13 ways to live more sustainably

At Reframe, we’ve interviewed countless leaders, designers and architects about climate change. They talk about their work and give amazing recommendations about what innovations should be adopted to promote sustainability.

But recently we started asking them what are easy ways we can make a positive impact?

And what does everyone say? Start small.

For Earth Day, we’re inspired to take a look back and see what’s recommended to have a lighter impact on the planet. These are easy tips for our everyday lives, not grand ideas for big businesses or innovations that need to be scaled, like carbon footprint calculating, carbon offsetting, closed-loop designs or normalizing businesses to share resources.

An imperfect sustainable lifestyle is OK. Tackling climate change is huge. Don’t be afraid. Just do what you can.

Here are the top recommendations:

1. Compost organic waste. Nothing is more sustainable than this (Ecobirdy)

2. Pick up some rubbish (Marjan van Aubel)

3. Recycle your plastic, paper and glass (Marjan van Aubel)

4. Join a local group in your city of the Transition Movement (IF_DO)

5. Help people imagine what a cleaner, greener, more sustainable future could be like (IF_DO)

6. Skip meat (Marjan van Aubel)

7. Take a shorter shower (Marjan van Aubel)

8. Create a mindset. Once you start to develop an eye for circular and sustainable design, it is hard to un-learn (TAKT)

9. Learn what can and cannot be recycled (Bio-Bean)

10. Try to get renewable power (Marjan van Aubel)

11. Bring a to-go coffee cup (Marjan van Aubel)

12. Talk to children about recycling, electric vehicles, wind farms... Instill in them an understanding of why we need to be focused on sustainability (Bio-Bean)

13. See what are your most wasteful habits, then try tackling them one at a time (LastObject)