05 May Have Scandinavian Approach to Sustainable Living
Posted at 05:55h
in Clean Living Lifestyle, Eco-Friendly Living, Podcast, Scandinavian Lifestyle
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How to Have Scandinavian Approach to Sustainable Living
Why Scandinavia have a sustainable lifestyle? The Nordics have spent a lot of money and lots of time on innovation. Decades of thinking about how they can live a more sustainable lifestyle. Some of it is forced by the fact that they live in countries where there is cold winter for part of the year. There are lots of snow, ice, and cold weather. You need to know how to heat your houses the most efficient way, eat fresh food, and be most efficient on how to work.
Over the years, the Nordics have created ways to be more sustainable and more self-sufficient. But what they have done is they’ve taken this to the next level. How can you live your life without interference from outside factors? These innovations are on how people live their lives today.
Sustainable Way to Heat Your House
So as I was saying about the heating, there’s ground thermal heating that you can heat your house. These pipes are buried under the ground in your garden. The ground heat is then transferred to your internal heating system through the pipes.
I was asking about underfloor heating here in Australia. It turned out that few people use underfloor heating and they do not like to put it in bathrooms on the wet area. The whole idea has been that it keeps the wet areas dry and dries up the room. I had a long meaningful conversation about this to find a workaround with the electrician.
In the Nordic countries, they have underfloor heating which is a very normal way of heating your home. You don’t have to have a separate heating system. Some countries like Australia, don’t have a central heating system like in the UK.
[bctt tweet=”There should be a more innovative way to use natural energy resources like thermal heat and solar energy.” username=”thenordicmumpodcas”].
Recycling and Using Sustainability in Scandinavia
Cooking and making your food is another sustainable way that the Nordics are promoting in their lifestyle. The Nordics buy food from places where you don’t have to use plastics. You buy food without the plastic wrappers, meat is wrapped on paper. If you are using plastics to seal the food it is recyclable as much as possible.
There are recycling plants in countries like Sweden. Sweden uses all the recycling material they produce. They rely on other countries to send them their recyclables like Germany.
Another big thing that the Scandinavian countries are good at is household waste. I’m doing renovations and I say to my kitchen guy; I want you to design me a kitchen where I have recycling bins. I have one for the compost, one for the metal, one for class, one for cardboard, and one for the general waste. And he’s looking at me why you need so many. Needless to say, I had to design my waste bins myself.
[bctt tweet=”In the Nordics recycling and having to sort your household waste is part of your normal life.” username=”thenordicmumpodcas”].
Sustainable Lifestyle Start From Home
Sustainability and having a sustainable approach in life starts from home. If your parents are doing this as home. Separating all these things, cardboard, the class, the plastics, the compost, your kids are more likely to follow your example on what to do.
So kids are interested and intrigued that is how it starts from home. In Scandinavia, it continues in school where you have different colored bins and you know what goes to what color, what you need to recycle, and how.
Kids get educated on this at school. There are lots of examples of how this makes them more likely to continue this approach when they are older.
Scandinavian Approach To Sustainable Living and Environment
Kids are told how we need to protect the environment and how we need to protect the animals. They are told how brown bear is an endangered species because there’s not so many of them left in nature. How the elk or moose like we like to call it used to be endangered, but that now there are thousands of them because we’ve been protecting it. Or lynx which when I was a child used to be endangered and now it’s more often seen because it is not endangered anymore.I’m not sure if lynx is off the danger list already. But these are only a few examples just how Nordic countries have really looked into sustainability. How it can be part of our everyday life and how you can protect your environment as well.
How Politics Make a Difference in Sustainability at Scandinavia
Talking about politics, there are green parties in every country. I bet the country where you’re listening in, they have a green party. But in the Scandinavian countries, the core green policies are part of the government programs. They are strong policies, they are not wishy-washy things that have been put in there to please the voters. Also the Green Party’s most of the time part of the government. They are part of the decision making process.
In Scandinavia, green parties are one of the bigger parties. It might not be the biggest, but it’s not the smallest for sure. It’s there on average and on size. They get to say, what goes in the government program. They’re very vocal and very much involved in how we should implement, for example, the carbon tax. In Sweden, this was implemented in 1991 and it has been increasing steadily ever since.
The culture in Scandinavia is based on slow living. The simplistic living, you get what you need, you don’t take everything that you want. Whether it’s food, whether it’s foraging, the berries, whether it’s shooting the ducks. You just take what you need, not what you want.
Recycling Plants Making Business
In the Nordic countries, they have recycling plants. Recycling plants are employing people. They’re being innovative in ways that they can use recycling material. For example, they’re making clothes from plastic and recycled materials.
They are thinking about how this material is recycled and how it can be reused. Same time countries like Australia are still struggling to even get their foot on the door.
Think about how we can recycle better and how we can do it here. Sweden has found a business of turning waste into energy. They have very good skills in doing it. Like how cool is that?
Having Scandinavian Approach To Sustainable Living Can Be Easy
[bctt tweet=”Being sustainable in Scandinavia is easier.” username=”thenordicmumpodcas”].
The infrastructure, the government, the policies, the politics, the council, they all support you. But what can you do in your country where you are? What can you do to make your life more sustainable? Well, you can start separating your waste at home. Simple things like that. Teaching your kids about why it’s a bad thing to put plastic in the ocean.
Think about what your teachers were telling you. I bet if you’re a millennial, they were telling you that plastic is bad and it should not go to nature. Telling that to your children would be a good start.What else can you do? Next time when you shopping buy the more eco-friendly sustainable option that will probably last longer as well. Think about the lightbulbs, think about using the more eco-friendly option.
You have probably seen the pictures of whales and fishes that have been fished with plastic on their stomach. Or been found dead on the beach and inside, they have all sorts of stuff. Plastic bags, corks, cigarettes, everything. It’s disgusting. So sustainability is not that difficult. It just needs a little bit of effort. And it needs a little bit sensibility of how can I do it.
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