Small Steps To Take Climate Action with Kids
You’ve heard about the climate crisis and you’re curious about what you can do to help. But it all seems overwhelming, expensive, and time-consuming. We’re here to help.
We are a group of parents and caregivers taking climate action every day in our modern lives. Over time, we’ve made gradual and growing changes in our everyday lives to be better stewards of the planet and our communities. We share tips, ideas, and frameworks to help you live a more eco-friendly lifestyle with kids without feeling intimidated, deprived, or disconnected.
We’ve created a variety of resources and guides so you can choose where to start or how to continue your journey toward more sustainable living in a modern world. Below, we’ve sorted our collection of resources and tips to take climate action based on the environmental benefits they achieve. From energy to water to soil health and more, choose the climate action category that resonates with you the most and start there.
For each climate action category, we’re working to bring you a Cost – Time – Impact (CTI) chart that compares estimated costs, time commitments, and environmental impacts of various sustainable living habits. The exact cost, time, and impact will vary from person to person, but we hope the charts provide a guideline or starting point to help you decide which sustainable living habits you want to try first.
Don’t feel overwhelmed by all of the options. Pick one or two or three that feel the most accessible to you and just get started. Habit change takes time, and small shifts build momentum to develop an increasingly climate-friendly lifestyle. No one is perfect, so get started and join our community of parents and caregivers living imperfectly pro-planet with kids.
Browse by Section
Consumption & Waste
Energy
Water
Transportation
Food
Soil Health
Biodiversity
Textiles
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Consumption & Waste
We lead with consumption and waste with much intention. Overconsumption is one of the primary (and arguably the most significant) drivers of the climate crisis. We collectively buy and toss so much stuff!
The impacts of excessive consumption are far-reaching, expensive, and incredibly wasteful. Often, the easiest and most effective climate action step to take is reducing consumption. Consumption drives up many of the other climate change contributors as well (more stuff means more energy, more transportation, more soil degradation, etc…)
If you want to start living more sustainably, save time, and save money, begin by buying less stuff and reusing the things you already have available to you.
11 Quick Sustainable Christmas Hacks
Looking for ways to reduce holiday stress and save money while also doing a solid for the planet? Check out these quick and easy sustainable Christmas hacks to help you out this holiday season. The season is upon us. The season of magical moments and family memories and perfect photos and all. the. things. But…
Energy
Energy use is a significant contributor to climate change and a warming planet. Tackle tips to reduce overall energy usage and swap to cleaner alternatives where possible. More climate-conscious energy consumption is a great way to protect the planet and can also pad your bank account.
17 Easy Sustainable Home Building Tips For Everyday Homes
Building or renovating a house and looking for easy, sustainable home building ideas no matter what type of house you’re building or renovating? Check out this list for some affordable eco-friendly home tips to save you money and help your home be a little kinder to the planet. I have two siblings (my sister and…
Water
Water is a precious resource becoming scarce due to climate change, pollution, and disruptions to natural water cycles. Especially if you live in an area prone to drought or with clean water shortages, learn about a variety of actions you can take to protect watersheds and clean water supplies.
17 Easy Sustainable Home Building Tips For Everyday Homes
Building or renovating a house and looking for easy, sustainable home building ideas no matter what type of house you’re building or renovating? Check out this list for some affordable eco-friendly home tips to save you money and help your home be a little kinder to the planet. I have two siblings (my sister and…
Transportation
Transportation drives climate change in many parts of the world (literally and scientifically). Opting for more eco-friendly modes of transportation and reducing our reliance on transportation powered by fossil fuels can materially shrink our carbon footprint. Climate-friendly transportation is often less expensive and better for our health too. Learn more about ways to choose eco-friendly transportation alternatives in your life.
Building Community Bike Culture in Car-Centric Cities
Would you love to have stronger community bike culture in your town but can’t imagine anything other than a town dominated by car transport? Community bike culture and the related bicycle infrastructure required to foster a culture of bicycle transportation are a choice, even for car-centric communities… if they are willing to change. Read on…
Food
When it comes to our food, agriculture, and the subsequent food system that follows to our table and then the trash, carries an enormous environmental footprint. Agriculture provides vital resources and certain environmental impacts are inevitable and worthwhile. But there are many ways our agriculture systems are broken, and we can take individual actions to promote change and protect our planet. Check out eco-friendly tips related to food sourcing, recipes, food waste, and other topics related to agriculture that impact the planet.
