When it comes to eco friendly and green lifestyle many people refuse from that just because they associate it with very high expenditures. They think that it will cost a lot more to choose eco friendly food, energy, household goods and other things. Does it really costs so much to help the environment or is it just an excuse.

If we talk about eco friendly energy, than it really takes some investments to equip your home. Most popular eco friendly energy is solar power. These investments depend on the way you want to equip the house. For example, you can get solar heating system, solar roof or other solar powered systems. The costs of this equipment really are high. If you want to use solar energy for every electronic devise than you will have to invest few thousands euro, but remember that you will save in a long term. You won’t have to pay for the electricity so much so the solar power equipment can pay off within few years. If you can’t afford to pay the whole amount of money at once, you can get a loan and then cost each month won’t change too much.

Most of the water conservation methods also need some investments. For example, you can change the bath to shower, change the water heating system to more efficient one, change the water tanks etc. Although it takes some investments at first, remember you will save huge amount of money on water consumption. Again, it will be efficient in long term. If you don’t have enough money for these investments, at least don’t waste too much water while doing everyday housework. That doesn’t cost anything. Even more, you will save some money on saved water.

Households’ goods and cosmetics however is another story. It doesn’t take huge investments, but people think that eco friendly products are more expensive. Most of the eco friendly products really are more expensive, but not all of them. Some eco friendly brands are even cheaper than most popular brands that produce cosmetic from chemical raw materials. Even more, if you use some organic products as cleaning products, for example vinegar and baking soda, you will be able to save huge amounts of money. You only have to think creative and figure out which organic products are suitable for each need.

The same situation is with eco friendly food. People think that this kind of food is very expensive and perishable, although it all depends on your individual choices. First you should consider making a small garden to grow some fruits and vegetables. That will let you save money on food and all the products will be as eco friendly and healthy as you make them. Second thing you should consider is to buy products at the market, not supermarkets. That also will let you save money. Some eco friendly products really are more expensive than manufactured ones, but if you save money in the ways mentioned before, you will be able to buy them.

So all together eco friendly lifestyle is not more expensive if you know what you are doing. In some cases you can even save money instead of wasting it. Think creative and calculate the total costs of living green in long term.









Probably anyone knows that tourism is not the most sustainable industry. Traveling means using transportation for long distances which causes CO2 emissions; staying in hotels which are well known for using chemicals in everyday cleaning; eating in catering establishments, which are known for food waste and seeing some nature tourism objects which are being damaged that way. So does that mean you have to give up travelling if you want to become eco friendly?

Traveling doesn’t necessary needs to be harmful to the nature. Usually our choices makes it that way, but if we dedicate some time to think how can we change our traveling habits to become little bit more eco friendly, we can do it without worrying about ecological problems that we might cause.

Travelling always is related with motorized transportation, which usually is airplane, cruise ship, bus or car. They all are causing CO2 emissions. Some more, some less, but we cannot fully avoid that for now. First step, of course would be to choose the less harmful variant from those which are available. If you are traveling alone, of course public transportation would be a better choice, but there are at least three travelers than economic car also would be appropriate. You will leave some ecological footprints, but you can reduce the harm by planting the tree. It is proved that one tree can absorb emissions of 12 hour flight in airplane for one person. So plant tree each time you travel.

The next big problem is the hotels. That is one of the most eco unfriendly industries in the world. Most of the hotels use chemicals for cleaning the rooms and doing the laundry. If we think about the amounts of chemicals and water used because of these actions each day, we can only imagine the harm they are doing to the environment. The good news is that there really are some eco friendly hotels which use organic materials not only for cleaning, but also for other things. For example they are using furniture made of fast growing natural materials such as bamboo. Also they let you choose how often the towels and sheets must be washed and garbage taken away. If that still isn’t green enough for you, there are also alternatives to hotels such as camping.

While traveling, people are usually eating in restaurants or other catering establishments. They are the biggest cause of food waste which is important global problem. Eating at them doesn’t go along with green philosophy, but also catering establishments can be eco friendly and work by sustainable principles. Some of the restaurants have contracts with animal farms and all the uneaten food is given away to these farms so nothing is wasted. Even more, some restaurants are using only green, organic products and really dedicate some time and money to become fully green. If you can’t find these kind of establishments or just don’t want to go to them for some reasons, you can also buy the food at shop, during the travel.

Also seeing nature tourism objects doesn’t need to do any harm if you are not knowingly doing that. If you only go near them and look at them from a distance, not actually touch them, you won’t do any harm. Even more, there are entering fees at most of the nature objects which are later dedicated to the conservation of them. So basically you are doing more good than bad by visiting them. Just be careful and don’t leave any waste behind yourself.

Everything can be done in eco friendly way if you really want that and think of ways how to do that. Green lifestyle doesn’t mean any kind of restrictions only creative thinking and desire to save our planet.

Although many people would love to go outside and have some fresh air, it is not always possible because there are some times we have to stay inside to do our obligations. For some that is office work, for some house works and for some other reasons, but the fact is that we can’t always spend as much time in a fresh air as we would like to.

Spending so much time indoors is dangerous because of indoor pollution which can cause all kind of diseases and overall health problems. This indoor pollution can be even five times higher than pollution outdoors. There are many sources of indoor pollution such us manufactured fiber, broken flourished lights, plastic products, heating equipment, glues and paints, pressed wood products, old soft furniture etc. Just imagine how many of these pollution sources you have in your room.

