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Does Living Sustainably Truly Makes a Difference?

Dec 27, 2022

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There's collective pressure for individuals to live more sustainable lifestyles, reducing their reliance on paper products and disposable products, minimizing their consumption, and reducing their usage of energy. But does living sustainably as an individual truly make a difference on a global scale?

The Sustainable Lifestyle


What is it that makes a lifestyle sustainable on an individual level? This is somewhat debatable, but most people refer to some combination of the following:

  • Finding alternatives to car transportation. Cars and other personal vehicles are disproportionately responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. If you drive a car by yourself every day for work and errands, you'll end up contributing to pollution. There are many viable alternatives to this, including biking, taking public transportation, and even carpooling. Any or all of them can help you live more sustainably.

  • Using fewer paper products. In most countries, toilet paper isn’t the norm. Bidets and other water-based cleaning methods are far more popular. The truth is, we don't really need as many disposable paper products as we think we do – and reusable materials are often superior in multiple ways. Using fewer paper products means generating less waste and putting less of a burden on natural environments.

  • Reducing unnecessary purchases. Living sustainably also means living minimalistically. The less you purchase and the less you travel, the less you'll contribute to environmental damage.

  • Reducing unnecessary waste. Most of our waste ends up in landfills, and much of our waste isn't biodegradable. Living more sustainably practically requires you to reduce unnecessary waste, prioritizing items with less packaging, reusing what you can, and recycling whatever is left.

  • Buying locally. Some proponents of sustainable living also recommend buying locally whenever possible, prioritizing farmers markets over supermarkets and local stores over big box retailers. This can reduce your carbon footprint and more positively contribute to your local economy.


A Bigger Perspective


So how much of a difference can these lifestyle changes make?

Let's look at a bigger-picture perspective. Approximately 24 percent of global emissions are attributable to agriculture, forestry, and land use, with 21 percent attributable to industry. Already, nearly half of greenhouse gas emissions are completely out of the control of the average consumer. Reducing your reliance on fossil fuels by taking public transportation instead of driving a car can make an impact, but you're still going to be using electricity and natural gas to heat your home and maintain your access to the things you need to live. There's only so much an individual can do.

Additionally, the United States is only responsible for about 15 percent of global CO2 emissions, with China responsible for 30 percent, the EU responsible for a collective 9 percent, and India responsible for 7 percent. Even if every single person in the United States started living a perfectly sustainable life, we wouldn't be able to take our emissions down to zero; we would only be able to make a decent impact on our meager 15 percent of global emissions. Obviously, emissions aren't the only considering factor when living a sustainable life, but these numbers put our place in the world into better perspective.

Finding a Balance


Living sustainably isn’t just about doing good for the environment. There are other important benefits worth mentioning, such as:

  • Saving money. Living a minimal lifestyle and reducing your waste has the potential to help you save money. The same is true if you abandon your car in favor of public transportation and minimize your reliance on utilities. If you’re interested in saving money and accumulating wealth, this is a huge benefit.

  • Incentivizing better business practices. Practicing sustainable living also incentivizes better business practices. If consumers, collectively, prefer buying products with minimal packaging, even major corporations are going to start rolling out products with less packaging.

  • Influencing others. You can also exert your influence on other people, multiplying your overall effectiveness. If your sustainable living motivates just five friends and neighbors to follow in your footsteps, you'll multiply your impact by a factor of five.

  • Helping local businesses. Buying from local businesses isn't just a strategy for reducing your greenhouse gas emissions; it also supports your local economy. Small businesses disproportionately create jobs and new economic opportunities, so it's worth supporting them when you can.

  • Feeling good. Don't forget that living sustainably helps you feel better overall. You can be confident that you’re doing your part.


How much of a difference can living sustainably make? Unfortunately, no single individual has the power to change the world by simply changing their lifestyle habits. But living sustainably can make a big difference in your own life and in the lives of the people around you – and if we all commit to more sustainable practices, we can move the needle significantly.