Earth Day Challenge: 7 simple steps to take climate action from your home
Treepoints takes you through your new ultimate green daily routine to protect our planet all day every day.
Over a year of pandemic, it’s no secret that we’re all bored of working from home. Whether you’re juggling home-schooling your kids, difficult flatmates, or just missing the free coffee, it can be tough. And the last thing we all want is yet another article telling us 20 ways to be productive working from home. Or at least that’s how we’re feeling at Treepoints HQ.
But with Earth Day on the horizon, and working from home unlikely to go away anytime soon, now is actually a great time to think about our lifestyles and how we can be greener at home.
The ultimate green routine
If all this seems daunting to you, fear not! We’ve selected some of the best companies on a mission to fight climate change with products that are good for the planet. Forget hemp underwear and soggy tea leaves, we’re talking smart, elegant brands that integrate sustainability seamlessly into modern lifestyles without compromising quality or aesthetics. From waking up to going to sleep, here’s 7 of the top eco-friendly brands to create your new green routine.
8am – Waking up fresh with Wild
First up in our ultimate daily sustainable routine is starting your day fresh and clean. Lots of us are trying to fly less and eat less meat in an effort to do the right thing for the planet, but we all too often overlook our bathroom routine. Your average bathroom is jam packed with plastic bottles, and our potions and lotions often come in their own packaging, which is rarely recyclable.
Wild is leading the way in challenging the throwaway culture of everyday bathroom products. They have created the world’s first 100% compostable and refillable deodorant, minimising their impact on the environment without compromising on quality.
First you have the reusable deodorant applicator, made from durable aluminium and recycled plastic, to ensure it stands the test of time. Then you put in refills that are made from bamboo pulp, which is completely recyclable and home compostable. This is a perfect example of design decisions that were made with sustainability commitment as a priority.
On top of that, for every deodorant sold, Wild contributes a percentage of sales to climate charity ‘On A Mission’, to support their incredible reforestation projects.
11am – Staying hydrated with Ocean Bottle
During the working day, it’s important to stay hydrated – experts advise that we drink at least 2 litres of water per day. However, single use plastic water bottles are a huge contributor to plastic waste and pollution. In fact, 22 million kilograms of plastics is added to our oceans every day – equivalent to one truckload every minute.
Studies have shown that within the next few decades the daily input of plastic waste going into our oceans will triple and there will be more plastic by weight than fish in our oceans by 2050.
Whether you’re at home, in the office, or on the move, Ocean Bottle is making waves in the sustainability of water bottles with a commitment to combating plastic waste. Their stylish water bottles use vacuum insulation to keep hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold, as well as being completely dishwasher safe – handy!
But most importantly, with the sale of every bottle, the company funds the collection of 11.4kg of ocean bound plastic, equivalent to 1000 plastic bottles. Funds go directly to Ocean Bottle’s partner Plastic Bank, who target areas where plastic pollution is worst.
Ocean Bottle works with Plastic Bank
Over 4300 plastic collectors live and work in places where plastic pollution is worst, doing crucial work to collect, sort, and recycle the world’s waste. It’s a sad reality that the majority of these collectors do not receive protection from the government or municipal authorities. Plastic Bank ensures they receive a fair income for their work. Locals can take plastic waste to different collection points in cities and coastal communities, exchanging them for money or credit via blockchain technology to spend on tuition, products, health care and access to micro-finance.
To date, they have sold over 100,000 bottles, removing over 1.13 million kilograms of ocean bound plastic. Their goal is to collect the equivalent of 7 billion plastic bottles worth of plastic by 2025.
So rather than buying a plastic bottle of water from the shops, invest in a bottle from Ocean Bottle to support a company doing amazing things for cleaning up our oceans and supporting the people doing so.
12.30pm – Working lunch with Mindful Chef
Working from home, you’re not popping out to Pret or grabbing a meal deal like we used to. In the middle of the working day it can be hard to know what to cook that’s quick, easy, and healthy. Add environmentally friendly to that and you’re looking at quite the challenge. This is where Mindful Chef comes in.
Mindful Chef recipe boxes make it easy to cook delicious meals, each one ready in under 30 minutes. All of the ingredients are pre-measured, meaning there will be zero food waste from your box.
As a certified B Corp, Mindful Chef is committed to doing better for the planet and holding themselves accountable (check out their recent sustainability report here). In 2020, they took steps to become carbon neutral through carbon offsetting all their emissions, and are committed to net zero by 2030. They’re also working on making all of their packaging recyclable. Their chilled items are sent in bags made from recycled denim offcuts and can be returned for free so that they can be used time and time again.
As if this wasn’t all enough, for every meal sold Mindful Chef donates a meal to a child living in poverty with the charity One Feeds Two. To date, over 7 million meals have been donated.
3pm – Picking up your groceries with Kind Bag
Lockdown or no lockdown, food shopping is for most of us an essential but unexciting part of the week. And currently, single plastic bags have an average life of just 15 minutes – we treat them as single use, disposable plastic products.
