Small changes add up to a big impact on how environmentally friendly your life is: living a sustainable, kinder life will help your environment and with a little thought and effort you will also save money on your utilities bill and food shopping.
Educate yourself
With Glide Utilities’ student broadband deals you will have access to reliable and fast internet. Use it to research what resources you use on a day-to-day basis and how they affect the world.
This knowledge may lead to different choices about how you heat your home, how much water you use, what mode of transport you take and the products you buy.
Products manufactured using fossil fuels and cleaning items that contain harmful chemicals should definitely be avoided.
Utilise your garden
As a tenant, you may have to check with the landlord before you start re-arranging the garden. Explain what you intend to do and emphasise the positive impact it will have on the property and their reputation.
Once you have the OK there are a several ways to make your outside space work hard for you and the earth.
- If you have the space, plant an allotment or veg patch
- Plant trees, they are the lungs of the earth and shelter for wildlife
- Plant bee friendly plants. These little creatures are vital for the ecosystem
- Collect water
- Start composting, you even sell the rich, flower friendly product to the neighbours.
Save water and energy
Conserving water and using it wisely will save on your tenants’ utility bills as the less you use, the less you pay. Ask your landlord to fix leaking pipes, have showers not baths, use the washing machine wisely and recycle water. Buy a rain collector and use it to water plants, lawns and wash down bikes.
Make sure your home is insulated against energy loss and be vigilant about switching off lights and appliances when they aren’t in use. The savings on your utilities bill will reward you for making these small but cumulative efforts.
Travel mindfully
Don’t take your car to university and choose foot or pedal power over the bus and the bus over a taxi. Google cycle paths and bus routes using your student broadband deal to find the quickest ways to get to where you want to be.
If you are heading home from a night out then a licensed taxi is still your best bet but be planet and safety conscious by sharing it with friends.
Try to buy local food and products
Often buying local produce isn’t practical for students. The local farmer’s market is unlikely to be within easy reach of the student areas of your university town. The price of fresh, local meat, fish and produce can be prohibitive to an under-graduate’s budget too.
Try as much as possible though. It’s worth the cost of your student broadband deal to find the nearest greengrocer or butcher – they may surprise you with the prices and the food miles are much lower.
Work smarter
It’s not just in the student home that students can take an environmental difference; they can also work smarter in their everyday studies as well. For example:
- Use your laptop for taking notes in lectures rather than wasting paper by purchasing notebooks. They can also use notebooks rather than flash cards when revising or needing prompts to remember things.
- Never go to the supermarket (or indeed any shop) without a reusable bag.
- Reuse old water bottles and fill them up from the tap at home rather than buying new.
- Recycle at every opportunity whether it’s plastic, glass or paper.
- Remember to switch off lights and appliances when no one is in the room.
- One advantage for services such as Netflix is that streaming means students no longer have to do rent or borrow DVDs which create waste and clutter
- Switch to using energy-efficient lightbulbs
- Consider how much water the household is using and use less
- Help support brands with an environmentally friendly ethos, such as Fairtrade.
There are lots of tips and tricks that we all can introduce into our daily lives to encourage environmental awareness – such as turning off the tap when we are brushing our teeth could save hundreds of litres of water every year for each student tenant.
It’s also important that students appreciate that they do not overheat their home and by turning down the thermostat not only will the planet benefit but the student will benefit from a lower gas heating bill as well.
Some experts reckon that by lowering the property’s temperature by 1° could save around 7% on the bill. That could be a substantial amount of money.
When it comes to being environmentally friendly, being cost conscious about utility bills will have a big impact not only on expenditure but on the environment since using less water, gas and electricity benefits all of us.
For more information about how to lower your student home’s utilities bill, then speak with the friendly team at Glide.