Annika Shares Her Passion on How to Live Sustainably

Annika Jensen has a passion to live sustainably and that started when she was in elementary school. I had the privilege of going to a small environmental school from 2nd to 5th grade. Without this experience as a child, I don’t believe that I would have any appreciation for the environment now, she expressed. She had the privilege to be outdoors most of the day learning environmental science from raising oysters, canoeing to collect trash, planting, to caring for various rescued animals.

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Passion and volunteering

Annika is volunteering online with butterfly conservation in Costa Rica. “I decided to intern at Spirogyra because of its efforts to protect the butterfly population in Costa Rica and provide a green sanctuary in San José. I was attracted to working with butterflies because I have raised butterflies at home for a couple of years now to help my local population. Also, I hope to keep improving my Spanish while working with Spirogyra,” she said. She works about 20 to 40 hours a week and spends at least five hours a day on three tasks. It might seem a lot, however, Annika doesn’t feel too overwhelmed. I have also learned that when you’re truly passionate about something, it doesn’t feel like work. Time flies when I get to do work for Spirogyra and I wish I could work for them longer because I truly love helping them achieve their mission.

Annika Jensen, a virtual volunteer working for butterfly conservation in Costa Rica!

To live sustainably, always be open to learning and understand that it is okay to make mistakes, it’s part of the learning process! – Annika Jensen

The Impact She’s Making

In the work that she’s doing, a lot goes into research and presentation. Some of the work I have done for my internship is to create videos to educate people on butterflies, work on Spirogyra’s website, and reach out to possible clients to sell pupa to, Annika shared.

6 Tips on How to Live Sustainably

1. A paradigm shift

When you want to live sustainably, you would have to be prudent. First, it’s to educate ourselves on how we can help Mother Nature. “Keep in mind that one form of sustainability may work for one area, but it might not be a good fit for where you live. For example, the sustainable needs in a city will be vastly different than the needs in a rural area,” Annika explains.

2. Switch off your lights

Fight climate change with a simple act of switching off the lights when you leave your room. You’ll use less power and you can reduce pollution caused by power plants burning non-renewable sources such as fossil fuel, crude oil, or coal.

3. Red meat consumption

One cow can produce up to 500 liters of methane daily. This leads to an unstable amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which then contributes to the greenhouse effect – that causes the increase of Earth’s temperature, Annika elaborated.

4. Reduce first, then recycle

Make tiny changes in your daily life to become more mindful and aim to achieve a zero-waste lifestyle. Reducing waste can be really easy, like bringing reusable bags to the store or using a reusable water bottle when you head to cafes, Annika shared.

5. Composting

Make a list of all the things you can compost, so you won’t forget. If you live in a humid climate, try storing in a big ziplock bag all your compost before garbage collection day.

6. Research

A lifestyle change especially towards living more sustainably is a journey and knows that you’re not alone. Annika suggests some topics you can research to help combat climate change, I highly recommend looking into the fast fashion industry, deforestation, the effect of fertilization, the importance of green spaces, and carbon neutrality.

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