Conserve Energy
Enhance Personal Energy
1. Breathe. Ground yourself in the present moment. Tune into your body and what you feel motivated to do, then do it with purpose and intention.
2. Prioritize sleep. Increase your levels of natural energy, physical stamina, and mental clarity to accomplish what you want to do.
3. Eat nourishing foods. Avoid sugary foods that result in sugar-highs and energy crashes.
4. Be active. Partake in physical activities that signal to your body to activate energy stores. Practice mindful movement to both tone your body and alleviate mental stress.
5. Become metabolically flexible. The high carbohydrate and high fat levels recommended by the standard American diet inhibit our metabolism. Encourage your body to use its steady reserves of stored fat by dialing down the sugars and eating traditional fats.
6. Ditch ultra-processed foods. Skip anything that comes from a packet and has five or more ingredients. These food substitutes are energy-intensive to manufacture and pollute our bodies and environments. Stock your pantry with nourishing food.
7. Drink water. Use a high-quality refillable bottle and avoid sugary drinks, which deplete energy, interfere with metabolism, and contain empty calories.
Practice Smart Consumption
The goods and services we buy result in emissions from production, transportation, and disposal.
1. Delay purchases. Postpone buying anything on a whim. Make the purchase if it is something that you truly need.
2. Buy only what you need. In consuming less, you produce less waste.
3. Buy durable goods. Manufacturers design products to become unusable after a certain period of time in a tactic called planned obsolescence. These disposable products produce more waste and are financially unsustainable. Invest in things that last.
4. Track your expenses. Make a habit of recording what you buy, and look for patterns over time. This reduces superfluous purchases.
5. Learn to forage. Consumptive shopping habits can be motivated by our ancestral requirement to search for sustenance. Satisfy this behavioral adaptation by tapping into the original use of this human impulse. In foraging, we reconnect with nature and learn to appreciate the many gifts nature offers.
6. Buy products with minimal packaging. Avoid paying for materials destined for the landfill. Go for compostable packaging whenever possible and avoid making online purchases that use extra packaging for shipping.
7. Reuse bags. Bring your own bags every time you go shopping to avoid contributing to pollution, fossil fuel drawdown, and climate change.
8. Buy in bulk. It not only reduces future shopping needs, but saves money and reduces packaging.
9. Buy products made from recycled materials or that can be recycled. This reduces resource drawdown and carbon emissions.
Economize Energy + Travel
1. Slay energy vampires. Unplug electronics when not in use.
2. Wash clothes in cold water. Hang-dry when possible.
3. Skip the car. Choose cycling, walking, and public transit whenever possible.
4. Invest in an EV. Save on long-term fuel and maintenance costs, and recharge with renewable energy.
5. Don’t fly. If you have to fly, purchase a quality carbon offset.
Eliminate Food Waste
1. Compost. Restore the soil with nutrients, and avoid greenhouse gas emissions by keeping decaying organic matter from landfills.
2. Plan meals. Write out a week’s worth of dinners, starting with ingredients already on hand. Create a grocery list based on your plan.
3. Make soup. Fresh veggies and foraged greens make nutritious stews; fermented potatoes thicken any stock.
4. Freeze. Extend the shelf life of what isn’t eaten right away.
5. Donate. Share leftovers or perishable produce with friends, coworkers, or local food banks. Volunteer to distribute food.
6. Organize your pantry. Take steps to detoxify your pantry. Group similar food items together to avoid redundant purchases.
7. Make bone or veggie broth to use food scraps. Freeze excess broth, which provides thermal mass to help your refrigerator work more efficiently.