Celebrate Earth Day with Five Simple Ways to Protect the Planet
April 15, 2025
Twenty million Americans celebrated the first Earth Day in 1970, and by 2020, that number had grown to over one billion people worldwide. April 22 marks a moment for us to ask what we can do to help the environment. A quick dip into the internet can leave us feeling overwhelmed, but there are things that we, as individuals, can do to make a difference. Here’s a quick list to get you started:
Eat Sustainable
We often think of eating sustainably as difficult or expensive. However, current research shows that what you eat can be as or more important than where your food was produced. While food production leads to 25% of the world’s emissions, transportation accounts for less than 10% of this amount. Thus, avoiding highly intensive foods like beef can make as much of a difference as joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program which supports local family farms by committing to purchasing produce and meats grown on the farm. Another great alternative is to take advantage of home delivery services that bring imperfect produce to your door, reducing the amount of waste from supermarkets.
Mending and Upcycling Clothing
Each year, 92 million tons of clothing get deposited in landfills. This fact alone turns mending your clothing into a smart way to help protect the planet. A quiet evening spent darning socks or replacing a shirt button can be enjoyable, but new trends are transforming mending into a fashion statement. Kate Sekules, author of Mend and a clothing mender, states that noticeable repairs used to be despised. “These days, fashion is quite in love with imperfection and deconstruction and patching,” she explains.
A quick tour through your closet will reveal pieces that can be upcycled for a new look and garments that can be donated instead of tossed. Research your local area organizations and schools for clothes closets and thrift stores that will recycle your attire. Even sneakers can get a new life through nonprofits like GotSneakers with the added value of keeping old shoes out of the landfill.
Walk More & Drive Less
Transportation is the source of the largest section of greenhouse gas emissions. One great way to reduce the amount of driving is by combining trips. Also known as trip-chaining, gathering up errands and doing all of them on one more extended trip saves gas and time. Win-win!
Reduce Plastic Usage
These days, most store products are wrapped in some form of plastic packaging. Eliminating it from our lives feels almost impossible. The Zero Waste Movement seems like a great idea, but challenging to implement. Reducing waste by 10% however feels achievable. “Zero waste isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition,” says Anne-Marie Bonneau, author of The Zero Waste Chef. “Some of the changes necessary to reach that 10 percent goal, which just about everyone can do, won’t hurt one bit.”
Some quick tips include using cloth bags when purchasing loose produce and bringing your own glass or metal containers to refill with bulk items.
Implementing just one of these strategies begins your journey to protecting the planet with a tiny step. This will hopefully result in significant change for the Earth.
InsureYouKnow.org
Half of all recyclables collected in the US are made up of paper, and most often paper used to document sensitive information gets shredded and burned. InsureYouKnow.org can help you get started by assuring secure and safe storage for your digital records. Storing this information digitally and shifting billing and other communications from paper to electronic means reduces paper use at the source.