Small Changes To Be a More Ethical Consumer

Sometime people have it in their minds that ethical shopping means your going to have to be making a lot of sacrifices. Having to go without your favorite comforts or skipping that long, hot shower that you look forward to in place of a spartan like regime where the lights go out by 6 p.m. and the TV is only allowed to be turned on for a measly half hour to catch up on the news. Your days will be spent shivering under the blankets in the winter in lieu of the heater and you'll be pitting out your shirts come summer and you aren't allowed to turn on the air conditioning. But being a more ethical consumer doesn't have to delegate you to being a prisoner in your own home, or routine.

As with anything in which you are adapting or modifying your current habits, the key is baby steps. Doing everything at once is inevitably going to set you up for failure. Think of all those couch potatoes who decide that they are going to whip themselves into shape; they spend the next few weeks spending hours at the gym, live on a diet of rabbit food, and then end up going AWOL after having a bit of a mental breakdown. That's because they took on everything at once; instead if you gradually introduce new habits and ditch older ones you are much more likely to succeed.

So what does this mean in terms of going green? Focus on one aspect each week, there are plenty to choose from. Tackle better water habits at first where you can still enjoy a hot shower but keep it relatively short; or you can opt for a bath instead. Don't do obvious water wasting practices like keeping the taps blasting while you're brushing and then think about how much you water your lawn, what kind of toilet you have (how many gallons does each flush cost you?) and running your dish washer only when it's full. Move on to better electrical habits the next week; reduce phantom energy waste, turn out lights when you're not in that room, and keeping the temperature of your house at a comfortable range but in the winter perhaps put on some thermals and thick socks so you don't rely so much on the heater.

When it comes to other things that you know are better for the environment, such as reducing the amount of meat you consume, cutting down your carbon emissions due to transportation, and the like you can apply the same tactics. Cut yourself some slack when you need to, maybe try some veggie options over that meat patty to replace three meals but then on the fourth go for it. Do your best to carpool or take public transportation during the week, and then you can feel a little less guilty pulling a weekend road trip. And you can make sure that your car is in the most efficient shape by keeping the tires inflated as well as your filters clean. Being an ethical consumer isn't an all or nothing sort of thing, and you can think of it as a progress. Rome wasn't built in a day, right? If you've never even thought about recycling before you shouldn't expect to be a tree hugging activist tomorrow. Set attainable goals and once you reach them move on to the next. Changing our ways can be tough but instead of falling into the trap of 'putting it off until tomorrow' in which case you end up never doing anything at all, make it a point of doing one small thing, even if only it is a baby step.