Sustainability Tips to Follow in the New Year
The Leaflet | January 2025
Happy belated New Year! If you’re looking to start the new year off by incorporating eco-friendly practices, look no further. Below are some tips for making your lifestyle more sustainable while improving your finances.
Support local businesses: Buying goods from local businesses and community organizations reduces greenhouse gas emissions by shortening the distance from production of an item to its location of sale, while supporting the local economy and your neighbors’ businesses.
Use alternative transportation: Walking, biking, carpooling and using public transportation reduce our carbon footprint and improve our health. If you drive your kids to school every morning, consider carpooling with other parents to save time, stress, and gas.
Reuse old goods and buy secondhand: Consider buying goods secondhand or reusing goods you might normally throw away. A few reuse ideas include:
- Reusing egg cartons to start seedlings in or to organize small objects.
- Reusing plastic shopping bags for shopping trips, as package cushioning, or around plants to trap moisture when going out of town.
- Using glass jars as water cups, to hold dry foods and spices, and hold veggies and sauces in the fridge
- Putting future leftovers in takeout containers.
- Cutting stained or worn clothing into rags for cleaning.
Old clothes can also be upcycled by sewing them into new clothes or items or donating them to thrift stores.
Plant Pollinator Friendly Gardens: With spring coming up, now is the perfect time to start planting, and we couldn’t recommend enough the benefits of native and pollinator friendly plants. The following plants can attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees into your garden, use less water, and add nutrients to the soil:
 | (Asclepias speciosa) |
 | (Asclepias fascicularis) |
 | Frikart’s Aster (Aster x frikartii) |
 | (Ceanothus sp.) |
 | (Eschscholzia californica) |
 | (Achillea sp.) |
 | (Salvia sp.) |
 | (Penstemon sp.) |
For more plant suggestions and educational resources check out the following webpages:
