Living more mindfully on this planet

In these times of a global climate crisis, I am always overwhelmed about what one can do as an individual. Increasingly, I feel we are hurtling towards our own extinction and yet sometimes, one needs to be more hopeful and do our bit. I don’t think I do anything nearly enough to reverse the climate crisis. However, here are a few things my wife, Suchetha and I do intentionally and mindfully.

1. 5-months back I stopped eating meat. While, I do eat some seafood, I have stopped all forms of meat. For friends and family, who have known me, they will know how much I enjoy eating meat. However, after a presentation on the climate crisis and the role of the meat-industry in it. I felt it was the right thing to do. I must admit I haven’t missed it much.
2. For years now, I measure out the amount of water I use while having a bath.
3. We compost all our wet waste at home. Suchetha actively does all the composting, sorting, sifting, etc.
4. We separate our plastic waste and we hope it goes to the recycling unit.
5. We buy vegetables from local street vendors and always carry our cloth bag. Vegetables are fresh and not packed in plastic packaging.
6. We have been carrying cloth bags for all our shopping as much as possible. When we do take plastic bags, we sort them out and give them back to our local super-market and vegetable-vendor, so they can reuse it.
7. We don’t have an air conditioner at home and don’t intend to get one.
8. We have reduced our purchases of garments over the years and collect all the clothes we don’t use and make regular donations to Goonj.
9. We have reduced our use of car considerably. We use a two-wheeler to go to most places. We don’t wash our car or bike.
10. We have moved to a rented space closer to office (10-minute drive) so we can reduce our commute time and cause less pollution.
11. I have reduced my usage of Shampoo considerably and attempting to find organic alternatives to bath soap.
12. We stay on the third floor of a building which does not have a lift, so we climb up and down the three floors.
13. We don’t give flowers as gifts. We don’t wrap our presents anymore and we tend to give gifts that can be used often or consumed. We recycle gifts we don’t need.
14. We give away items that we are not using and we are very disciplined about it.
15. We carry our own water bottles when we travel so we don’t buy plastic.

The places where we are struggling are:

1. We still use a petrol-based two-wheeler for our commute. For long distances, we use ride-sharing services or our own car.
2. I travel a lot, Internationally, especially in the last two years and am always worried about the carbon footprint I am leaving with my extensive travel.
3. We order home-delivery and most restaurants use plastic containers. We do keep them and reuse them often but it’s still quite extensive.
4. We accumulate a lot of plastic waste due to all our purchases. Any super market one goes to, every packaging has plastic on it. Whether, its milk, sauces, cold drinks, etc.

We are trying to be more mindful of our choices and would love more ideas and suggestions on how we can reduce our negative impact on this planet. What do others do? What can we learn from you?