top of page
Search

New year, new ways to be sustainable.

Fireworks, minoshkapeter on Pinterest, https://i.pinimg.com/736x/8b/6b/de/8b6bdef5459e882c1a6e99c367b20a27.jpg, Accessed 20.01.2026
Fireworks, minoshkapeter on Pinterest, https://i.pinimg.com/736x/8b/6b/de/8b6bdef5459e882c1a6e99c367b20a27.jpg, Accessed 20.01.2026

Every time a new year comes around, it inspires people to change and start new habits.They set up goals for themselves and finally decide to turn their lives around. If in 2026 you strive to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly, here are some tips and habits you can incorporate into your daily life to achieve that goal.


Value what you have

Think your every purchase through. Do you actually need a new pair of jeans and will wear them for as long as possible? Or will they just end up on the top of a landfill after you realise that they actually don’t fit you right? Of course buying new things is sometimes a necessity, but most of the time if you just pay attention to the things you already own, you will  realise that there is no actual point in buying more. 


Clean up your environment

Take action whenever you can. When you go on walks to the forest, pick up the litter that covers your path and don't be afraid to speak up to your friends or colleagues if you see them littering or harming the environment in any way. If you are lucky 

you could not only convince them to stop littering, but also to go on local clean-up which could help protect the environment and local wildlife on a larger scale.

  

Choose the right brands

Sadly, many popular fashion brands like shein are known to be something that is called ultra fast fashion. They are extremely harmful to the environment because they produce tons of extremely low quality clothes which get thrown out almost as soon as they are bought and mostly end up in landfills. A great alternative for ultra fast fashion are second hand shops. They grant you the perfect opportunity to save clothes and give them a second life instead of just letting them go to waste.

Freepik. “Close-up of Bearded Young Man Looking at Shirts Hanging on Rail in the Shop | Free Photo.” Freepik, 2019, www.freepik.com/free-photo/close-up-bearded-young-man-looking-shirts-hanging-rail-shop_4680258.htm. Accessed 23 Jan. 2026.
Freepik. “Close-up of Bearded Young Man Looking at Shirts Hanging on Rail in the Shop | Free Photo.” Freepik, 2019, www.freepik.com/free-photo/close-up-bearded-young-man-looking-shirts-hanging-rail-shop_4680258.htm. Accessed 23 Jan. 2026.

Try to use AI as little as possible

In today’s world, AI is one of the most important and rapidly growing technologies. This however is not something good-at least not from an environmental standpoint. Generative AI specifically requires lots of energy to work properly.The energy, when it’s used in data centres that power AI, turns into heat and the data centres need to be cooled down. They have to be cooled down using very large amounts of water that absorbs the heat from the computing equipment. The frequency with which AI is used may soon cause environmental problems because the growing need for water to cool down those data centers could soon cause the water to be taken from lakes, rivers and other water habitats instead of mainly ground water. The loss of such amounts of water could completely destroy those water habitats. So it's for the best of the environment  if you reduce your usage of AI, even if just a little.


Consider becoming vegetarian

You may not know this but the sole fact of eating meat can have an environmental impact. Livestock production accounts for around 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions. When a person stops eating and buying meat they save the same amount of greenhouse gasses emissions as taking a small car off a road for 6 months would. These facts mean that by becoming vegetarian a person can lower their carbon footprint. Becoming vegetarian however is quite a big challenge, so it’s best to start slowly; for example, you can become a pescatarian and still eat meat but only in the form of fish and seafood.

Best advice: pick one  

At the start of a new year people choose to start lots of new habits which they don’t end up following at all. This is why it’s best for you to choose one of the habits on this list and stick to it. Sticking to only one habit all through the year is more important than sometimes doing many of them at once. Even if you have trouble with following a habit don’t give up on it, start again and again if you have to. During 2026 remember that doing barely something is still better than doing nothing at all.


Page design Asya Chub


Bibliography

Photos:


Comments

bottom of page