April is Earth Month, an annual event that takes place every year to celebrate our planet and to do our part in preserving it. There are a lot of ways you can help out this month, such as reducing your carbon footprint, recycling and composting, choosing environmentally friendly products, and showing your love for nature. Every little bit helps and it all adds up to making a big difference!

What are some ways we can reduce our carbon footprint?

One of the best ways to help our planet is to reduce your carbon footprint. There are a lot of little things you can do that will make a big difference, such as carpooling, taking public transportation, or riding your bike instead of driving whenever possible. You can also reduce your energy consumption at home by making simple changes like switching to LED light bulbs and unplugging electronics when you’re not using them. Yes, it really is that easy and small modifications like these help over time!

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LED bulbs consume less power per unit (lumen) of light emitted. This reduces greenhouse emissions from power plants. Carbon dioxide emissions for LEDs are also low. Roughly, one LED bulb will minimize greenhouse gas emissions by almost half a ton.

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How can recycling and composting help the environment?

Recycling and composting are two of the best ways we can help preserve our planet. Recycling helps reduce the amount of waste we produce while composting helps to reduce the amount of methane gas released into the atmosphere. Both of these are important in helping to keep our planet healthy!

And, composting is an especially important practice to reduce food waste and emissions.  Why should we even care?  Take for example that just under 7 percent of greenhouse gas emissions come from food waste worldwide. If you think that’s not too bad, think again. To put that in perspective, if all the world’s food waste came together and formed a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind China and the US.  So, the simple act of composting will take all those kitchen scraps you were going to throw away in the garbage can and decompose them into organic matter. That kitchen muck (or garden clippings) become a nutrient-rich soil amendment that can be used to improve the health of your garden, and plants LOVE it! Think you don’t have the space to compost in your tiny apartment? Think again and check out this resource for how even apartment dwellers can get into the game!

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33%

of all food produced globally is

lost or wasted every year

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Choose Environmentally Friendly Products

There are a lot of environmentally friendly products on the market these days that can help us reduce our impact on the planet. Some simple swaps to your everyday routine include:

• Reusable water bottles and coffee mugs
• Bamboo toothbrushes
• Eco-friendly cleaning products
• Reusable shopping bags
• Solar-powered phone chargers

How can we show our love for nature?

Simple… Get. Out. Side! And enjoy it! Spending time in nature is a great way to relax and connect with the world around us.  It is also a way to really appreciate what we are blessed with and one added benefit is the effect it has on our brains.  Scientists are beginning to find evidence that being in nature has a profound impact on our brains and our behavior, helping us to reduce anxiety and stress while increasing our attention, creativity, and our ability to connect with other people. 

This April, let’s all do our part in making this Earth Month (and all the rest of the months) the greenest they can be… after all, it is our home! See you in the next blog!

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Deb Fries is a freelance writer and designer and worked at Julianna Rae in Graphics and Customer service she now writes for the blog at juliannarae.com