4 Ways To Encourage Sustainability in Your Community

Any community can incorporate sustainable practices if given some concrete steps. Creating awareness is any community’s first step in incorporating sustainable practices. If community members don’t know there’s an issue and how to get involved, you won’t make any progress. 

Here are a few other easy ways to encourage sustainability in your community and help get more people involved.

Promote volunteer opportunities

Volunteering opportunities are a fantastic way to educate your community and participate in sustainability efforts simultaneously. There are many different volunteer events to try, including:

• Planting trees
• Trash or litter cleanup from parks, trails, along rivers, etc.
• Recycling drives
• Protecting public lands or wildlife habitats

Choose an activity that fits your community’s setting and goals, then spread the word. The more people you can draw to your first couple of events, the more potential there will be for these events to grow.

 

 

Start a recycling program

If you haven’t already done so, take recycling drives further by implementing a recycling program. Recycling programs allow community members to easily collect and dispose of their recyclables every week. If you’re unsure of how to start a recycling program, review your community’s current recycling guidelines and policies and build on these from there.

 

 

Open a community garden

Opening a community garden is a terrific way to bring people together who share a similar goal. Growing your own food can cut down on fast food consumption and help avoid buying from emission-producing supermarkets. You can also set up a composting area at the site to encourage gardeners to contribute their plant materials and any rotten produce instead of tossing them in the trash.

 

Encourage water conservation

Think about how much water your community uses as a whole. Now think about how much of that water you could save by implementing conservation tactics. Consider scheduling outdoor water use hours for the community. For example, select parts of the community would have a certain window of time to water their flowers, wash cars, etc. and rotate with the other parts. Putting this cap on water use is a smart way to save water.

There are several ways to encourage sustainability in your community, and these are a few examples. Find different ways to get your community members involved—the more people you can get involved in your events, the more the interest will spread.