How to be an Environmentally Friendly Family

Climate change is one of the hot topics in current events, and that is not going to lessen any time soon. From the USA being out of the Paris Accord, and now back in it, to technological and scientific advancements looking to solve this issue, it’s everywhere. Our children find it to be a core issue in the school curriculum. Naturally are bringing questions home about how we are going to contribute to the solution. Children often have many suggestions from what they’ve learned in school. We need to consider what we can do as a family, and thankfully there is no shortage of options when looking for inspiration. 

Talk About Environmental Issues

Having a little chat is always useful with kids, as it allows them to let out what’s on their minds. Often these conversations take unexpected turns, and as well as learning about the environment and how we might help, we sometimes get insights into what’s important for the kids. We can then take what is important to each of the family members and research what we might do to help each of these causes. This type of learning is beneficial to children, as it’s an exploratory style they feel involved in a way that being told what’s happening cannot provide.

Consider Where our Food Comes From

It’s astonishing how many children these days have little idea where our food comes from! Equipping them only helps them make informed choices as they mature. Knowledge of farming practices and how animals are reared gives young people the necessary tools to make decisions for themselves and the good of society in general. Many people are turning to a meat-free diet or trying to cut down and buying from responsible local producers. These are all worthwhile discussion to have as no matter what decisions we make, at least they are informed. 

Actively Recycle

These days there is almost no excuse for not recycling. Every council up and down the country has separate refuse collections for various types of recycling. So choosing the right recycling bins is very important and also teaching our children what goes in each bin. The question now is, how much further can we go? It’s lots of small changes that can add up over time. Something as seemingly little as switching from plastic to paper straws can have a huge effect.

Use Renewable Energy

Energy consumption is one of the biggest challenges we face. Let’s be honest human beings use energy and lots of it. Families have more humans, therefore use more energy. We can decide to change our domestic energy accounts to tariffs that supply energy to the grid through renewable means or at least put some profits back into research into renewables. We can produce renewable energy on our property using methods such as solar or wind power. We can even store this energy in batteries, essentially creating a personal solar power generator for emergencies or sell it back to the grid to lessen our fuel bills.

Limit Unnecessary Car Journeys

Short car journeys are to blame for a large percentage of the emissions coming from domestic travel. While the car engine is warming up, it emits more emissions. This fact, combined with the case that in-town driving is more environmentally harmful due to the more common periods of acceleration makes these the journeys to eliminate. Solutions include walking to work or taking the kids to school on foot. Most children are used to completing the daily mile anyway, so a little more won’t hurt them. If walking is just not possible, we could car-share, limiting the number of vehicles on the road, or look at the possibility of an electric vehicle?

Plant in Your Garden

How we use our garden space can be either beneficial or detrimental to the environment. At one end of the scale, we could be using the space to plant wildflowers, encouraging bees and insects to make their home in the garden. We could be using our garden to compost our food and plant waste, and then use the compost to grow further. Another good use would be to grow our fruit and vegetables. This cuts down on our food miles and provides fresh, organic produce for the family dinner table. Things to avoid in the garden are the over-use of artificial surfaces such as concrete, slabs, or artificial grass.

Say No to Single-Use Plastics

We touched on this earlier, but it’s certainly worth giving its mention. Single-use plastics are one of the worst environmental challenges we face today. Everything about these is negative. From the manufacturing process using fossil fuels, to the raw materials being fossil fuels, the transport and distribution. But the worst is still to come from these little offenders, it’s what happens to them after their extremely short lifespan. Often these superfluous packages or items are only in use for a matter of minutes. Consider junk food and convenience snacks; a chocolate bar wrapper may be in the purchaser’s hands for a minute or so, then discarded in a litter bin. The plastics used in its costly manufacture than are present in the environment for up to 1,000 years. We need to encourage our families to eliminate the need for these. Vote with our wallets, stop buying these products, choose the loose produce, and use paper bags or reusable mesh ones. 

Donate to Eco-Charities

Giving to charity is something that I would always recommend to my kids. There are plenty of environmental charities that are worthy of your donations. But in addition to giving money, a good life lesson is to encourage donating our time as well. Volunteering gets us involved in the task at hand. I find conservation project work particularly appealing. This allows us to help out, meet new people, and also learn new skills.

Animals & Extinction

Another area to be aware of is the conservation of vulnerable animal species. Much of what we have discussed so far directly links into this. All environmental damage decreases habitats and puts in jeopardy future biodiversity.