What does "eco-responsible" mean?

March 21, 2022 • Impact écolo • Zéro déchet

First of all, the word ecoresponsible is a combination of two words.

The first word is "eco" for ecology.
Ecology is first and foremost the study of the environments in which living beings live, and the relationships between these beings and the environment. Secondly, the word ecology refers to a better balance between human beings and the natural environment, while taking into account the protection of the latter.

The second word is responsible.
This word has several definitions, and the ones we're interested in are, first and foremost, the notion of being accountable for one's actions, and even more relevant here: measuring the consequences of one's actions, having a responsible attitude.

Eco-responsible therefore means responsible for the environment. It means having a responsible attitude towards our living environment. It means minimizing the impact of our actions on the environment.

Being eco-responsible in all areas of our lives is a major challenge. To make it easier to understand and progressively integrate eco-responsible gestures, we need to learn to recognize the broad outlines so we can better target our actions.

What are the eco-responsible fields of action?
Human beings are part of the environment, part of ecology. It's utopian to think that we won't have any impact on the environment. We breathe, we eat, we live... If only to meet our basic needs, we have an impact on the environment. Now we have to decide how much impact we want to have, and what eco-responsible actions we want to take.

There's a great strategy to keep in mind when it comes to adopting more eco-responsible behavior. Are you familiar with the 5R-C (formerly the 3R-V)? Well, here they are, illustrated to make them easier to understand:

Refuse : Say no! No to single-use products, no to taking the car on certain occasions, no to imported tomatoes...
Reduce: Meat consumption, car use, buying new clothes...
Reuse: Avoid buying disposable or single-use products, go to thrift shops and buy second-hand.
Revalue: Give objects a second life whenever possible: don't wear a tattered t-shirt, take your old paint to a local paint and varnish center if it can be recycled, etc.
Recycle: Recycle everything that can be recycled.
Compost: Use the composter provided by your municipality, or even better, compost at home.

And in what areas of my life can I be more eco-responsible?
Everything! Except breathing haha! The same goes for other vital needs and all the little luxuries we allow ourselves...

For food :

Avoid food waste
Eat less or no meat
Promote local and seasonal food
Favoring organic food
Avoid ready-to-eat foods

For the home :

Declutter your home (a great way to realize that you always have too much!)
Practicing minimalism (having mainly what meets a need, as opposed to a desire)
Make sure your home is more energy-efficient and leak-free.

General consumption :

Promoting second-hand purchasing
Promote local purchasing
Adopt a zero waste approach
Buy less and buy better (avoid programmed obsolescence)

On the move:

Promote green transportation: active or public transit
Promote ecotourism

One step at a time, the best strategy
Obviously, we don't just jump in like a hen. The best way to make eco-responsible change is to take one step at a time. So we target something that's accessible to us when we make the choice. Eventually, we'll focus on the others, or maybe not. We wrote a nice article on the Zero Waste approach: 6 simple, simple, simple steps to get there, the same steps can be applied to make our lives more eco-responsible.

Browsing our site you'll find a multitude of blog articles to help you progress towards an eco-responsible lifestyle. The same goes for all the items for sale in our boutique. They've been carefully selected to meet the needs of all spheres of life, and to help you reduce your ecological footprint.

We've also put together a beautiful interactive list of a hundred or so eco-responsible things you can do. We're making it available free of charge to all our newsletter subscribers.