Start a daily practice of performing small acts for OneHealth
It is important to tackle the issues of the climate crisis, pollution, energy, and biodiversity from top-down and bottom-up, meaning that policymakers have to implement and control sustainable strategies, but also every individual needs to take appropriate measures in his/her personal and professional life.
The OneHealth365 initiative would like to inspire you with some ideas for your ‘lowest hanging fruit’.
For everybody:
- Plant a tree (or many, and many diverse ones), also in the city you have the possibility – ask your responsible county-mayor, write an email directly
- Plant a (bee) flower bed or even a small box on your windowsill – it makes a huge difference!
- Start permaculture: many diverse plants and leaves, wild meadow
- Dig your hands (and those of your kids) into soil
- Use sustainable/alternative mobility whenever possible – get to places by foot, use a bicycle, use the train/tram/metro
- Only buy what you really need
- Save water
- install sensor-operated taps
- short showers instead of baths (this is also very beneficial for the health of the skin, especially for young children)
- Save energy (turn off devices that are not needed, install sensor-operated lights)
- Cut down on usage of highly chemical/synthetical/environment-detrimental products: body products, perfumes, deodorants, disinfectants
- Change to sustainable cleaning products (hydrogen carbonate, vinegar)
- Change to solid products (hand and body and hair soap) instead of fluids
- Wear second-hand clothes (beneficial also for young children – potential chemicals from industry are already washed out)
- Stop usage of one-time plastic (use re-usable permanent-bags, re-usable plastic, glass wear, breadboxes, cardboard boxes, paper bags, buy unpackaged fruits and vegetables)
- Eat more plant-based food instead of meat (animal product), and if you do eat meat- buy very high-quality, regional, organic products which focus also on animal welfare
- Save food (buy high quality, regional, seasonal, organic food – in this order; and only as much as you consume; or share with your neighbor)
- Re-sell products at flea markets, online second-hand shops, pre-owned products etc.
- Use “ecosia” as a search engine
For healthcare professionals:
- Inform patients AND politicians/city planners about the benefits of positive measures contributing to One Health (e.g. CO2 reduction, sustainability, avoiding waste and pollution, saving on food, energy, water; change to a plant-based diet; create wider green parks in cities, green roofs, green buildings; use bio-hydrogel to save water and rescue plants during droughts etc.
- Be a role model and adjust the health care system to a more sustainable resort as it currently accounts for approx. 5% of net global climate emissions (e.g. switch to sustainable inhalers, save energy and water, cut down on resources, use telemedicine, avoid pollution, use sustainable -public- transport for staff, patients and goods etc.)
- Apart from many studies that still need to be performed, it seems much more important to make use of real-world data, where Artificial Intelligence (AI) for analysis of existing big data sets could further help to find fast and practicable measures