If you're concerned about climate change and want to do something to help, here's five changes you can make to live more environmentally friendly.
Updated: 29 Apr 2025
Climate change is a big deal. We're being constantly reminded on social media about the effects our lives are starting to have on our planet. We can feel it in our own everyday lives – with pollution making us ill with asthma and other conditions.
Here's some easy to follow ways in which you can lessen your carbon footprint and also save some serious money at the same time.
When buying clothes, ignore ASOS, Boohoo and Primark and switch to shopping in charity shops if you can. Not only does it benefit the environment as it reduces greenhouse gas emissions and levels of pollution, it helps you save those pennies too. It takes approximately 3,000 litres of water to make just one t-shirt and when you think of how many t-shirts you probably buy in a year it really adds up, so try your best to shop smart.
There are so many small and simple things you can do to help reduce your energy usage at university. Simply turning lights off when you leave a room and not leaving your TV on standby, or other appliances switched on when not it use, can reduce your energy usage and cut your gas and electricity bills by so much.
Love a nice long bath each night? Switching to quick showers can help you use less water – and so does not leaving it constantly running when you brush your teeth.
We all know how cold student houses can be sometimes but layering up with some thick jumpers or some cosy blankets means you don’t have to keep leaving the heating on overnight or when no-one is in the house.
Finally, when using your washing machine, you and your housemates can always try to wash things together so it saves on each person having to put a single load on for their clothes. Be sure to wash at a lower temperature too!
The amount of food that gets disposed of contributes massively to negative impacts on the environment and you can help tackle this by you and your housemates buying and cooking meals to eat together. Planning meals in advance can help you use up ingredients and as you'll only buy what you need you should waste – and spend – less.
Still have leftovers? No worries, just use these for your lunch the next day, it saves you having to buy something else which'll probably be packaged in some sort of plastic or other waste material and you can take it to university with you in a reusable container.
I know you’ve probably all heard this so many times before but recycling your waste really is so important. Recycling means materials can be turned into new products and in turn saves landfill space. Recycling helps to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions which are big factors in the climate change crisis, so check the label on anything you throw away.
Going shopping? Reuse plastic bags (they aren't called a 'bags for life' for nothing) and try to buy foods that don't come in lots of packaging (fruit and veg in particular).
If you have a takeaway, reuse the containers to hold foods in – just wash them out after you've eaten your curry and they'll be good to go.
Taking public transport to get to and from university, or even walking or cycling if you’re close enough, is so much more beneficial to the environment.
Universities sometimes have their own buses offering journeys at student prices, making it more beneficial than driving your own car where you'd have to pay for petrol, parking and also release harmful fumes into the air.
Here's just a handful of ways in which you can make small changes to your life that can have a really positive impact on the environment.