By making the choice to be a vegan, you have already started being mindful of what you eat. Whether you are doing it for health reasons, for the environment, for the animals or all of the above, you’ve taken a stand. You’ve taken the biggest step, but are you a sustainable vegan?
A sustainable vegan is a person who is living a healthy lifestyle by being conscious about where his/her food comes from, and making decisions towards a more sustainable future. This article will teach you how to live sustainably as a vegan so that your life can be both healthy and environmentally friendly!
1. Minimize Food Waste
Food waste is one of the worst things that we as a society can do for the environment. Wasting food wastes the time and effort that was spent growing the food, shipping it to the supermarket, and the hours you spend earning money to buy that food. Even worse, it can also waste water that was used to grow the produce and increase a region’s carbon footprint once it’s been discarded.
While it’s incredibly difficult to eliminate food waste altogether, there are ways to eliminate how much food you waste as one person.
Simple Ways To Limit Organic Waste:
- If you have a lawn or garden, consider composting certain food scraps.
- Have some carrots and celery that are close to spoiling? Salvage what you can and use what remains to make your own vegetable broth.
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Do you find yourself habitually buying too much of certain ingredients, or have unusable quantities of spices and certain products in your home? Take measuring cups with you to the supermarket and buy from bulk bins whenever possible so that you can buy the appropriate amount of each item.
2. Use Reusable Shopping Bags for More Than Just Groceries
Gladly, there has been a growing trend in the use of reusable bags in the last few years. As an example,the Netherlands has done a great job in controlling its plastic waste in the country and since 2016 banned all the free plastic bags to reduce the waste and preserve the environment.
Despite the positive new, we thought it was worth repeating, considering how single-use plastic is impacting the environment and wildlife.Millions of animals are impacted by single-use plastic items like plastic shopping bags each year by ingesting plastic, getting tangled in plastic bags or netting, or getting injured by sharp or otherwise injurious plastic items, to name just a few negative effects.
We recommend keeping some reusable grocery shopping bags in your car and collapsible bags in your backpack/messenger/purse bag at all times so that you’ll have an eco-friendly bag on-hand even when you make unexpected purchases.
3. Purchase From Eco-Conscious Brands
We know what you’re thinking—how can buying more stuff be environmentally-friendly?!
Hear us out.
It’s not about purchasing more stuff. It’s about investing in items that are made well (and consciously) that will stand the test of time.
Purchasing from brands that are environmentally-conscious can set off a domino effect. When you purchase from these brands, you’re sending a signal to that company—and their competitors. A message that consumers not only are willing to pay for products that don’t damage our environment, but that they are actively seeking them out. That’s the power of voting with your dollars! Here at Greenpro, we make sure that not only our food is sustainable and plant-based, but also all the distribution networks that operate in order to get you your delicious food, don’t contribute negative effects to the environment. Starting from minimizing the food miles all the way to using the most sustainable products for our packaging!!
We have been collaborating with companies such as “Heura” “La Vie Foods”, “Simply-V”, “Daiya”, “Wicked Foods” and tens of others for years in order to provide the highest quality and tasty vegan products at the convenience of your local store. You can read more about our products and where to find us at greenprointernational.com
Final words of wisdom
Regardless of who we are, where we live, and what we do, we all have a moral obligation to each other, our future generations, and other species to sustain the planet. Our present choices and actions have huge long-term impacts on future generations. Practicing sustainability ensures that we make ethical choices that bring a safe and livable future to everyone. If we deplete the resources of the Earth, future generations will be depleted.
