Sustainable Date Night Activities For The Eco-Conscious Couple
It’s all about the love. Valentine’s Day is a time to show those you care about how much you love them. It’s a fun reminder to express your feelings for anyone you appreciate in your life, not just reserved for couples. Let this day of love spread to your family, your co-workers, friends, and anyone else you are grateful for.
Now, how to express that love without being detrimental to our planet? Traditional Valentine’s Day gifts and expressions are extremely negative in terms of environmental awareness and impact on the earth’s ecosystem.
- Millions of cards glazed with glitter and laminated with plastic added to landfills.
- Bouquets of flowers that have damaged our air, soil, and water with agrochemicals used to grow them at a large scale.
- Disposable decorations (so many made of plastic) that also end up in the trash.
If you truly love the planet as much as your honey-bunny, show those feelings in a different way this year with eco-friendly Valentine’s Day activities and adventures.
Top 10 Green Valentine’s Adventure Tips
Cooking & Food Love
One of the true languages of love: food! The old saying of “a way to your loved one’s heart is through the stomach” still holds true. Who isn’t touched by a thoughtful and delicious home-cooked meal or a hand crafted sweet treat for a specialized diet (think Keto, Paleo, dairy-free, gluten-free). A green adventure you can enjoy together would be taking an organic or vegetarian cooking class. The less meat we eat the most we can make a difference in carbon emissions and rain forest destruction. By showing the planet some love while you’re eating a clean and organic meal is a great way to offset carbon emissions in your daily life.
Farm to Table Dining
If you have the opportunity to attend a true farm to table dinner in your town this is one romantic adventure you two will truly enjoy. Those who throw these events are steeped in eco-conscious food growth, production, transportation, and preparation so your adventure will be an eco-friendly one no doubt.
- If you’re leery about socializing, an at home farm to table meal works as well.
- Prepare a home cooked, organic dinner for two made from scratch.
- Help the planet by shopping for local produce, supporting organic and farm fresh instead of chain stores, hand pick ingredients, and fill that kitchen with irresistible aromas.
Farmers’ Market Exploration
Planning an afternoon to visit a local farmers’ market is a wonderful exploration of your local communities food, arts, and homemade products availability and creativity.
- Farmer’s markets have something for everyone on your love list.
- Plan to take public transportation to add to the eco-conscious aspect of the day as well.
- Bonus: offset your carbon footprint at the same time by eating there as well.
Green Retreat
The offerings for eco-friendly spas, retreats, and pampering services are abundant these days so finding one in your area should be a breeze. This kind of adventure is a lovely way to treat your loved one to some special care.
- Plan a trip to a natural or organic spa.
- Sign up for a weekend yoga retreat as the ideal way to de-stress and spend some quality time together.
Outdoor Activities
One of the most eco-friendly adventures are eco-conscious activities that you can do together outdoors in nature. The options are numerous so get creative and pick something fun, challenging, or new that you and your partner will have a good time making new memories at.
- Biking tours.
- Hiking forests, redwoods, mountain trials, bird watching sites.
- Explore new state parks.
- Plan a camping trip with eco-friendly gear and include some romantic outdoor activities like stargazing and canoeing.
- A trip to some local natural hot springs which are dotted all over the California countryside.
Pet Lovin’ & Affection
If your loved one feels a special affinity for animals there are several ways to enjoy a Valentine eco-activity together while supporting four-legged creatures.
- Taking an adventure to a rescue sanctuary where you can become educated about the animals being sheltered, support them with a donation, and get to meet them in person.
- Head to your local rescue shelter for cats and dogs and volunteer to take the pets for a walk, have play-time with the kittens, or assist in the shelter’s upkeep.
- Foster an animal who needs some loving care before they are ready to be adopted into their forever home.
- If both parties are on board, adopt a rescue pet together (big romantic pull on the heartstrings!). Bringing a shelter animal into your home takes another stray off the street plus they are a wonderful addition to your life.
Trees & Plants: Growing Together
If your special someone is a nature lover, taking an adventure together to reforest an area or join in a reforestation project can be a really fun and rewarding activity to enjoy together.
- Another green adventure to do involving trees would be to go select some food producing trees (fruits or nuts) together and plant them on your property. You can nurture and watch them grow together over the years.
- The same goes for gardens and plants. Adventure forth and find organic seeds or seedlings and start your own green garden or addition of climate tolerant plants to your yard.
Vegan Adventures
Trying a new way of dining can be a true adventure for some. If your partner has been hesitant to try vegan dishes, venture forth and give it a go.
- Vegan restaurants actively minimize methane emissions that would be caused by meat centered meals.
- They reduce natural land and resource exploitation, decreasing food production for livestock (close to 36% of food production supports farm animals’ diets).
- Consuming plant-based diets lowers the demand for livestock production, decreasing land waste.
- Eating vegan meals also increases your health by lowering the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Volunteer Together
Find opportunities to volunteer together choosing an activity that you and your loved one feel passionate about.
- Maybe you are extreme nature lovers, thus cleaning up hiking trails, removing invasive species of plants, or spearheading a beach cleanup will push your happy buttons.
- There are a host of environmental activities you can do in your own community to make a positive difference in the environment.
- Here’s a listing of Bay Area groups to join if you are interested in helping the environment.
Zero-Waste Picnic
Zero-waste means conservation of as many materials as possible. Planning the perfect romantic picnic for your sweetie is a fun adventure to partake in any time of year. Taking the extra thought and planning to make it a zero-waste event shows your extra special attention to practicing an eco-conscious lifestyle.
- Bring reusable containers.
- Save any food scraps to compost after the date (stops landfill pollution).
- Plan all organic meals choices or support local businesses during your sustainable date by ordering snacks to-go from nearby restaurants.
- Complete the date with a bottle of local, organic wine and a decadent organic dessert.
- You can choose the perfect picnic location by visiting protected parks in your area. Choosing a natural space close to your home decreases related transportation emissions, preserving the atmosphere.
BONUS: Zip Lining
Talk about an exciting adventure! Zip lining is absolutely one thrilling and green adventure to enjoy as a Valentine’s Day treat.
- Zip lining is defined as an ecotourism activity. Ecotourism is “tourism directed toward exotic, often threatened, natural environments, especially to support conservation efforts and observe wildlife,” according to dictionary.com.
- One of the many goals of ecotourism is to increase awareness and respect for the local culture and environment.
- Ecotourism also contributes to the preservation and betterment of local populations around the world.
- Zipline courses offer guests a birds-eye view of the beauty of nature, without disturbing the natural environment.
- Zip lining has a low environmental impact compared to many other activities.
And if you’re looking for presents, here’s a guide to last minute eco-friendly gifts.
Happy love day!
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