Here are some useful ‘green tips’ to mark World Environment Week (1 – 5 June).

Truly “greening” yourself involves fundamental changes and some deep thinking about how you consume and pollute. But if you aren’t quite up for that yet, then ease into it with some low-key lifestyle tweaking. Here’s some easy tips for this week that you can do (or at least start doing) within five minutes of reading them:

Spring-clean your closet once a year

Somewhere, deep in the lizard brain of all of us, is an instinct to hold on to the most unbelievable pile of rubbish on the off chance that “it might come in useful some day”.

One of the best activities you can do for your personal space and your own peace of mind is to filter your closet once a year.

By all means put aside your school rugby top, the bow tie from your Matric dance and your lucky kilt, but anything else that you haven’t worn in the last year can safely be given away with no more than a moment’s panic.

Keeping your cupboards filled with piles of unused items isn’t only wasteful, it’s selfish too. And if you’re really struggling with the emotional side of things, sell your unwanted stuff for a nominal amount and buy something tangible like a new tree with the cash. – Simon Gear

Roll up your sleeves

An excellent remedy for despair about the global environmental crisis is to get your hands dirty on the frontlines, where you can see the benefit of your direct actions: chopping through an alien stem, cleaning an oil-slicked feather.

The mass whale stranding this weekend at Kommetjie showed that South Africans are crazy about nature and wildlife, and only too willing to put their time and energies into trying to save it. But if you’re going to volunteer, make sure you’re actually helping effectively and not hindering relief efforts such as this.

Instead of leaping into well-meaning but potentially counter-productive action when something big happens, rather join a volunteer organisation that appeals to you before the time, and be prepared to learn the ropes so that you’re best placed and suitably skilled to make a real difference.

We have a wealth of green-hued volunteer initiatives in this country to choose from. Here are a few ideas:

• National Sea Rescue Institute (stations along the coast, and some inland waters): for hands-on rescuing of people and marine animals, you need to undergo rigorous 6-month training.
• Volunteer Wildfire Services (Cape Town and environs): again, active duty on the fireline requires 6 months of skills training and physical fitness.
• Honorary Rangers, South African National Parks: senior and junior rangers contribute to conservation efforts in national parks nationwide.

Source: health24.com