Living sustainably
Find out ways to make your home healthier or how you can live a more eco-friendly lifestyle even if you have already made a start. Learn how you can save money and the world at the same time.
Link to the Sustainable Living website (new window)
What is unsustainable about how we do things?
The volume of stuff New Zealanders consume each year is increasing. Particularly significant is the amount of these resources we throw out after only a brief use. We have a high throughput of materials such as metals, plastics and fossil fuels. For example, although Auckland's population grew 15.5% from 1980 to 1996, its annual waste volume grew 95%!
In fact, according to an ecological footprint assessment by Redefining Progress, if every person on earth lived like the average New Zealander we would need 3.66 earths to produce and consume our waste.
Doing our bit for the planet makes a difference
What you do counts especially when you caluclate the cumulative effect of your actions over your lifetime. For example -
- Composting your food and garden waste instead of sending it to landfill could reduce the waste you personally send to land fill by between around eight tonnes over the course of your lifetime (DCC, 2010)
- Turning off lights when you leave the room as well as appliances left on standby could reduce your household's electricitiy consumption by around 10% or 56,000kWh over fifty years. At 20 cents per unit, allowing for inflation, that could translate to between $13,533 and $24,427 saved.
- Reducing your car use by 10% from your current use could save between 14 and 27 tonnes CO2 from going into the atmosphere over your driving lifetime. Achieving this may be as simple driving more smoothly, having a car free day, keeping tyres inflated or not exceeding the speed limit on the open road.
What you do makes a difference simply because a small proportion of a large number is still a large number. Convince your neighbours or workplace to make changes and that figure will multiply!
Find out more ways to do your bit by enrolling on a Sustainable Living Course.
Last reviewed: 19 Aug 2010 3:56pm
