4 ways to change this lockdown into a sustainable lockdown

November 30, 2020

This page about sustainable travel items may contain (or refer to) affiliate links; as a result, we may receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) on any purchases you make through the links on this page. Read our full disclosure.

Oh, 2020… Not many people predicted 2020 to turn out the way it did. The year that will always be known for the global lockdown. During the last few years, everyone got a taste of working at home, though no one knew it would reach a whole other global level that quickly during the lockdown.

So, while we all experience some sorts of restrictions due to COVID-19, we stay home. A whole lot! As “Green Advocates” we are therefore super excited to share this blog article with you. This blog article addresses 5 ways that will change your lockdown into a sustainable lockdown!

1. Save energy

This first tip might feel like low-hanging fruit, but if you answer this in full honesty: are you giving it your all to save energy in- and around your house? When we talk about saving energy, this applies to multiple levels during everyday life. Are you about to leave the house for some groceries or heading to bed? Make sure to turn off the heater. While staying at home and having your heater turned on, make sure you close all the windows in that same room. It really doesn’t make any sense to have your heater turned on while having a window open, especially during wintertime! And lastly, on the heater topic: let’s all set our heater to a maximum of 19 degrees. This is comfortably warm enough, and for those getting cold quickly, you can put on that comfy sweater or cover yourself in a nice blanket for some extra warmth. But, the list of energy-saving possibilities goes on: need a new lighting bol? Make sure to purchase a LED-lightning next time, and also, when leaving a room always make sure to shut down the lights. Oh, and another quick check: did you unplug all the cables, from devices you’re not actively using? Not yet? Awesome, this is your invitation to do so. About to watch a documentary on Netflix? Turn off the WiFi on your phone! Why? This simply results in a longer-lasting battery of your phone, which ends up requiring you to charge your phone less often. For the baking-lovers, the oven really doesn’t need to preheat for 20 minutes or more. Within a maximum of 15 minutes, it will preheat perfectly, which will save a whole lot of energy!

We can go on and on about the energy-saving possibilities, but we think you get our point. On to the next!

2. Use water as efficiently as possible

Most of us grew up not knowing what it is like to have water as a scarcity. While we have shifted our mindset to be more sustainable over the last few years, we for sure didn’t think and act upon that before. Overusing water was something we did before as well, which makes that we feel this is a mandatory reason for use to include in this blog 🙂

So, for those looking for ways to use water as efficiently as possible, this starts by purchasing a water-saving showerhead, also called a low-flow showerhead. For a showerhead to be qualified as a low-flow showerhead, it has to use around 6 litres of water per minute, while a regular (or older) showerhead can use over 20 litres per minute. Only using around 6 litres of water per minute will be enough to rinse off shampoo or conditioner, so no worries here. The best part about this purchase is that it not only helps to live in a more sustainable way, but your cash flow will also be thankful for this purchase as well within no time!

For those who are not ready yet to purchase a water-saving showerhead, with some showers you can set the amount of water used. What if you play around with this, and set it back a little every shower you take? And while we’re at the ‘shower topic’, some food for thought: do you really need to shower every single day? And do you hate jumping into the shower while it’s still heating up? So do we! A quick tip: place a bucket underneath the shower in the meantime, this water can be used perfectly for plants or cooking. Do you own a garden? Place a rain barrel in your garden, this water you can directly use to water your garden!

3. Awareness about the (online) shopping you do

Especially during this lockdown situation, we know it’s a safer option to purchase new items online. Though, on this matter, we do want to address the impact purchasing items has on the environment. It doesn’t come as a surprise that a lot of items we purchase (online) are created in China. The Netherlands imported in 2018 more than half compared to 10 years earlier. Out of all the imported goods out of China, two-thirds are being directed to other European countries.

When we take a closer look at how these goods make their way from the Chinese factory to our houses, there’s a whole lot of transportation needed. While transportation overseas is still considered to be the most eco-friendly, transportation via train is the most CO2 emission-friendly. But, where it gets tricky is when you put the processing time into the mix. Most suppliers have to keep a logistic supply in mind, which results in them choosing air transportation over sea- or train transportation.

This being said, we understand the wish to purchase items online! What we want you to think about are two different things:

When you place an order, make sure you purchase all the items you want and don’t spread these out over different orders. That way, the webshop can send the items at once, which is more eco-friendly;
Some webshops allow you to pay a small additional amount that they use to compensate for the CO2 emission for the transportation of your purchase. A small amount extra, but if we all pitch in and do this, a BIG difference!

Besides this awareness, we also want to invite you to think about what kind of items you purchase. More and more items are available in sustainable editions, which usually means they last longer and are therefore also sustainable for our cash flow. Double win, right? 😉

To make your eco-friendly life easy, we have summarized some amazing (travel-related) items for you. These you can use to replace your former items. Make sure to check out this page to see which items we selected for you! Eco-friendly items.

4. Eat vegetarian or even vegan!

Yes, you felt this one coming right? We just had to… Let’s surprise you by not even mentioning the horrors the livestock has to go through in the meat industry (we assume we are all aware of that fact). The second runner up in having a massive, negative, impact on the environment is coming from the livestock industry.

This has to do with multiple factors such as land- and water degradation. Livestock adds up to the loss of biodiversity (think about the massive loss of the Amazon Rainforest over the last few years), the loss of coral reefs, and acid rain. And we hate to break it, but the massive negative impact on the environment comes from all animal produced products. Therefore we invite you to try the vegan lifestyle.

We actually tried this ourselves a little while ago to see how we could implement this for the long term. We started being vegan for solely one month. Doing this gave us the perfect amount of time to see if we faced any challenges, and it gave us time to find solutions for these challenges. Once you experience something as being an experiment rather than a must, it becomes so much more fun to do!

The last train of thought we want to share about the food-topic is the waste of food. A few years ago, we had the horrible habit of throwing out food away way too quickly. We asked ourselves two questions after realizing this:

Do we buy too much at once?
Is it really necessary to throw away food as quickly as we do, or can we still use it in some sort of way?

A simple Google search will give you tons of fun inspirational things to do with food that you’re about to throw out!

The topic of sustainable living, especially during a lockdown, is one we can talk about for hours. To inspire and encourage you to learn more about a sustainable lifestyle (during lockdown), we will finish this blog article by giving five book-tips: