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Don’t flush the toilet every single time!
It’s not the first time this strange advice has been given with regard to water conservation. In addressing water conservation matters in 2005, the Mayor of London urged Londoners to “refrain from flushing the toilet if they have had only 'a pee'.” Because it’s true: each flush is equivalent to 5-6 gallons of water.
This, of course, is not a free pass to forego and forget proper toilet etiquette. It only asks that you start being mindful. A good measure we saw on the internet: “If it’s yellow, let it mellow/ if it’s brown, flush it down!”
Agree with your housemates to flush on the toilet’s third usage, for instance. When the water’s a stark yellow, dude, i-flush na yan. When, godforbid, you can’t tell the color anymore, maawa ka na.
Join the Meatless Monday trend!
We can hear your collective silent groans. We just said there weren't gonna be any supreme sacrifices, after all. But then it's only one day. As Monday cannot go on forever, thank heavens, not having meat won't go on forever, too.
How can not having meat help save the environment? Meatless Monday Philippines founder Custer Deocaris of DOST is taking cue from the recently concluded Earth Hour. The last Earth Hour saw 15 million Filipinos switching their lights off. If the same number of Filipinos “went without meat for just a day,” reports the Philippine Daily Inquirer “that would be equivalent to 150,412 trees planted and grown for 10 years… this would have saved 1.8 million animals from cruel slaughter.”
No bacon for just a day. It’s not as big a sacrifice as you think! But wow! The returns are tremendous.
Buy local to further reduce your carbon footprint.
Buying local has something to do with your carbon footprint. As you may already know, "carbon footprint is a measure of the amount of greenhouse gases released to sustain life." So bringing out your car for instance contributes to your personal carbon footprint; because your car releases carbon dioxide. Whenever you take the airplane, for instance, you rack in huge carbon footprint. So the idea is to minimize or better, diminish where you can.
Buying local goods is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint, not to mention you also get to help the economy. Because imagine that imported shirt, for example. For that shirt to get here, it was flown, shipped, and delivered to the store—and that’s just the transportation of the shirt. That's just the footprint of transportation alone; nothing's been said about its production. In the act of transporting that shirt to our shore, so much gasoline has already been used. A lot of greenhouse gases have already been produced. Remember: that’s just the transportation of the shirt.
Now if you buy, say, a Team Manila shirt from the Team Manila store in Rockwell. If we talk transportation alone, that shirt was probably driven from their warehouse to the shop and that’s that. It still has a footprint but compared to flying, shipping, and then delivery of an imported shirt, it is the lesser evil. Now, given that Team Manila’s HQ is just in Jupiter, we’re not discounting the fact that the shirt was probably just pedaled from their Makati HQ to Rockwell Powerplant. Reduce your carbon footprint.
Bus instead of drive. Bike instead of bus.
We're still on reducing carbon footprint. The easiest, perhaps, is your every day commute. You can opt to carpool with yor officemates once a week. Or you can choose to bike instead of taking a cab. It doesn’t have to be every day; we know you love your car and we know the hassles of commuting. But you can take small steps such as the aforementioned to help you shave your carbon footprint to a minimum, and in turn, allow you to show the earth some lovin’.
Bring Baon.
Yes, we know how difficult it is to wake up as it is, what more getting up earlier than the usual to prepare baon. Don’t worry, we know. But consider the amount of waste you will help eliminate by bringing baon: one less styrofoam, one less plastic bag, one less straw, one less plastic glass, one less plastic spoon, one less plastic fork. Consider the lunch money you can save when you bring baon. Consider the calories you won’t have to burn this week (because baon is the healthier option, note!). Consider the lutong-bahay you could be having instead of that tasteless siomai. Right?
You don’t have to do this every day, of course. (If you can, why not?) You can always start small: How about you try brining baon once a week, say on a Monday when there are left-overs from Sunday dinner?
Take Trash Segregation Seriously!
It’s a very small act of mindfulness but it can go along way. Separate nabubulok aka biodegradable, from di nabubulok aka non-biodegradable, simple lang diba? Biodegrables are waste products that can be organically broken down: left-over food, paper, tissue, boxes. Non-biodegradables are those you can still recycle: plastic, glass, batteries, oil.
Minimize printing.
Especially if it’s only a balance inquiry to your ATM, or an email acknowledgement. You know what they say: save paper, save trees! Besides, you can make do without that extra clutter!
