Five easy sustainable lifestyle tips for parents

Climate change is becoming more alarming and it's time to start living more green. We are sure you have seen the news recently and the discussions surrounding climate change and COP26.

Creating a sustainable lifestyle can be hard work, especially for those with limited time and inclination.

Being a role model can help make this happen, we wanted to share with you five tips that you can start doing right away to help the environment we live in.

The average school is just 1.6 miles from home, yet a lot of parents drive during the school run.

So, this tip is to get you walking or cycling to school.

Encourage children to get on a bike or walk to school and it will help lower air pollution and improve their mental and physical health. It also creates a great social network.

Even if you do live a bit further away or cycling or walking seems too difficult you could make smaller changes to help the environment. Some examples include:

• Taking the bus instead of driving

• Driving or taking the bus part of the way and walking or cycling the rest.

• Having a walk day – choosing one or two days a week where you decide to walk, remember to check the weather app especially in the colder months in the UK.

Children, especially babies, are very messy and can go through a number of clothes in just one day. It can be so tempting to do a smaller wash load as we all know when you are faced with a large pile of washing you can easily get overwhelmed, However, doing a full load saves a lot of energy, saves money, and helps the environment.

Other ways to wash more economically are to wash on a colder wash (you can use a completely cold wash if your clothes are only lightly stained) and consider natural washing cleaners.

One way to become more eco-friendly is by swapping out some items that are not only eco-friendly but also beneficial for the environment.

The list really is endless of changes you can make.

Using rechargeable batteries can save you money and help the environment.

With most of our children’s toys using them, this can be a valuable switch.

Most used batteries end up in landfills. When this happens, these batteries (even rechargeables) can release harmful metals such as mercury, lead, and cadmium into the environment.

Rechargeable can often be recharged hundreds of times, saving hundreds of batteries going to landfills, conserving resources as well as protecting the environment

This is important in nurturing future little green fingers. Some ways you can involve your children are to:

• Encourage them to recycle

• Remind your children to turn off lights and electrics when they are finished with them

• Encourage children to pass on their old items, either to charity shops or selling online

• Volunteer in your local community e.g. cleaning up the local park

• If you have one, you could use your garden to plant a tree, create a bird feeder, or create a compost heap.

These are only some of the changes you could make in the bid to become more environmentally friendly, if more of us made these small but effective changes, this can make our planet better for generations to come.

If you have any helpful tips we encourage you to leave them in the comments of this blog or share them with us on our social media.