Living a “sustainable” life is a hard concept to fully embrace. There are many different facets of environmentalism, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all of the ideas being thrown around about how to decrease our carbon footprints and live greener lives. That being said, we wanted to simplify green-living with providing ideas for small, individual actions you can take to emphasize the importance of  starting to make changes in our day to day lives. 

Your personal role amongst the 7.5 billion in the world (or even the 404,699 in London Ontario) may seem small and insignificant, and frankly, you’re right.

But only partly.

Your contributions have the ability to spark thought, action and inspire passion in others. You individually may not be able to solve the National Climate Emergency, but every little bit counts. You can be part of a societal and cultural shift. You can help change the narrative about going green. If this challenge inspires just one good conversation about our role in environmental protection, we’re on the right track. And we need to make changes fast.

#LondonGoesGreen is not about immediately changing your entire lifestyle and feeling pressured to become perfectly sustainable overnight. It’s rather about learning how our actions impact the world around us and how we can start making adjustments today. What we will encourage you to do is evaluate where you are at in your journey to sustainability and inspire you to start considering taking steps towards improvement. Through practicing living sustainability, we can encourage policy to support the movement (single use plastic ban anyone?)

Each week, we will provide the following:

  • A theme to focus on. As mentioned in our monthly newsletter, the first week’s challenge will be to simply get outside and enjoy nature. We want to start off with the basics by immersing ourselves in the natural environment that we are trying to protect. Go fall in love with the environment, whether it is for the 1st or 400th time
  • Green Tips shared throughout the week of greener choices and other ways to take part in the weekly theme 
  • Information about events and organizations that can help you along your journey; either specifically relating to the theme or towards living a green lifestyle as a whole.

Just like Marie Kondo says, “We can only transform our lives if we sincerely want to.  Small changes transform our lives.” Completely tidying up your life into a green lifestyle isn’t going to be an overnight process. It involves many stages and working on creating sustainable solutions that can be maintained over time. 

So, let’s get started on this journey. 

Start thinking about how you want to GO PLAY OUTSIDE next week!

Official Rules:

In order to be eligible for an entry in the weekly draw, participants must:

  • Post an original photo to either Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #LondonGoesGreen, and tag the LondonEnvironmental Network

Twitter: @LondonEnviroNet

Instagram: @LondonEnviroNet

Facebook: LondonEnvironmentalNetwork

  • Upload and tag their post with #LondonGoesGreen between 8:00 AM Monday morning (the day of that week’s theme announcement) and 11:59 PM Sunday evening of that week to be considered for ballot entries
  • Be a current resident of London, Ontario

One winner will be chosen at random and contacted via the social media channel they participated on. Participants must be 16 years or older or have written consent from a parent or guardian in order to receive a prize. Chances of winning are dependent on the number of entries received. If the winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen at random. Prizes are supplied by the London Environmental Network and are not redeemable for cash value.

This challenge is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, and are completely released of any responsibility related to the contest.