Change can be hard to implement. Humans are creatures of habit, so it is no wonder we sometimes find it hard to make changes in our lives. Here are my 10 steps to creating a more sustainable lifestyle for you, for your family, for anyone.

Start small

Small, incremental changes add up to big impacts. The most important thing is to start. Take the first step. Then, when you’re ready, take the next step, and repeat. This is how we can create habit change without overloading ourselves.

Step 1: Learn the facts

It’s important to know what is and isn’t happening. The more you know, the better, but you don’t need to spend hours and hours trawling through technical scientific reports to gain an understanding of the issues we’re all facing.

Step 2: Calculate your carbon footprint

Understanding the carbon impact of your current lifestyle is an important step towards taking action. It isn’t about shaming yourself or others about how much carbon you’re producing. It’s about understanding, so you have a starting point to improve from.

Step 3: Eat less meat; opt for more seasonal veg

The industrial scale meat farming is simple not sustainable. It requires too much land, too much water, and produces huge amounts of green house gas. Eating locally sourced seasonal vegetables and a less meat (especially red meat like Beef) is an easy swap. It’s also cheaper to eat less meat. Which, we all need cheaper things right now. Local, seasonal vegetables mean less travel miles from farm to plate, reducing carbon footprint even more.

I’m not saying to go vegan overnight. But going from eating meat nearly everyday to once or maybe twice a week, whilst eating seasonally, can have a massive effect on your carbon impact.

Step 4: Shop smart – not fast

Fast fashion is responsible for around 10% of global carbon emissions and around 20% of global wastewater. That’s incredibly bad news for the environment. It’s also bad for your wallet. Buying fast means buying more. Items may be cheaper initially, but they come with a higher negative cost for the earth, and those who produce them. In the long term, buying one item that has been made well, and responsibly, will be much more cost effective and better for the environment.

It’s easy to switch to companies with a positive impact, buying better quality items only when you need them. Repairing them when broken to increase their lifespan.

Step 5: Switch to a renewable energy tariff

Switching to green, renewable energy is one of the easiest and most impactful things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint. Power your home with renewable energy instead of fossil fuels. Switching can be as easy as inputting your information and a few clicks. You may even save some money. Which again, at the moment, will be great news for so many people.

Step 6: Green your home

Further to choosing a renewable energy tariff, there are a number of other methods to improve the energy efficiency of your home. In the UK nearly 20% of all carbon equivalent emissions are a result of energy used in residential homes, making it one of the largest single sources of carbon emissions in the country. Now is a great time to be adding insulation, for example, which not only helps to keep a house warm in winter, but also cooler in summer.

Step 7: Green your pension

Many of us pay into a pension pot every month, coming straight out of our pay checks. You may not really notice it, but your pension can be one of the most powerful changes you can make to cut your carbon footprint. Why? It all depends on where your pension provider invests the money. Again this isn’t necessarily a difficult thing to do. If for example your company uses Nest pensions, you can log in and request that your pension is using the Ethical Fund, an action you can do in a few clicks.

Step 8: Green your money

Money is a hot topic right now. Many of us have less of it, having to make every pound stretch. You can make your money work for the planet, as well as for you.

We have the power to change our banking system because it will not change itself. Mass pressure from customers will force our banks to defund fossil fuels. You can fairly quickly and simply switch banks for both your current accounts and savings, choosing banks that invest in more sustainable and ethical things instead of fossil fuels.

Step 9: Offset the carbon you can’t eliminate right away

Offsetting is always the last thing that should come to mind. It is a method for helping to reduce your carbon footprint that you cannot reduce yourself, or a footprint you cannot reduce straight away.

It is not a one-stop-fix for climate change. You should always aim to reduce and remove the carbon footprint first, before looking at offsetting it.

There are many great companies out there now that help both individuals and businesses to plant, protect and restore trees and woodlands or remove carbon from directly from the air. One even removes carbon and processes it into diamonds..

Step 10: Continue learning, creating your own steps, share with others

This is just the beginning of the steps you can take to support the climate fight. To live more sustainably. There are so many other things I haven’t mentioned. I’d love for you to take what you have learnt from these resources and create your own steps, letting me know how you get on.