Keeping the planet in a healthy condition and reducing the damaged inflicted by us as inhabitants are so important. The planet we live on is crucial for our survival, but with global warming on the rise, it is becoming an increasingly urgent issue that needs addressing.

A simple way to ensure that you’re doing your bit for the planet is to ensure that we all put things in place and have eco friendly homes.

How To Create Eco Friendly Homes

It is likely that you already do the basics of creating an eco-friendly home. This includes things like recycling, reducing energy consumption and washing at 30 degrees.

However, there are so many different things that you can effortlessly do within your home to improve your Carbon footprint. So if you’re wanting to increase the eco-friendliness in your home, you have come to the right place! In honour of World Environment Day, we will be discussing the top ways that you can reduce your Carbon footprint from the comfort of your own home.

Turn It All Off

Unfortunately, we are all guilty of leaving appliances without being aware. It may seem like a small mistake, but by leaving the smallest appliances on standby you are damaging the planet.

For some devices, even switching it off via remote will not do the job. To cut off all electricity we recommend switching off appliances at the plug. You will soon notice a difference by just looking at the decline in the cost of your energy bills.

Make A Compost Heap

1.9 million tonnes of food is wasted each year in just the UK alone. And out of this figure, 250,000 tonnes of this food waste was still edible. This is a massive waste of food when it could be reused for other purposes.

A compost heap is one of the best ways to reuse your food and put it to good use rather than being thrown in the bin. Not only this, but it reduces the amount of rubbish you’re discarding and can have fantastic, lasting benefits. Although a banana skin is not necessarily edible, once it breaks down and begins to rot, it becomes the perfect source of nutrients for your plants.

Compost heaps can be made up of various foods that you would otherwise throw straight in the bin. For example, leftover fruit and veggies and even egg shells. Find out more here about the best things to include in your compost heap. Aside from this, they keep the moisture within your soil and keep the pests that eat your plants at bay. It also has fantastic nutritional benefits, and fruit and veg grown using compost have turned out richer and much larger in size.

Cut Down Your Plastic Use

Plastic has a huge impact on our environment and the wildlife that live within it. If ingested it can cause serious illnesses with animals or serious injury if they become stuck in it. Recent speculation of plastic has been based upon plastic straws. Widely used in the home, at restaurants and in the fast food industry, advocates are campaigning to have them abolished – with good reason!

As plastic straws are used so freely and in so many different places around the world, they are causing a massive problem. Taking years to break down, they’re filling up landfills quicker than there is room for them. Not only this, but they’re injuring wildlife. And for the plastic that is incinerated rather than left in a landfill, these huge burning pits release copious amounts of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere.

Because of this, we recommend avoiding the use of plastic wherever you can. This supermarket in Thailand began packing their fresh fruits and vegetables in banana skins in a bid to abolish unnecessary plastic packaging. As well as this, in an attempt to reduce their plastic packaging usage, supermarket Waitrose are testing out a ‘bring your own container’ scheme. You can read more about this here.

If you like using straws or have too, you can purchase metal straws here on Amazon! They come with a little cleaning brush to ensure they’re suitable and clean for reuse.

Use LED Lightbulbs

LED lightbulbs have better longevity than standard lightbulbs. Not only this, they’re much more efficient and produce a brighter, white light as opposed to the ‘dingy’ yellowy light from other light bulbs. This means they’re a popular choice for designers and for home decor, as they are available in various colour and can be brought in different brightnesses.

So although LED lightbulbs have better qualities, it is amazing that they cost considerably less! The cost of running them is less than normal, and their longer life means that you won’t be spending as much money on replacing your lightbulbs. This means considerably less energy consumption, and better for the planet!

Reduce How Frequently You Drive

Reducing your regularity of driving will not only make a massive difference to the environment, but also your bank account! If you are fortunate enough to live not too far away from your work, why not cycle? Cycling is a fantastic form of exercise, and will make a difference even if you only cycle twice a week. Imagine if everybody in the world took one day off driving, the difference it would make!

If cycling is not an option, public transport is the next best thing! If 20 people can fit on a bus all at once, that is considerably better than 20 people all driving their own cars to work. Trains are the best, they’re considerably bigger so can be a fantastic way to reduce your Carbon footprint.

Our Eco Policy

Here are Green Retreats, we have our own eco-policy to ensure that we are consistently doing out bit for the environment! Everything we carry out has the planet in mind, which is why we came up with our environmental policy, you can read it here.

Our garden rooms are also eco-friendly, all the way from production to installation. Our factory is 100% Carbon neutral, and we use solar energy.

For more information on our services, be sure to contact us today! But in the meantime, spend your time trying to incorporate these tips into your home, and help improve the planet!