Hello, people of the potato variety (and all other people — though you too are now a potato, even if you don’t know it yet, mwahahahahaha!!!!)! We hope you have an amazing beginning to your autumn!! 🍁
This month we’re moving on to some of the largest-scale eco-etiquette things you can do. These take more time to initiate and to be consistent with, over a longer period of time, but the effects will add up and make a big difference to your carbon footprint. Speaking of which, this website will roughly calculate your personal carbon footprint and which areas could use the most improvement.
🪱 Compost
🌬 If you can, have solar panels installed or otherwise support the generation of renewable energy (for example, through MI Green Power). However, public power (vs. private, for-profit companies like DTE) is one way to hold power providers accountable — in terms of environmental impact as well as effectiveness and cost
💫 Choose energy-efficient appliances, electric vehicles, and more sustainable heating options like geothermal when you get new ones
🌱 Choose plant-based food and other objects
🛒 Reduce, reuse, or buy secondhand; when you can’t, find ethically sourced, eco-friendly products
🫐 Have a little eco-friendly garden
🦋 Find yard and home supplies that don’t harm pollinators and other wildlife — for example, don’t use pesticides (and use natural lawn sprays if you must use any), and use live traps to remove rodents and bugs from your house
🐝 DO NOT HAVE A LAWN!!!!!!! Keep your yard full of polleny, native plants (or plant them!) and don’t mow (at least until June) (or e v e r !!!)
♻️ Take recycling to places that can properly handle their disposal, and make sure you’re recycling correctly. Also, rehouse your unused things to people who will use them (attend item swaps, use Little Free Libraries, and more!)
✅️ Vote for potatoey people!
📢 Focus on local action
💸 Donate to or hold fundraising events for environmental groups
🦅 Volunteer at animal sanctuaries, environmental organizations, etc.
♀️✊🏾🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈✡️🧷♿️♾🧠🐾🌱🍄+ Make your environmentalism intersectional
⚖️🌍 Find more ways to support environmental justice
🗓 Set potato goals for yourself (New Year’s resolutions, monthly challenges 😁, etc.)
We hope this eco-etiquette recap has given you ideas and goals for being more eco-friendly! We appreciate your efforts to live more sustainably, and we encourage you to keep learning and keep making small changes to be more and more of a potato!