We cannot easily get rid of all these pollution sources, but we can easily reduce the adverse effects caused by them. All we need is living walls and vertical gardens. Those are vertical stands with all kind of real plants. There can be many kind of plants included in these walls. Those can be some native plants, exotic plants or even herbs and vegetables. Of course, you can also simply put some plants into your room, but living walls have many benefits.

The most important aspect that makes living walls superior than simple plants is the effective usage of the place. You can have even hundred different plants, but they won’t bother you at all, because they are arranged vertically. So instead of one or two plants you can put on the desk, you can make a whole wall that reaches to the sealing. You can turn your house into a garden, but there won’t be any problems with lack of space.

This concentration of plants in one room will absorb most of the indoor pollution. The air will be as fresh as in outdoors. Just like trees in the forest, these plants will clean the air at your home. All the pollution from manufactured materials will be turned into pure oxygen and the time spent at home will be as healthy as time spent outdoors.

These walls also look very good. They will make your interior interesting and green. These walls can clearly show that owner of the house is eco-friendly and that he really loves nature. It is like a personalized interior object that tells everything about your lifestyle.

Another great thing about them is the possibility to grow something useful. For example you can grow some herbs, which later you can use while cooking or even you can grow some vegetables, fruits and berries. That is a great way how to save some money on these products and make sure they are organic and healthy, not like the ones you can buy at the supermarket.

Basically these living walls can turn your home into small garden. You can make your indoor life as productive and green as outdoor life so make at least one small living wall that can help you to live healthier and better life.

Food waste is bad from so many aspects. It’s unethical, bad for the environment, and also a huge waste of money. All the industrialized countries throw out more than 670 million tons of food every year. Of course we cannot stop that so easy, but we can change our own habits starting from today. Most of the people consider it as a norm to throw out some groceries once in a while, but it is possible to live even without this small individual waste. Here are some advices how to reduce the amount of wasted food.

You can use all the products that are starting to age. The easiest way how to do that is by making some foods with lot of ingredients. For example, if you have some vegetable leftovers that are starting to look bad, but are still good for use, make a soup, salad or stew. If you have lot of vegetables, make smoothies. There are a lot of recipes, so there is a pretty big chance you will find something especially for your grocery mix.

Also change the way you go shopping. Lot of people goes to the shop or markets only once a weak or even and buys groceries for all that time. It is hard to predict what amount of food you will use each weak and what you will want to eat each day, so better go to the shop more often if that is possible. If not, than at least try to buy products with longer realization dates.

Some of the groceries can be stored for a lot longer time if you preserve them. For example, if you have lot of vegetables left freeze them or put them into a jar and heat. Also you can do that with meat if you have some preservation recipes. Frozen or preserved food can be stored even for several months or a whole year.

Don’t trust the realization dates. Every product has a realization date and most of the people believe that product is not good for use after this date. In lot of cases it is not true. If the realization date have passed, that means the manufacturer don’t take responsibility for this products quality any more, but it doesn’t necessary means that product is old. If it looks and smells fine, you can use it even if the realization date is over for a few days. Especially it requires to products that has to be cooked before eating.

Also planning the meals can help. If you know what you will eat every day, you will know what and how much to buy. That will help you not to buy groceries that won’t be used. If you buy food rare than better plan meals with similar products in them so there would be fewer leftovers.

If you follow all these advices you will be able to save a lot of money and help the environment at the same time. There are limited resources on this planet so lest use them wisely.

Most of the people have never thought of how much harm they do to the environment just by doing some simple everyday tasks. We want comfort, so we doesn’t care that we damage our own planet, but by that we ensure less comfort in the future. Here are some simple ways, how we can help the environment by simply changing some of our habits.

One of the most common ways how we all permanently and dramatically damage environment is by dong laundry. That might seem odd, because it’s just one of normal everyday chores, but think of all the chemicals, water and energy used in this process. All the sewage with phosphor and other dangerous chemicals go right into the natural waters. So do your laundry as rare as possible and always use the eco friendly washing powder without phosphates and bleach. If it’s time to change your washing machine, than buy one that has high energy efficiency class.

Also any motorized transportation is bad to environment. Every fuel-powered vehicle produces CO2 emissions that create reduction of ozone layer and creation of global warming. That is the easiest way how to destroy the planet. To not let that happen, ride a bike or walk by foot. Of course, it is not possible to get anywhere that way, but at least use that for short distances in everyday life. That will not only be a huge help to the environment, but also your own health.

Big changes can make recycling. Lot of people think that they are already doing that, because, they put the plastic or glasses in separate containers, than municipal waste. Actually it is possible to live with no useless waste at all. Learn what types of plastic, metal, paper and glass can be recycled and others give away in a designated waste collecting points. Especially it refers to electronics and batteries. The municipal waste should contain only organic waste.

One of the ways how households use the enormous amounts of energy is by regulating the temperature by air conditioning and heathers. Of course, normal air temperature is important, but sometimes there are other, better options. If you want your house to be cooler, keep the windows opened cover them from sun. If you want it warmer, think of isolation and warm yourself with clothes and blankets.

Also consumption of water damages the environment. Even if water is chap and you can afford to use it as much as you want, think of pollution and useless use of resources. Actually it is quite a simple task to save water, because we are used to waste it every day. For example, don’t clean your clothes and dishes when the machines are not full, because the consumption of full dish or washing machines and half-empty doesn’t change. Also go to shower not bath and use water responsible while cooking. That is really simple, just think of that every time you open the tap.