#5x5Challenge: How can I make a difference to the environment I live in?

Over the past few years, the importance of the environment surrounding us has quickly shot up our list of priorities and concerns. Yet, more often than not, we tend to expect that the drivers of change should be government organisations, authorities and businesses, oblivious to the fact that the population’s collective drive may have a much wider impact on the community we live in.

Indeed, the best promotors of a green, sustainable lifestyle can be each and everyone of us. With some planning and a few innovative ideas, truly embracing sustainability and making real differences for planet and people is easier than one might think. Refusing one plastic bag on our shopping errand, choosing a healthy snack over a pre-packaged product or going to our fitness class on foot rather than by car might sound trivial in the grand scheme of things – yet, the benefits, if such changes were embraced by the majority of our community, are unlimited.

This is were the #5x5Challenge comes in: supporting you in identifying some easy steps that will allow you to reach a realistic balance between sustainability and the needs of a hectic lifestyle. Our life has changed in more ways than one in the new normality of COVID-19: the present realities arguable give us the perfect platform to instil some basic changes in our lifestyle but which together can have a significant impact on planet Earth.

The #5x5hChallenge gets its name that together we can make five key changes (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rethink) in five particular areas of our everyday lives – travel, food, consumption, household and social life. Throughout this campaign, simple and easy to follow tips on how to implement these changes which may not mean much to an individual but collectively will have a big impact on our environment, will be provided on a regular basis through various channels.

While all this may sound hard at first, we will soon realise the benefits of lightening the load on our planet, as we seek to give our future generations a better place. This initiative will prove that making these changes is fun, easy and rewarding.

You may be surprised by the fact that what you buy is not always needed or actually used. Cash savings are always welcome, so this is surely a win-win challenge!

Debono Group, a leading driver of change in the field of mobility, will be supporting this campaign through fantastic prizes to be won over the next couple of months thanks to its companies, namely Toyota, Cool, GoTo and WotoMoto.

For more information on the 5x5 Challenge, follow the Facebook page @5x5challengemalta and Instagram (5x5_challenge)