of Adaptability – This identifies how easy it is to adopt the change.

The adaptability score is somewhat subjective, based on my experience and that of my social network’s, with:

1.being very challenging to adopt,

2.taking a level of commitment to adopt, and

3.being fairly easy to adopt.

Financial Savings – This identifies the amount of savings that can be generated over an adult’s working life by adopting a change.

Given each option, under certain