Green Living Tips: The Millennial

Greetings, fellow millennials! A happy rise and grind to you! We hope the avocados for your toast are perfectly ripe and that the pour-over you’re brewing in your napkinless house is smooth like that one song that was popular when we were kids!

All joking aside, millennials are the generation that’s poised to make great strides for sustainability in the years ahead. A recent Nielsen study found that 75% of millennials today are altering their buying habits based on what’s better for the environment, compared with 34% of baby boomers. Millennials also report a greater willingness than previous generations to pay more for products that are environmentally friendly, organic, natural or socially responsible.

That socially responsible outlook stretches to the workplace, too. Study after study has shown that millennials want to work for sustainable companies. Both millennial and Generation Z workers are drawn in greater numbers to companies that take a strong stance for the environment and implement ethical, equitable business practices at all levels.

It’s clear that millennials desire to lead eco-friendly lives, and we see a bright future for millennials and sustainability that’s likely to make a significant impact on the planet. If you’re a millennial and you want to get on the sustainability train, here are a few sustainable living tips we’ve selected just for you.

Wear clothes that are sustainably produced and made to last.

The sustainable fashion movement has been picking up steam in recent years thanks to millennial demand. The textile industry can be pretty tough on the environment, from using hazardous chemicals for dyes and finishes to requiring huge supplies of water and pesticides for textile agriculture. Then there’s “fast fashion”: cheaply made, low-cost brands whose product lines are designed to fall apart within a year. In reaction to these wasteful fashion trends, sustainable fashion brands seek to minimize their environmental impact by using recycled materials and organic fibres with natural dyes and finishing products. Not only are these sustainable products built to last, they’re designed to be adaptable for any ensemble and fashionably timeless, ensuring that the clothes you buy will stay with you for a long, long time.

Only drive when necessary.

If you drive a gas-powered car, it’s automatically one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions in your life. As a result, many eco-conscious millennials are opting to significantly cut down on their vehicle usage. This could mean switching to a bike for their commute to work, carpooling, ridesharing or using public transportation, or taking advantage of at-home grocery delivery. Some millennials are making the switch to driving an electric vehicle to permanently green their ride.

Buy experiences, not things.

If you’re a millennial, chances are this is already your jam. Millennials are the generation that places greater value on traveling to a new locale or taking a cooking class as opposed to previous generations’ desire to own more things. This drive to seek out enriching peak experiences is already more eco-friendly than purchasing items you don’t need, but there’s even more ways to make it green. You can buy carbon offsets for your plane flight or road trip, take cooking classes that source their ingredients locally, or simply plan local experiences that take little to no resources to achieve.

Look into products made by certified B Corporations.

If you’ve used some of our previous sustainability tips to help alter your buying habits, chances are you have already purchased from a certified B Corporation, or B Corp. B Corp is a private certification standard that companies can earn in order to show their commitment to equitable business practices with more sustainable environmental impact. Look for the B Corp label on your everyday products and consult this handy B Corp directory to help guide your purchases.

Of course, when it comes to making the planet cleaner and greener, all generations need to pitch in by changing their habits and making more eco-conscious purchasing decisions. Whether you take your cold brew with a side of irony or you start every sentence with “Back in my day,” these tips can help green your lifestyle.

So that’s it, folks. This is the final blog in our Green Living Tips series. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our previous blogs in the series, The Health Nut and The Coffee Connoisseur. Don’t worry, though. Just because this series is over doesn’t mean we’ll stop passing along the green-living ideas that come our way. There are always new things being thought of and more things we can do. What’s coming up next is anyone’s guess.

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