Now at this point you may be thinking “but I read that plastic bags are actually the most environmentally friendly option”. In terms of energy to produce them, plastic bags use less energy than cotton and paper bags, and you’d need to use your bags literally thousands of times to make up for this additional energy. But Kind Bag offers another alternative entirely! Their bags are made 100% from recycled plastic bottles that would otherwise end up in landfill and our oceans. This reduces waste, and the need for plastic bags.
Kind Bag’s mission is to drive change in the fashion industry by setting an example everyone can follow. And their bags prove that environmentally friendly products can also be aesthetic and stylish. Their funky designs brighten up your trip to the shops and mean you’re unlikely to forget your reusable bag ever again. We particularly love their Boobs Bag Special edition, where 25p from every sale goes to Against Breast Cancer charity.
To add to their environmental credentials, 10% of their profits are donated straight to Just One Ocean, who work to raise awareness for all issues facing the ocean, with a particular emphasis on plastic pollution, overfishing and habitat destruction.
When thinking about regular activities like doing your shopping, making a change now will continue to have a positive climate impact throughout your life. So make sure your new green routine includes a trip to the shop with your Kind Bag!
6pm – After work drinks with Toast Ale
So the working day is done and you’re heading out for a post-work beer. Except you’re not because all the pubs are shut. The only silver lining we can see here is that you’re saving on average £5.19, the price of a London pint in 2020. Why not put this money to good use and stock your fridge with these ethical brewers.
Toast Ale is an award-winning craft beer brewed with surplus fresh bread that would otherwise go to waste. This in turns reduces the demand for land, water and energy, and avoids emissions. To date, they have saved approximately 2 million slices of bread, saving 42 tons of CO2 emissions and 252,000 litres of water. If this wasn’t enough already, they give all their profits to charities fixing the food system.
Cheers to these guys who make it possible to enjoy a cold beer AND help the environment. We’ll drink to that!
8pm – Managing your period with Grace & Green
Starting the wind down in our ultimate green day is sustainable period products with Grace & Green.
Did you know that the average woman uses 11,000 products in her lifetime, with conventional sanitary pads taking 500 to 800 years to decompose. This is why Fran Lucraft founded Grace & Green, with a commitment to sourcing ingredients for period products that won’t hang around for future generations to come.
Her mission for Grace & Green is to create an entirely transparent and ethical supply chain. This brand combines innovative design and renewable manufacturing with premium organic ingredients to create high-performing, ethical period products. Created with the modern woman in mind, the Grace & Green user is someone who cares about her health and the future of the planet, both ethically and environmentally.
Grace & Green have earned a spot in our green routine because their period products are plastic-free and biodegradable, made with no toxins, chemicals, dyes, synthetic fibres or fragrance. They are also made from 100% certified organic cotton.
Purchasing sustainable sanitary products has two positive environmental consequences. First you reduce the demand for plastic, lessening plastic production and therefore the toxic pollution associated with this production. Second, you reduce the amount of plastic entering the water stream once that product has been used. This plastic pollutes oceans and landfill, threatening our planet’s wildlife.
So if you or someone you care about has a period, point them in the direction of Grace & Green to make their purchasing decisions count for the environment and our planet’s future.
10pm – Get into your PJ’s with TALA
If the fashion industry were a country, it’s emissions would rank as highly as France, Germany and the UK combined (check out the source: Fashion on Climate report). At every step of the production process, fashion, especially fast fashion, contributes to climate change through emissions, waste and unsustainable practice.
This is something that TALA is trying to change. The last company in our ultimate green routine day, they earn the place for their slow fashion approach to sustainable style that doesn’t break the bank, or our planet. We particularly like their pyjama range, but their sportswear is also fantastic.
TALA works with facilities across the globe that use the very best in sustainable technologies, processes and materials to bring you incredible sustainable styles that won’t cost the earth.
Most manufacturing methods use vast amounts of water, chemicals and energy. By using high quantities of certified recycled materials, TALA’s footprint is significantly lower than if they used virgin materials, with the added benefit of working to keep fabric away from landfill. Plus, all their packaging is recyclable, and their garment packaging is made from 100% recycled plastic.
One fun addition to TALA’s products is their plantable tag. Each clothing tag is filled with seasonal seeds, meaning you’ll get a different plant with each tag you grow. The tag is biodegradable so all you have to do is put it in soil and watch it grow.
Offset your home office carbon footprint
So there we have it, a few simple ways to make your work from home life more environmentally friendly this Earth Day.
The only thing left to do is offset your carbon footprint so that you can become entirely carbon neutral.
Head over to Treepoints to find out more about offsetting your carbon emissions. And if you’re interested in carbon offsetting for your company (even in lockdown companies still have carbon footprints), check out our Business plans.
Don’t forget to send this article to someone who you think could do with greening up their daily routine.
Read this next:
Why you should be carbon offsetting even if you have an eco-friendly lifestyle
