What is Being Environmentally Friendly?

There are a surprising amount of people, businesses, and communities that would like to do more to conserve and protect our natural resources, but they don’t know where to begin with becoming more environmentally friendly.

Understanding what makes each of these aspects of our world part of the process of changing and conserving our resources, and learning how to get started creating a difference is the first thing you have to learn.

Being environmentally friendly simply means having a lifestyle that is better for the environment.

It’s just taking small steps towards looking after the mother earth to make this planet a better place for our communities and generations to come.

A good way would be to start with conserving water, driving less and walking more, consuming less energy, buying recycled products, eating locally grown vegetables, joining environmental groups to combat air pollution, creating less waste, planting more trees, and many more.

According to Wikipedia,

“Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that claim reduced, minimal, or no harm upon ecosystems or the environment.”

Why it’s Important to Become Environmentally Friendly?



You can’t just point towards one business or practice and blame them for all of our environmental woes; everything fits together like a puzzle.

The more we all do our part – the faster we will create an entire ecology of living that promotes sustainability. The first step is to begin to understand the basics of what each part of life can do to become more environmentally friendly.

The next step is to start to learn to make different choices on a personal level that help in changing your awareness and consumption of resources. The changes are surprisingly easy to make; there are more ways than you can imagine to begin to practice conservation.

The Three Distinctive Environmentally Friendly Categories

1. The Environmentally Friendly Business

Becoming an environmentally friendly business is more complicated than just signing on to a cap and trade agreement.

Everything from the way that products are displayed and advertised, how waste is recycled, whether or not changes can be made to the basic operations of a business will all work towards making them more environmentally responsible.

A large emphasis on non-producing businesses can be placed on the management of supplies.

Buying local may not always be the most responsible way to get supplies, but it can be as well. How a business works to support their community in their environmental conservation efforts is also another important task of the environmentally friendly business.

2. The Environmentally Friendly Community

In an environmentally friendly community, there is more than just a good recycling program in place.

Communities that are committed to conservation and preservation of resources work to encourage options like community playgrounds, public transportation, green construction, and also to change the way that fossil fuels and other resources are used to support community services.

3. The Environmentally Friendly Person

The environmentally friendly person is the person who moves through life with an awareness of how natural resources are used to create and support the life that they live.

They recycle, conserve water and fuel, and make other choices that not only lessen their impact on the environment but also support industries that are working towards being more environmentally responsible.

21+ Easy Ways to Become More Environmentally Friendly

Learning to be more environmentally friendly is easier than you think. You don’t have to jump in by changing everything, start small to make the changes more sustainable and a part of your normal life. Here are 21+ ways you can begin to become more environmentally friendly.

1. Become More Aware of Resources

Start by living with a greater awareness of the resources that you use in your daily life. Pay attention to how you choose to heat, to travel, to use water, and use products that were made by manufacturing practices.

Awareness is what will allow you to begin then to make environmentally friendly choices.

2. Practice Conservation

With your new awareness of how natural resources are used in your life, start to practice conservation. It can be as simple as turning off the lights as you leave a room and as complex as making different choices when it comes to building your home. Learn here more about 15 green home building techniques.

3. Plant Trees

Trees are necessary for us to survive. They give oxygen, fruits, clean the air, provide shelter to wildlife, prevent soil erosion. A shady landscape around your home can help you to reduce the consumption of energy and keep your home cool even during summers.

Plant small trees around your home and don’t cut trees unless it’s necessary; work with local environmental groups to plant more trees and educate others about the positive aspects of it.

4. Conserve Water

Water needs to be conserved as a lot of energy is required to pump water from rivers or lakes into your home. Conserving water reduces the amount of energy that is needed to filter it.

Few ways to conserve water are – take short showers, fix leaking pipes, keep the running tap close while you brush your teeth, recycle water in your home, use water-saving appliances, collect rainwater in a rain barrel to water your lawn.

5. Try Renewable Energy, Go Rooftop Solar

Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic (PV) is accelerating access to affordable and clean electricity. Roof modules are spreading worldwide because of their affordability. Solar PV has benefited from a virtuous cycle of falling costs that is cheap, and you can easily install it to go environmentally friendly.

6. Change to LED Light Bulbs

Count the bulbs you have in your home. Change them to LED light bulbs that last longer than conventional bulbs and far more efficient. Not only that! They’re available in a varied range of brightness and designs that you can tailor the lighting to suit your room. This way, you’ll be using less power.

7. Cut Down Meat on your Plate

If you want to be environment-friendly, simply cut down the amount of meat you consume, and that would have a massive impact on the environment. If you can avoid it just for 2-3 days a week, that would even have quite a significant effect on reducing your carbon footprint.

