Today’s blog action day! It’s funny how something come just so conveniently. I was going to talk about things you can do to help the environment when my electricity bill came through the door. We pay extra to get ‘green’ electricity (wind power/solar power/hydro power) and it’s surprisingly cheap! When we moved in here we decided to pay the extra money. I thought it’d be expensive (I’ve never lived in a flat where you take care of your own electricity before, it’s always been included in rent). It really wasn’t. We pay our electricity bill every three months and this time our extra spendings for having green, as opposed to normal, electricity was only 10 SEK. That’s not even two dollars!

Anyway, here’s handy list for things anyone can do (and that we do) to help save the environment:

• Be vegan / vegetarian /cut down on your meat eating - even if you’re not willing to give up on meat you can do lots buy just cutting down a little.
• Buy green electricity - it’s not that expensive!
• Walk/bike/use public transport - we don’t even own a car and it works awesomely.
• Think about how much energy you use - we have energy saving light bulbs, our computers get turned off automatically after a little while (also, get a tft instead of that big old crt monitor), we turn the TV off when we don’t use it. Standby mode sucks up energy.
• Buy local, buy organic - when ever we get the chance to buy local and organic we do.
• Second hand is your friend! - I’ve found so many fantastic things in second hand shops and at flea markets. Some of my most beautiful things have been virtually free. Re-using is a beautiful thing.
• Recycle. It’s easy, really.

Everyday we think about the environment and being green. We do what we can on our limited budget and we try our best to influence other to do the same. (I think my mum has been whined at more than what any normal person deserves )

As for being vegan, I think that’s one of the most wonderful things we can do for our environment. We’re already using less water, less energy and wasting less lives, just by putting delicious food in our mouths. It’s THAT easy. Everytime I get a sugar high on vegan brownies instead of brownies full of dairy and eggs, I’m making a huge difference in the world. (Guess who’s never going on a diet, if brownies can do all that I’d better start gobbling them down!)

Do you have any other suggestions on how to live greener? Please share!