How To Go About Taking Environmental Action

Taking Action: Different Ways to Get Involved in a Sustainable Future

In today’s political, economic, and literal climates, it can be difficult to know where to focus your energy. There are so many issues to focus on, and so many questions that come with getting involved. Is signing petitions enough? What else should you be doing? Do you have to do everything alone? Where should you spend your precious time and energy? The truth is, every little action counts. If you’re looking for some easy ways to make a bit of change in the world, here are some ideas!

How To Go About Taking Environmental Action

Focus on one or two key issues. If you try to spread yourself thin, you won’t get much done. Out of the many issues that need taken care of in our world, there are always groups and individuals out there championing every cause; pick what yours will be and stick to it. Don’t burn yourself out!

Spread the word. Word of mouth is one of the most effective advertising strategies—especially for grassroots movements taking on environmental issues. Talk to your friends and family about issues you care about, and guide them towards actions they can take if they’re interested. If you’re low on time and energy, social media makes it easy to spread the word. Something as simple as sharing a petition link or a flyer for an event can open someone’s eyes to a cause they had no idea existed.

Sign petitions. Petitions, such as Restored Lands’ Vail Gore Creek petition, can be instrumental in creating change. Petitions are largely used to signal to a particular company or entity that a significant number of people want change, and that they care about the issue the petition is addressing. Petitions also help spread the word about a particular cause, and as more eyes are on a petition, it’s more likely that the story will get picked up by news outlets and social media journalists. This, in turn, leads to even more attention, and therefore more collective effort to make change.

If you have a little more time on your hands, there are more involved ways to make change as well. Every little action makes a difference––here are a few examples!

Contact government representatives. While this may not be the solution in every case, oftentimes government representatives will be able to provide assistance and support in whatever cause is close to your heart. Your representatives want to know what issues their constituents care about—they need to know where to focus their energy! Emailing their office is always an easy first step, but phone calls and voicemails are harder to ignore. You can even go into the office to introduce yourself and ask for a meeting. Doing this alone is one thing, but calling for other people to do the same can have an even greater impact. It’s one thing if one or two people call about an issue, but hundreds or even thousands are much harder to ignore.

Get involved in community action. Getting involved with your local area is important in many ways. For one, local actions are usually the most effective in creating change within your community, whether that be by organizing clean up efforts, serving food for free meals, planting a neighborhood garden or any other number of acts you can take to affect your local community. These are also great ways to solidify yourself within eco-friendly groups, and can show you that you aren’t alone in the fight for your cause. Your actions matter! If getting involved with your local community is daunting or just not plausible for you, try finding a friend that will join you in your efforts and remember there are also ways to get involved with others online.

These are just a few of many, many ways you can start to make a change in the world. The actions of just a few people add up quickly—don’t get discouraged if things start out small! Get out there and do some good, because there’s no change unless we make it!

Have you seen Restored Lands' petition? Be sure to check out!