Shopping with Conscience

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Every day we have an impact on the environment. We live in homes, walk on sidewalks and work in offices that disrupt the water cycle with impervious surfaces. We eat food that was grown and transported miles to our plates. We put on clothes that used natural resources for their manufacture. We drive cars that spew carbon pollution into the atmosphere, and we throw away lots of things we neither wanted nor needed that clog landfills.

While reducing our environmental footprint can seem daunting, each of these ways we impact the world is an opportunity to make a change. Adjusting the choices we make in the course of our everyday lives equals tangible change to reduce humans’ harmful impacts on the world, and it starts with choices as small as which aisle we walk down at the grocery store. Here are a few ways you can change how you shop and live that can reduce your environmental impact.

Reduce Packaging

When you buy a soda, a cell phone or anything else, you’re not just getting the product; you’re also getting the paper and plastic it’s wrapped in. One of the easiest ways you can reduce your environmental impact is to start paying attention to these wasteful “extras” and choosing low-packaging options whenever possible. At the grocery store, get your granola and cereal from the bulk food section rather than buying boxes with an extra layer of plastic packaging on the inside. Instead of buying individual snack packs, buy one large container and portion it yourself in reusable containers.

If you can’t avoid packaging altogether, try and look for products that come in recyclable materials. That could mean snacks in cardboard boxes rather than plastic bags or sauces in glass jars rather than plastic containers.

Borrow, Barter or Share

Before you buy something, ask yourself: do I really need to buy this? With the popularity of community websites like Nextdoor and Freecycle as well as an increasing national trend for bartering and sharing, there’s a good chance that if you need something temporarily, someone else will have it and be willing to lend it or even give it away.

For example, if you’ve got a house project to work on, check to see if your town or region has a tool library. Tool libraries have become a common way for people to check out tools for a few days while they finish a project and then return them. It’s a great way not only to be more conscious with your purchasing, but also to save money! Of course, you can also just ask your neighbor if you can borrow that tool.

BYOB(ags)

Most products already come with enough of their own packaging—you don’t need to add your own. The bring-your-own-bag trend is a simple but powerful way to reduce your impact. We most often associate bringing your own bags with groceries and the plastic bag bans and fees that have become law in three states and 164 cities. To be sure, single use plastic bags are a singular villain: they’re made of petroleum, mar our communities with litter and poison wildlife, (particularly in the oceans) where fish and whales have been found with plastic pollution in their stomachs.

But bringing your bag doesn’t have to stick to the supermarket. Your tote bag can carry things home from the hardware store, pharmacy or the mall just as well. Even better, carrying a backpack, messenger bag or large purse means you can drop most purchases into something that’s already with you. Keep tote bags in your trunk or the small, condensable ones on your keychain so you’re always prepared.

Resist Impulse Buys

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This sounds more like a maxim to save money, but curbing impulse purchases can improve your environmental as well as financial well-being. Think about the things we impulse buy: a chocolate bar on sale. A magazine in the checkout line. A T-shirt souvenir. A funny piece of decor. All of these things have this in common: they’re unnecessary. You weren’t planning to buy them because you don’t need them. Yet, they come with packaging, and a carbon footprint in their production and transportation. More often than not, impulse buys don’t become mainstays in your home, but rather find their way to the back of a closet or bottom of a drawer until the next trash pickup or giveaway.

Is the fleeting good feeling you get from making these purchases worth the environmental cost? One easy step is to just say no. Rather than buying a magazine, browse while you wait. If you’re still interested in articles, check out the publication’s website when you get home. Before you buy a new shirt or pair of pants, sleep on it. Do you really need another white shirt? Will it fill a hole in your closet or simply add to it? If you still want it later, buy it the next time you’re in the area.

Chain Your Errands

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As much or more than the environmental impact of the stuff you buy is the impact of how you buy it. The transportation sector accounts for 26 percent of total global warming emissions in the United States, and much of it comprised of the daily small trips we make to grab milk, drop off dry cleaning and swing by the post office. Reducing the miles you drive to go about your daily business can make a huge dent in your footprint.

For folks who live in a walkable neighborhood, take advantage of it! Walking or biking to the grocery store is carbon-free, and it is also a great way to get exercise. Investing in a small grocery cart or big backpack can make carrying your purchases home a breeze.

The millions of Americans living in neighborhoods where walking and biking aren’t options can also reduce their emissions with a little planning. Before you head out on your errands, think about all you need to do and where you’re going. Try to stack all your errands into a single trip rather than making multiple round trips from home. You can even take it a step further and plan your stops to chain the errands such that it reduces the amount of time on the road. Try to hit multiple stops in one strip mall so you can park once and walk between them.

Think Local First

Even better than making your transportation habits more sustainable is to make sure what you buy follows the same principles. Food is a great place to start. As the movement to eat locally has grown, so too have the options to buy local produce and meats. You can start by paying closer attention to the origins of what you buy. Live in New York? Buy oranges from Florida instead of California. Better yet, think about eating seasonally like squash and apples in winter rather than tomatoes and strawberries. Better yet, hit up your local farmers markets and support the people and businesses directly in your community.

Shopping locally extends beyond what we eat. There are lots of makers and artisans in every city who make clothes, jewelry, furniture, household goods and more. Supporting them when you can not only reduces your environmental footprint, but also helps your community grow and thrive.

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