As an ocean lover, and someone who is sensitive to the health of the planet and its inhabitants, are you always on the lookout for new trends to follow? If so, you’re in luck because Surfrider has complied a selection a currently trending activities and ideas in accordance with your environmental values!

An eco-friendly jog

What if when you ran, you ran to preserve both your own health and that of the planet? This is the new trend! « Plogging » is a trend that originated in Sweden encouraging runners to pick up trash that we see along our running route. In essence, it kills two birds with one stone, maintaining the body and the environment! The word « plogging » is a combination of the words jogging and pick up, the verb ‘plocka upp’ in Swedish. The idea is simple: too much rubbish has settled in parks, streets, paths, beaches and it is urgent that we act on a daily basis. Remember, waste thrown on the ground eventually ends up in the sea.

So to become a true plogger, just add a large garbage bag and a pair of gloves to your jogging equiptment! To take it a step further, join an organized rally to act to educate the public !

Web: emojis for the planet

Six billion emojis are traded daily in the world. They are used to talk about mood, envy, football, animals … everything except global warming.

Three New York based artists, Marina Zurkow, Viniyata Pany and Richard Lapham, recognized this oversight and have developed the ‘Climoji’ (contraction between “Climate Change” and Emoji) to raise awareness about global warming. They have proposed 27 new emoticons illustrating the rise in temperature, sea level, and natural disasters like hurricanes, and fires. The Climojis were born from the artists’ question, «Why do some of our main communication tools avoid this problem? » Indeed,

there was no pollution emoji in our favorites! They intend to convince Facebook to adopt them, as well as the Unicode Consortium, which manages the integration of new emojis in our devices and applications. If you can’t wait, they are already downloadable here.

Renting is the new buying

Going antiquing, hanging out at a flea market, buying second hand … all of these are already trending. Today, our mode of consumption could very well be altered by replacing purchasing with renting. To meet the growing mobility of the population and to assert itself as a committed company, the home furnishing giant will soon offer rentals on furniture rather than buying it. Jesper Brodin explains that needs vary from one city to another ; many people are just passing through, others want to start a family, etc. Renting furniture rather than buying also helps to clearly reduce its ecological impact. More than a trend, it’s about revolutionizing our consumption patterns to make them more sustainable.

The three trends discussed above help you while helping the planet. Physical health, social awareness and consumption behaviors are major factors that impact quality of life for all living beings and on a daily basis, a multitude of small, easy and fashionable gestures can further protect our oceans and the environment. Which one is right for you ?