Our commitment to living lighter on the planet:
We always strive to improve and do more to live environmentally friendly.
We aren’t at 100% and we are on a continual journey to do more.
We make small and manageable changes and then try to make more.
Here are some of the steps we have taken in the last few years:
- Going single use plastic free
We aren’t zero waste, but we do try our best to minimal waste.
Single-use plastics are prolific, we try as best we can to eliminate them from our lives, but every once in a while they creep in. We continually strive to do better and cut our ties from single-use plastic. Learn more about how we do plastic free adventures – Here.
2. We put on a low waste and Eco-Wedding.
When we got married we did whatever we could to reduce our impact and we ended up with two garbage bags of waste for a wedding with 80 people. You can read more about that here.
3. We sold/gave away 80% of what we owned.
Minimising our possessions and living in a tiny floating home ( a sailboat built in 1980) means we consume a lot less, since we have no place to put anything. Boats aren’t always eco-friendly but we try and make sure our sailboat is. Here are some tips on how we learned to de-clutter.
4. Solar and wind power
We use solar panels and wind power to travel. Our voyage up the WA coast and back over 8 months traveling 2500km used only 100L of fuel. Next step is an electric motor (it’s on the dream list).
5.We eat a plant based diet
Base is not a vegetarian, but when we eat together (which is always) he is. We reduce our consumption of animal products and eat a highly local wholefoods diet. When Base is at a social gathering he caves into his internal caveman and eats meat, but it is rare.
6. We use our spare time to take on conservation projects
Citizen Science is how we try to use our time on the water and in the ocean to collect valuable information that we can share with both the public and with scientists. Learn more about our citizen science initiatives here.
7. We run eco sailing tours in summer and work as expedition wilderness guides.
By working in tourism with the public we get to share our love and passion for nature and conservation with everyone we meet. Hopefully inspiring others to take on living lighter on the planet.
8. We buy second hand clothes and mend and repair what we do have.
An example: Base has a pair of red board shorts that has traveled the world with him for the last 15 years. He swapped them for a bag of potatoes and Rice in Mexico. They are LA lifeguard shorts ( like the real Baywatch). I have repaired them multiple times to keep them alive and kicking, however, I will only use multicolored thread in every repair = character! In general, we don’t consume unncessarily. We buy what we need and buy secondhand whenever we can.
9. We use only nontoxic products
Everything we use to clean, wash, or put on our bodies is all natural. We know that everything we use enters the ocean and we only use natural products and make a lot of them ourselves to reduce plastic and toxins.
10. Offsets
Our job takes us around the world as expedition guides. It is a great way to educate people about nature and how amazing and precious our planet Earth actually is. Our flights add up and make us feel extremely guilty about the flight travel we do. We have started offsetting our flights and added travel emissions through the Gold Standard Offsets ( you can read more about that here).
This has been our mission so far and as time goes on, we plan on taking on more steps to live lighter. No matter where you are at, this post isn’t here to make you feel guilty. It’s here to show you some of the ways we have been reducing our impact on the Earth and hopefully inspire you to take a step in the same direction.
Thanks for reading and if you have any other ideas or suggestions please feel free to share!
xx
Jamie
No comments