We all want to save the planet – you can start with personal changes.

Every April, when Earth Day rolls around, we think a bit harder about the environment. Sometimes we wonder if our small sacrifices have any impact on the big picture. Just how much can a single person do to make a noticeable positive impact? Well, when you do some research it actually turns out that one person can do a lot.

First consider water conservation.

Water is undeniably one of our most valuable resources and is definitely a huge concern around the world. According to the Glen Canyon Institute, we can conserve water by adding low flush toilet bowls because the average family of four uses 881 gallons of water per week just by flushing the toilet. We can shorten our showers because a 5-minute shower uses 15-25 gallons of water, and even easier, we can turn off the water when we brush our teeth because an average 3 minutes of tooth brushing with the water running uses 3 to 5 gallons of water! Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps works with Colgate promoting the water conservation campaign because 42 percent of Americans leave the water running while they brush their teeth. Turning off the faucet while we brush our teeth is an easy step we can all take. You can get a lot of other really great ideas for water conservation from that Glen Canyon Institute site.

Next, consider your thermostat and electronics.

Could installing a smart or automated thermostat make a difference? According to all kinds of online calculators from smart thermostat manufacturers and white papers on the subject, yes it will! They all show somewhere around 10% savings on heating and 15% savings on cooling – and the best part? Installing a smart thermostat might save you around $130 to $145 every year too. Your cell phone charger and computer charger use power unless you specifically unplug them or turn them off. If you turn them off when you are not using them you’ll cut the energy they use in half. As an example, your cell phone charger uses five watts per hour, so if you keep it conveniently plugged in, it will waste 40 kilowatt-hours of energy every year.
According to Quora, the US average kilowatt-hour created about 0.62 kilograms (1.4 pounds) of CO2 a few years ago which comes to about 56 pounds of CO2 you will save a year if you unplug your charger when not in use!

What about taking the train or bus to work?

If public transportation is available in your area, taking it instead of driving can really have a huge impact on your green footprint. According to the American Public Transportation Authority, if you currently drive about 20 miles round trip to work and back and instead you decide to use public transportation, your annual CO2 emissions will decrease by 4,800 pounds per year, which reduces a two-car household’s carbon footprint by 10 percent.

Stop your Junk Mail.

Most of the time people simply throw out junk mail and catalogs without even reading. By stopping your junk mail you will conserve trees, water, and CO2, too. How do you do this? EcoCycle has 6 quick steps you can take here.  Additionally, you can stop receiving pre-approved credit card offers here.

Cut Back on Plastic.

Plastic isn’t biodegradable, and while we can recycle some of it, plastic bottles litter the oceans, plastic bags lay dormant in our landfills, and plastic packaging seems the hallmark of
waste. Some easy ways to cut back on plastic use include:

• Reusable water bottles instead of plastic – we use 3.3 million plastic bottles an hour (we only recycle 1/5 of them!)
• Bring your own bags to the grocery store – many stores charge for plastic bag use anyway.
• Stop grouping your produce in plastic bags at the grocery store.
• Compost your organic garbage instead of throwing it out in a garbage bag.

Go Vegan and Tell a Friend!

There are lots of reasons people choose to become vegans. Maybe if more people knew the benefits to the environment, a vegan lifestyle would appeal to even more people. So pass the word…being a vegan helps the environment!

George Wang, M.D., Ph.D., Columbia University Medical Center, and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine was quoted in a CNN news story in 2017 by saying “An assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations indicated the contribution of the livestock sector to global greenhouse gas emissions exceeds that of transportation… Emissions from the production of beef and lamb are 250 times higher than those from legumes, per gram of protein, and pork and poultry are 40 times higher than legumes.” He also noted that livestock raising also creates large quantities of methane and nitrous oxide, and these greenhouse gases are more harmful to the environment than CO2.

That’s right, eating meat creates more (and worse) greenhouse gas than driving your car!

What really doesn’t make sense is that 800 million people are undernourished in the world, but we feed 35% of our grain to livestock, and raising livestock is responsible for most of the deforestation of the Amazon. Is meat really that yummy?

Choosing to consume a plant-based diet is actually one of the most powerful choices you can do to make a difference in your global footprint.

We believe that everyone can make a big difference here at TsiLa Organics with all our hearts. That’s why, when we hand make our natural fragrances, we stay organic, vegan, and cruelty-free. Not to mention that our process also just happens to produce amazing, luxurious and decadent perfumes. So you can feel really good this when you touch some of our essential oil or natural perfume to your neck or wrist – knowing that you are actually doing your small part to preserve our precious Earth. Maybe you might even want to present someone you love with a gift of organic, vegan perfume (after all, shouldn’t every day be celebrated as Earth Day?) … and let them feel like they are doing their part to save the environment too! https://tsilaorganics.com/