Ms Dia Mirza
Producer and Bollywood Actress
UN Secretary General's Advocate for SDG's and
Environment Goodwill Ambassador
IISD's invited Distinguished Guest Blog

Do you know - how the small ways of doing things differently, adopting a simple and climate friendly lifestyle in our routine daily day today life, really help to achieve the greatest things for the planet ?

Try yourself. It's simple. We need to think differently, understand what is the need of this hour ? How we can really contribute and protect our small blue Planet ? How that will be possible ?

What is sustainable lifestyle? How it can be adopted ? Sustainability is a buzzword often heard in the fashion sphere. But it is very relevant, on the home front as well? Examine the word sustainability to understand its true meaning and modify your daily practices. Make small changes and assess your every purchase.

We must promote earth-friendly ingredients and responsible packaging for effective maintaining and cleaning of the home. There is a need to shift to environment-friendly important eco-products and look for the products that do not harm the earth and help us live in a clean and hygienic manner. The products, We should opt those must save the planet from single-use plastic and other harmful chemicals that affect life under water too. We must adopt bottles; those are reusable and easily are recyclable.

Being environmentally conscious, now as a part of my persona, I have understood to start these practices, right from home; Such as, saving a bucket of water, switching off the lights and fans when no one is in the room or segregating waste to make compost. It took me some two to three years to get things right and make people around me realise how they are making an important difference. It is often said that sustainability lies in the small things. Try to repurpose old clothes and furniture; this is what I have done in the past and it works wonderfully. I have enough love for my mother's sarees that I grew up wearing them.

I have also adopted several measures in my pursuit to lead a greener and earth-centric lifestyle, including segregating and composting waste, up-cycling old furniture, making her kitchen plastic-free, carrying a metal water bottle for shoots and using biodegradable toiletries, chemical-free surface cleaner and creating green pockets, wherever given an opportunity.

The last few years have clearly signalled that actions have consequences and the spate of natural disasters and the pandemic itself, has taught us many thing, we need to reconsider, the way we treat nature and the way we live, We all saw pandemic, as a wake-up call to urge everyone to lead a sustainable lifestyle. In fact, the pandemic has shown us that we cannot wage a war against Mother Nature, and thrive as a race.

We need to make our own resolutions to heal our planet. Resolutions can include - taking showers that last less than five minutes, refuse all single-use plastic and switching to healthier alternatives, segregating and composting waste at home, using biodegradable/natural cleaning agents and personal hygiene products and reducing our wasteful consumption as well as we can. Whatever that item may be, clothes/food/gadgets, ask yourself that - Do I really need this? Think seriously, about the lifecycle of material goods and how much waste is generated, only because we do not think long and hard about our choices. While on the other hand, the positive resolutions can have a far-reaching impact on the well-being of mother earth.

In my office for instance neither single use plastic is neither allowed nor print outs are taken unless absolutely necessary, I even refill detergents and shampoos, in old and once used tube, for taking away office. I am a wizard, implementing greener practical lifestyle solutions and enjoy inspiring others to do so via her social media outreach.

In our Resident Welfare Housing Society (RWHS), we have initiated a series of environment and climate friendly actions, such as segregation waste at source, practice separation of wet and dry waste. We have a compost system, which turns them into a zero waste society; only dry waste is collected and the rest is used as compost in the society gardens. We have installed water metres and gauges in our society, which automatically turns off, when the storage tank gets full. Every car gets only one bucket of water every day for cleaning. All in all it's a matter of making greener Lifestyle choices a habit.

Instead of buying somebody a usual gift for their birthday or a special occasion, gift him or her tree via initiatives like grow trees. Even to mark important festivals, always do prefer s gifting indigenous trees and plants to people because it's important to introduce plantations that would ensure local biodiversity conservation.

I am 90% vegan and my diet is high on fruit and vegetable, it has made her healthier and more energetic. It's 90% because I allow myself to consume meat on a few occasions as I grew up as on a non vegetarian diet.. since my childhood, but trying my best to achieve hundred percent vegan in my diet soon.

I have been following sustainable lifestyle practices myself for the past four to five years; I've planted about eight thousand trees and enjoy enabling people to choose a sustainable lifestyle. My belief is to make the world a healthier place to live in as well as align well with the planet. Small small things, doing in a different mindful way, really matters and could be potentially transformative for the planet.

Producer and Actress Ms Dia Mirza is best known for her work in Bollywood and as a beauty pageant queen, in recent years, she has also become an eco-warrior honoured by the United Nations Secretary General's Official Sustainable Development Goals Advocate and Environment Goodwill Ambassador.

This is an IISD's Invited Guest Blog, under Distinguished Personality Category.