Introducing the eco-friendly life trend to various experiences that will get you closer to nature!

An interest in an eco-friendly life is expanding to general lifestyle as people actively pursue ethical values. To this end, it has become as important to protect the nature our children play in as having our children run around in nature. Here are some eco-friendly trends you can live out in our daily life with your children and experiences that teach such concepts to the kids in an easy, and fun way.

How to reduce carbon footprint that increases the Earth’s temperature

The greater carbon footprint is out there, the more trees we will have to plant.

Carbon footprint refers to greenhouse gases, especially total amount of CO2, emitted during the process of product manufacturing and consumption by individuals and organizations like corporate and country. Easily put, it’s the amount of CO2 directly and indirectly created throughout the whole production and discarding process of fuel, goods, food, everything people make during our lives measured in weight unit of kg or the number of trees we have to plant.

If you wish to find out how much carbon you use for a day, go to Korea Climate & Environment Network’s ‘carbon footprint calculator (www.kcen.kr/tanso/intro.green)’. A single paper cup weighs only 5g, but its carbon footprint is more than twice that, 11g. Using a mobile phone for a year alone emits 112,000g of carbon, which is quite surprising. Moving 1km in an airplane will emit 150g of carbon, which means a roundtrip from Seoul to Jeju requires you to plant 33 young pine trees that will soak up the CO2 created. How about traveling domestically rather than going international and using public transportation, bicycle or walking rather than driving your car to reduce your carbon footprint?

Reusing products made with petroleum

Recycling alone will get you closer to an eco-friendly life (photography source: Omkim).

Being thrift with products made with petroleum or recycling them can not only reduce the aforementioned carbon footprint but also allow you to simply maintain the eco-friendly lifestyle. It’s especially the case with children’s stationary.

You can do this in your daily lives by not purchasing a new set of crayons or paints and instead buying them in separate units when you’ve used up a few colors or lose them. You can purchase single colors in large stationary stores or online shopping malls. If it’s bothersome it’s also a good idea to gather the crayons you don’t use and donate them.

Nonprofit private organization ‘Omkim(omkim.org)' melts down donated crayons to make new crayons which are delivered to children all over the world who need them. They also donate notebooks made with single-side used paper, and collaborate with hotels and collect thrown out, hardly used amenity soaps to recycle them and send them to places in need of them.

Reducing CO2 emission with local food

Marche@ allows the producer and consumers to meet directly (photography source: Farmer’s Market Marche).

In many cases, imported produce has used pesticides and/or preserves to maintain its freshness, and also puts a lot of pressure on the environment with its CO2 emission caused by long distance transportation. Food mileage is this very phenomenon in numbers. The easiest way to reduce food mileage is to consume local food. Consuming locally produced food will reduce the distance it travels, therefore maintaining its freshness, reduce environmental pressure and activate the local economy. Everyone wins.

‘Farmer’s Market Marche@’ has to be the place where you can enjoy both local food and culture in Seoul. Marche@ sells produce grown in city farming and those grown near Seoul, meaning it’s a market that can be opened anywhere. There are various experiences not only for the farmers but also for the consumers, which help the consumers to understand agriculture and food better and allow them to participate in various workshops and training to take part in the eco-friendly lifestyle.

Home gardening, my own little forest

Let’s start out by growing greens you can eat if gardening feels too difficult.

Have you ever heard of the term Planterior? It’s a word that combines two words; plant and interior, meaning decorating the inside of a building with plants. It’s a huge interior trend as it takes care of purifying micro-dust while also providing psychological stability. There are more and more people who go a step further and are really into home gardening.

‘Oh My Garden’, a KBS documentary which aired in January 27th, introduced this phenomenon and numerous domestic and international cases. Experts mentioned the necessity of public gardens rather than private gardens in independent units because there are many public housing units such as apartments in Korea. It doesn’t matter whether you grow plants to admire or to eat. Naturally get closer to greenery in your house and create opportunities to get closer to an eco-friendly life.

Be ‘My Little Farmer’, get closer to earth

Rolling Hills provides ‘My Little Farmer’ package in which the guests can feel the excitement of harvesting ripe produce until March 28th.

The anecdote of a child answering ‘supermarket’ to the question where rice comes from may not be funny soon. The concept of an eco-friendly life might be a foreign, or even boring to kids these days who eat ready-made food and learn about the world with YouTube. If you want to let them know what being eco-friendly and ‘natural’ food is, such experience type activities are recommended.

Haevichi’s metropolitan resort type hotel ‘Rolling Hills’ provides ‘My Little Farmer’ package which allows the guests to experience various exotic activities such as strawberry harvesting and feeding animals, while relaxing at the hotel until March 28th. This package is filled with programs which allow the young guests to experience the nature with all five senses and create special memories with family and friends.

Rolling Hills Hotel allows you to get out of your everyday life, be surrounded by nature, and do nothing but relax.

You can not only harvest seasonal strawberries and eat as much fresh strawberries as you want, but also communicate with animals by feeding them, bake sticky rice waffles and ice creams, take a walk in the garden, play in the sand, etc. There are many programs that will provide novel fun.

It doesn’t end here. You can spend the night at a comfortable room that oversees the beautiful natural scenery and play in the pool with a garden view; use the fitness center the next morning; have a leisurely breakfast; and just enjoy the time here. Perfect, relaxing schedule after a day out in the cold.

So far, we’ve introduced eco-friendly life related contents as well as some activities that will allow you to experience ‘nature’ in person. Going on trips that doesn’t involve airplanes to reduce carbon footprint, consuming local food to reduce food mileage, and personally harvesting food are all connected to one thing; being considerate of the nature and the future generations. A small opportunity is all it takes to get the kids to take interest in being eco-friendly. How about trying out something small so your children can grow up with ‘nature’?