Being eco-friendly isn’t just about driving a hybrid car, buying sustainably grown foods or sorting your trash for recycling. It’s about really considering the consequences of your actions, even the ones that aren’t immediately apparent. Not all green products are as eco-friendly as you might think, and here are just a few examples.

Home

There’s a lot that you can do to make your home more environmentally friendly. Oklahoma City OK certified green home builders can tell you that it’s not as easy as it looks. A house with solar panels may reduce carbon emissions, but what if the timber framing was not sustainably sourced? Is it better to use a super efficient insulation that may create pollutants in its manufacture or a more eco-friendly insulation that doesn’t work as well and increases wasted energy on heat?

Car

There are similar concerns with cars. An eco-friendly car probably has more electronics and the production of electronics can create a lot of pollution and waste. But a car without those electronics uses more fossil fuels and puts more CO2 into the atmosphere.

Food

Even with food, sometimes it feels like you can’t win. There’s a lot of evidence that the meat industry contributes significantly to climate change, but a vegetarian diet may not be the solution. The farms that produce the bulk of vegetable produce consume water in areas ravaged by drought.

It can be frustrating to say the least, and some naysayers will use this as a reason to give up on eco-friendly products completely. That’s not at all the point. Having a green home or car and being environmentally conscious when you’re buying food absolutely will help save the environment. Every little bit helps. The point is that the methods available right now aren’t perfect, but they can be improved upon, if only we take the time to consider the ramifications of our choices.