As billions of people dine multiple times a day, if they apply this, imagine how many opportunities exist to turn the tables. Of course, it is possible to eat well with vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes, in terms of both nutrition and pleasure and thereby help lower emissions.

8. Stop Food Waste

You waste food sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally. Regardless of the reason, producing uneaten food is a waste of a whole host of resources such as seeds, water, energy, land, fertilizer, hours of labor, and capital invested.

It also generates greenhouse gases at every stage, including methane, when you throw them and the organic matter lands in the global dustbin.

You can make a huge difference by cooking, serving, or ordering the amount that can actually be consumed and ensuring there is no waste.

9. Change Your Travel Habits

Driving and flying are two areas where you can make a real impact through environmentally friendly practices. Choose fuel-efficient travel options, travel less, and try to pick more direct routes to save on fuel. If your office is near your home, try to ride a bicycle instead of a car.

10. Use Less Fossil Fuel Based Products

Find out what products and consumables you use that are made using fossil fuel-based products and processes and use them less or replace them in your life.

11. Buy Locally Grown Products

An easy way to reduce your carbon footprint is to buy locally grown products. When you shop locally instead of buying products that were shipped from far away, you are actually supporting local dairies and farms.

Apart from this, you can follow organic farming practices and can grow food, including herbs and veggies, in your own backyard, Windowsill boxes, and roof and can sell the surplus to your friends.

12. Reduce the Use of Harmful Chemicals

The chemicals like paint, oil, ammonia, and other chemical solutions are hazardous and, when disposed of openly, can cause pollution in the air and the water.

These chemicals can seep into the groundwater. The polluted air and water can cause severe consequences to human health. Therefore, they should be disposed of to a toxic waste site for safe disposal.

13. Use Green Cleaning Products

You use a lot of cleaning products every day that contain many harmful chemicals that aren’t environmentally friendly to create or at their disposal.

The repeated exposure to these cleaning products affects your health as well as the environment. Use green cleaning products using more natural and organic methods.

14. Composting

Composting is a natural process that takes remains of plants and kitchen waste and converts it into rich nutrient food for your plants that helps them grow. It reduces the amount of garbage that goes to landfills, which pollutes the air. This way, it proves safe for the environment.

15. 3 R’s of Waste Hierarchy

The 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) waste hierarchy is the order of priority of actions to be taken to reduce the amount of waste generated and to improve overall waste management processes and programs.

Reduce simply means reducing what is produced and what is consumed. Reuse items for a different purpose instead of sending them to landfills. To recycle something means that it will be transformed again into a raw material that can be shaped into a new item.

16. Choose Personal Hygiene Items Carefully

Be it your toothpaste, body wash, face scrub, and any other products, make sure that those do not contain microbeads which are small bits of solid plastic that make their way into watercourses and ultimately end up damaging the environment by entering the food chain.

Besides, also avoid chemicals and opt for natural cleaning products to keep yourself and the environment clean.

17. Buy Recycled Products

When you go out shopping, try to buy products from the market that are made up of recycled materials with minimal packaging, i.e., the product should be environment-friendly. Look into manufacturing processes to check if it was made from recycled materials or the use of plastics or chemicals was involved in its production.

You can improve your recycling or repairing skills as the internet gives access to the tools and information you need to fix practically anything and recycle mostly everything, from batteries to paper to cars. Before throwing anything, try to turn it into something else you can use.

18. Try Without Plastic

You may find it challenging to go without using plastic as it appears to exist in every single aspect of our lives. However, it isn’t as tricky as you are thinking.

Taking a canvas bag along with you when you go shopping, buying fruits and vegetables loose, and not buying bottled water can even make much difference. If you try, you can find alternatives.

19. Join Environment Groups

You may find different environmental groups in your city with whom you can join hands to protect mother earth and make the environment clean. A quick Google search can help you in finding such groups. You can also pull your friends and relatives and ask them for a helping hand.

20. Stop Littering

One of the familiar sights that we see daily on the streets is seeing people littering on roads.

A great way to keep the environment and the surrounding clean around you is to stop people from littering on roads. Instead, educate them to put trash and garbage in dustbins. The pile of garbage on the street hampers the beauty of the city and also pollutes the air.

21. Protect Wildlife

Human activity is leading to the extinction of endangered species and habitats. Protect places like beaches and forests that are habitats for animals. Join hands with the local forest department to protect animal habitats.

22. Educate Others

Educate others about the importance of living an environmentally friendly life. The more people share an awareness of the importance of the environment, the more we can do together to conserve it.