6 Ways to Donate to a Food Pantry and Reduce Food Waste
When almost 40% of our food supply ends up in the trash, are we surprised that far too many people in our communities go hungry? Or that we’re destroying our land and making it unable to produce enough food to feed all that live on it? One of the easiest steps in eliminating hunger is…
Soil Health
Soil is the foundation of our planet and our lives. Healthy soil sustains massive amounts of biodiversity, supports clean water supplies, filters toxins from the land, promotes more effective and efficient food production, sequesters carbon, and so much more.
Soil health overlaps with matters related to agriculture in many ways, but there are also many things we can do to preserve and rebuild healthy soil beyond farming. Read on for more about sustainable soil health and ways to protect the earth that is the basis of life in so many respects.
Can You Compost Apple Cores?
Apples (and dried apple chips) are a core snack in our house. As a family who composts in a variety of ways, I get questions like “Can you compost apple cores?” and “Can you compost apple seeds?” Read on for more details on composting apple cores and how they impact your compost pile. We eat…
Biodiversity
While one or two species might seem small, each species plays an important role in a balanced and well-functioning ecosystem. We’re currently in a period of mass extinction which could have unimaginable tolls on humanity and the future of our planet as we know it. Read on for more about how to protect biodiversity in your community.
Where To Buy Organic Seeds Online
Looking for the best places online to find organic, heirloom, and non-GMO seeds for your food garden? Check out these great places to buy organic seeds online that can help you on your path to food independence. Daffodils popped up last week in our yard and the purple crocuses weren’t far behind. This weekend, I…
Textiles
The clothes in our wardrobes, sheets on our beds, and towels in our linen closets reflect our consumption and waste habits. They also intertwine with our agriculture system through crops like cotton and wool, grown and managed to make many textile items. Synthetic materials, like polyester and spandex, connect to our energy resources in that they are made from byproducts of petroleum (oil).
Items that have long been staples of basic needs and cultural identities have grown into a massive churn of resources through industries like fast fashion that tantalize our emotional and social triggers to amass unsustainable volumes of cheap waste. Like food, textiles touch our everyday lives with abandon and provide a relatively easy entry point to explore more sustainable living habits.
5 Fun Thrifted Fall Tops to Fall for this Season (and 5 Tips for How to Find Them)
Curious to try your luck at finding a few tops at the thrift shop? Check out these five thrifted fall tops and five tips to find thrifted tops at your local charity shop. I’ve really been feeling uninspired by the clothes in my closet lately. I’d fallen into a habit of wearing leggings and sweatshirts…
It’s All Connected
Many of the categories above overlap and intertwine. One of the impactful lessons of climate action is understanding how interconnected we all are with each other, all living things, and the entire planet. We hope that by categorizing climate actions, they feel a bit more achievable and accessible, and it makes finding the right starting point a bit easier.
What About Climate Justice?
We did not call out social justice or climate justice distinctly in the categories above. We believe that climate justice is a thread that runs through every climate action category. Some climate actions are good for everyone. Other climate actions inevitably have “winners” and “losers”.
While not everything can be good for everyone, it’s important that “winners” and “losers” are not always the same groups of people, respectively. Also, climate actions should include elements of justice consideration. In many cases, it’s important to consider concessions for those who will “lose” as a result of a solution that is good for the planet and for humanity but has harmful side effects for a particular group of people, especially if that group is already marginalized.
As we share new content and refresh past content, we seek to acknowledge climate justice as it pertains to various topics. We won’t be perfect, and we will continue to learn together. And we certainly won’t have all the answers to big, systematic challenges. If the solutions were that easy, they’d be implemented by now.
Don’t Forget about the Club
And as a friendly reminder, don’t forget to sign up for the Cool Kids Club. It’s the hottest club trying to keep the planet cool for our kids. We hope to see you there.
