Make Your Mornings Super-Green and Earth-Friendly: 10 Action Steps

In celebration of this week's call for content for making the best of our mornings, here is a list of ten action steps to make your mornings a little more eco-friendly. And what better way to love Mother Earth than to acknowledge her gifts at the very start of the day? 1. When you wake up, sense the nature that surrounds you before you think about anything else. The birds in your neighborhood are chipping. The flowers in your vase are blooming. The trees are photosynthesizing, the sky is blue, the grass is green. No need for you to start freaking out about your to-do list just yet. 2. Drink two glasses of water as soon as you wake up. And make that unbottled, please. Dehydration in the morning makes us sluggish and mentally foggy for the rest of the day. Be proactive in fighting water deprivation by getting at least a quarter of your daily water requirement done first thing in the morning. And if you get it from tap water or a BRITA water filter, you are saying no to overpriced water bottles that contribute to landfills and use a lot of valuable, limited natural resources. 3. Take a quick, eco-friendly shower. Did you know that every 2 minutes of showering uses 10 gallons of water? Cut down your shower time to 6 minutes or less. Get a low-flow showerhead. You'll have more time in the morning for other things, and you'll be helping preserve our very limited water supply on this earth. 4. Use a Recycleline Preserve toothbrush when you brush your teeth. Did you know that toothbrushes contribute 50 million pounds of waste to our landfills every year? Fortunately, Recycleline is an eco-friendly company that makes new toothbrushes out of recycled Stonyfield Farm yogurt containers. Sold at Trader Joe's, this toothbrush is your most green option for fighting cavities. 5. Use a DIY face wash. When you DIY your beauty products, you use natural ingredients and far less packaging that comes with beauty products, like boxes and plastic bottles. Plenty of recipes exist on the internet, like this refreshing natural face wash that only uses ginger, thyme and fennel seeds with boiling water. 6. Make your caffeine fix eco-friendly. If you buy your coffee outside of home, get it in a reusable mug or tumbler. The best scenario would be to make your (preferably fair-trade) coffee or tea right at home. You save money, and you also reduce your use of natural resources. Double-win. 7. Eat an animal-free, organic, healthy breakfast. Veggie bacon, organic strawberries, whole-wheat bread with hummus, quinoa oatmeal, organic fruit smoothies--whatever you eat, make it good for your body and your planet. 8. Wear your favorite eco-friendly outfit. Second-hand clothing, hemp shoes, organic cotton, fair-labor T-shirts--eco-fashion options are growing by the day. 9. Start your morning internet browsing with an inspiring environmental blog or podcast. Before the celebrity gossip, before the depressing news on the economy, before the silly YouTube videos clogging your inbox from your college friends--why not read something a little more environmentally uplifting? My personal favorite is No Impact Man, the chronicles of a man, his wife and his little daugther in New York City who went on a year-long experiment to live the most sustainable, green, low-carbon-footprint life possible. 10. Carpool, bike, walk, bus, train to work. Make it public transit. You're almost done with your eco-friendly morning! When you leave your residence for work, keep the carbon footprint reduction momentum going with transportation that doesn't waste as much fuel as driving a car by yourself. Even if it's only 1 or 2 days out of the week that's dedicated to a greener form of transportation, your green karma will bless you for the rest of the day. What aspect of your morning routine do you think you can make more green this week? i need to work on reducing my shower time and concocting more DIY beauty recipes. As for habits that I already do in the morning, I especially recommend #4 and #6, since they're both extremely easy habit changes that stick as soon as you start doing it! If you have other ideas for greener mornings, feel free to share them in comments below. Here's to more earth-friendly mornings to the most earth-friendly future possible for everyone on this planet. Liked this article? Read more green articles in Intent's "30 Days to a Greener You" series