Low Impact Living

There has been much discussion about ‘low impact living’, the environment and our impact on it. It’s increasingly difficult to discern the ‘truth’ about the environment amid the background noise and individuals and organisations with loud voices and often hidden vested interests. So what are we to do?

Do your own research – very time consuming and well outside the reach of most people
Take an educated guess about what is good/best practice and come up with a plan
Forget about the bigger picture and live a simple life
Adopt the view that the problem is too big for you to make any difference and carry on regardless.
Something else entirely

A responsible approach to Low Impact Living

Here at EcoHip we try to take a responsible approach to ‘low impact living’ and ‘low impact business’ and we’d like to do two things. Firstly to share our approach with you and in doing so encourage you to act responsibly and secondly to hear what you do, would like to do or would like us to do within the context of ‘low impact living’.

We actively seek to foster ‘low impact living’ by doing the following:

Bring products to the market that don’t have a negative effect on health
Research, use and even develop modern packaging solutions that have a reduced impact on the environment (more on that subject in the coming weeks)
minimise or eliminate chemicals that harm us and our environment
Recommend products that are effective, pleasant to use and safe for all the family
Encourage individual responsibility for our own environmental footprint
Suggest ways we can improve our ‘low impact living’ lifestyle
Ask our suppliers to improve their environmental performance

Improving our approach to Low Impact living

The main, but not exclusive, areas we can improve our ‘low impact living’ are:

Travel – minimise use of cars/planes/trains/buses in favour of cycling/walking etc
Reduce consumption of electricity, gas, water and fossil fuels
Re use everything possible
Where reasonable prolong the life of clothes, electrical goods, mobile phones, cars, buildings etc through good maintenance and a policy of make do and mend where possible.
Where items have truly reached the end of their life recycle in the best possible way – even using components of unserviceable items in innovative ways – what may be broken on your appliance might be available from another source as a pre used item
Select new equipment that has low energy/water consumption as standard and produces as little waste as possible.
Avoid using chemicals in the home/workplace and replace by natural compounds that are available.

We would like to hear your ideas about low impact living, what you do currently, plan to do, what frustrates you and what you’d like us to do?

Author: Steven Chasen

Here at Eco Hip we have a simple philosophyTo offer you the best natural products around, so that you can maintain a chemical-free home, body and spirit.For 15 years we have been striving to give people the opportunity to enjoy and benefit from this lifestyle, using our knowledge and experience to guide you through the process from start to finish. We believe that there is a complete synergy between what is best for you and what is best for the environment.Do you ever stop and think about what goes into the products that we use on a daily basis?Did you know that everyday products such as toiletries and cosmetics are filled with harmful petro-chemicals, parabens, GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), DEAs, MEAs, TEAs, artificial colours, fragrances and fillers. The list goes on…Why aren’t there stricter regulations concerning these products?Are the waste products of industry being dumped and sold in our personal care and cleaning products?Who is stopping this and telling it how it is?We feel that we have a responsibility to both our customers and to the world around us to ask ourselves these questions every day. That is why we only sell the most responsible and sustainable products.Responsibility to ourselves – All our products are free of toxic chemicals wherever possible and endorsed by Ecocert and the Soil Association.Responsibility to others – We promote Fairtrade produce to stop exploitation and benefit those communities.Responsibility to local communities – We use local suppliers and products wherever possible in order to support the local economy and reduce our carbon footprintResponsibility to the environment – All our products use minimal packaging and recyclable materials. Responsibility to the future – We use sustainable materials and ingredients wherever possible.Responsibility to animals – We do not use any products that have animal ingredients or are tested on animals. Our products are certified as cruelty-free and are endorsed by BUAV and PETA.There doesn’t have to be a trade off between affordability and healthy living either. The choices we make now will impact our future, and we want to ensure that the investments you make now will save you money in the long-term.Sustainability doesn’t just have to connote the environment, but your own household too.In the age of information overload that we live in, we know that shopping online can sometimes be overwhelming, so we carefully source our products, selecting only the highest quality ingredients and most innovative designs, so that you don’t have to.Ecohip is more than just another online shopping website. The Ecohip mindset is all about challenging conventional thinking and finding a new way of looking at the world, believing that smalls steps can gradually add up to make a big difference. View all posts by Steven Chasen