Green Society – Act Now
We at SCW know, that it is not possible to follow all the below rules and recommendations. Everyone needs to start with small steps, but every of the below steps brings us closer to a sustainable way of living. Let us start now, it’s worth it!
If you want to make a change: Use your voice and tell other people about this topic, help them to reduce their harmful impact on the environment. We all want to live in a green and healthy environment in future, it is the responsibility of every single person to ensure this!
Shopping & Transport
- Think twice before shopping, is it really needed? Every product has an ecological footprint. E.g. can you repair your mobile phone, instead of buying a new one?
- Don’t buy anything that harms wildlife. Boycott products which come from endangered species, for example from monkeys, elephants or rare trees.
- Buy local food, which is produced in your region and is not imported from far away.
- Drive less with car or motorbike, better use a bicycle or a bus. Follow the idea of car sharing: Use your vehicle together with other persons if you go to the same destination. If the way is not too long, why don’t you just walk, e.g. if you buy food at the market or eat in a restaurant near your home.
- Avoid to take an airplane. if you have to travel a long distance, go by bus or train, it is much better for the environment.
Use Less Energy & Water
- Take shorter showers and save water. Every minute, on average, you use up between 12 and 16 liters of water during a shower.
- Turn of light and water when not needed.
- Reduce the usage of an AC, a fan is much better instead.
- Install energy saving lights bulbs and timers for lights.
- Use recycled materials, e.g. recycled paper, pens, etc.
- Print and photocopy as little as possible, use the backside of papers.
- Avoid trash! Use reusable cups instead of plastic cups to get coffee, re-usable containers for lunch instead of styrofoam.
- Use a canvas bag instead of plastic bags and bring it to the market, avoid new plastic bags.
- Separate your waste and use trash cans, never throw your waste into the environment. Especially not plastic and other artificial materials.
Eat less meat
Why? The industrial livestock farming has very bad impacts on people and the environment:
- Livestock farming contributes 18% of human produced greenhouse gas emissions worldwide1. This is more than all emissions from ships, planes, trucks, cars and all other transport together. This means, our meat consumption is a major cause for climate change. A vegetarian diet reduces the impact significantly!
- Livestock farming contributes to biodiversity loss, acid rain, coral reef degeneration and deforestation and is a major source for land and water pollution as well as degradation.
- Meat production is highly inefficient. To produce 1 kilogram of beef requires 25 kilograms of grain2 (to feed the animal) and roughly 15,000 liters of water. Feeding grain to livestock increases global demand and drives up grain prices, making it harder for the world’s poor to feed themselves. 30% of the earth’s land surface3 is currently used for livestock farming. If all grain were fed to humans instead of animals, we could feed an extra 3.5 billion people4.
- Animals like pigs or cows are very intelligent creatures. It is proven that they have similar social feelings like humans. But most meat, dairy and eggs are produced in ways that largely or completely ignore animal welfare5. Millions of animals suffer every day because of our greed for cheap meat!
- High meat consumption6 (especially red and processed meat) is linked with many diseases, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes and various cancers. It makes us ill.