Today is Run for the Oceans Day! Last year and this year, adidas donated $1 for everyone who joined Run to the Oceans by downloading Runtastic to Parley Ocean School youth education programs. Last year, we raised $1 million for this innovative program that helps to educate youth on the perils of plastic pollution and enable them to reshape the world we live in – for the better.
While I’ll be in surgery today for my knee, I plan to donate and log my recovery miles this month to help to support this incredible organization that teaches children about the ocean through experiential learning.
Keep reading to learn more about how you can help to support Parley Ocean School, as well as some additional ways to reduce your environmental footprint.
10 Easy Ways to Support Run for the Oceans Day & Reduce Your Environmental Footprint
1) Extend the Active Life of Your Clothes
Your goal for each piece of clothing should be 30 wears, though most pieces in our closet don’t get to that extended wear. An extra nine months of wear reduces the carbon, waste, and water impact of your clothing by 20-30%. By listening to the wash instructions, using mild, hypoallergenic laundry detergents, air drying more often, and ironing your clothing with care, your clothing will last longer, you’ll save money, and you’ll be helping the future of our planet.
2) Watch Your Water Usage
There are several ways that you can easily minimize your water usage at home. For example, next time that you go out of town, check your water meter to make sure that you don’t have any leaks. Additionally, if you garden, consider harvesting rain water, which will work just as well for gardening purposes, feeding your outdoor garden with its own water source.
3) Try adidas x Parley Sportswear
I’m obsessed with this collection from adidas and have been wearing it nonstop. Originally designed for the Australian open, the Parley collection is created from upcycled plastic waste that is intercepted before it hits the ocean. While it looks good, I can speak from personal experience to share that it also performs when put to the test. Specifically, I’ve been wearing my adidas by Stella McCartney Court Tee (including in the featured picture above) and Solar Guide ST Gym Shoes (on sale now!) pretty much every day since I got them and can officially say that they are two of my favorite pieces to wear!
4) Skip the Plastic Bag
Almost two million plastic bags are used across the globe every minute. That’s one trillion single-use plastic bags per year! And a lot of these plastic bags are easily replaceable with reusable bags that you likely already have at home. Though if you’re like me and regularly forget them at home, then I always suggest leaving a few in your car. That way, when you decide to take a moment to stop by the store, you can just grab a bag or two from the trunk and you’re ready to go!
5) Try Meatless Mondays
I’ll be honest – I’m far from being a vegetarian. While I absolutely support my friends that have chosen vegetarian and/or vegan lifestyles, I’ll be the girl ordering a steak almost any day. But even I have grown to choose Meatless Mondays as an easy way to support our environment. About 24% of greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture or the cultivation of crops and livestock, and eating less meat accounts for emitting around 35% less greenhouse gasses than if you choose to enjoy meat every day. So picking to go meatless one day a week is an easy way to help the environment in a healthy way.
6) Turn Off the Water When You Brush Your Teeth
One of the easiest tips in the book, turning off the water when you’re actively brushing your teeth will save an average of four gallons of water a minute. That means that this simple tactic that takes no additional effort will save 200 gallons of water a week for a family of four!
7) Use Recycled Paper
While going paperless is much preferred if at all possible, sometimes that’s not an option. But we so often churn through paper, causing harm to the environment from that which was once an oxygen-producing resource. So, if paper is necessary, then try to use paper made from recycled paper.
8) Buy Sustainable Seafood
Our seafood population regularly ebbs and flows over time, but there are also some fishermen that are not using sustainable methods and are, instead, simply polluting our oceans. Sometimes the person behind the fish counter may know about how the fish was raised and harvested, but the Monterey Bay Aquarium has us covered if that’s not the case. They’ve developed an app and website called Seafood Watch where you can plug in the names of the fish on sale to see both how it was caught and if it’s sustainable or not. It even adjusts recommendations based on fish population fluctuations over time!
9) Stop Grabbing a Handful of Napkins
We’re all guilty of grabbing a complete handful of napkins when we get to-go food, then tossing them away unused at the end of the meal. But if we each used one less napkin per day in the US alone, we would be saving around 1 billion pounds of space in landfills each year! So, when you go out to eat, only grab the napkins you need or skip grabbing them all together if you’re just bringing the food home.
10) Never Throw Away Your Newspapers
Although less people are getting newspapers delivered nowadays, primarily in favor of reading digital versions, 69% (44 million newspapers) are thrown out each day! If those that read newspapers recycled even once per week, that would save half a million trees each year.
This post was sponsored by adidas, though all thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you so much for the support!
