These days, almost anyone would appreciate a little extra cash. While it’s important to make money and make ends meet, it’s also important to pause to think about how our habits are contributing to the well-being of the earth.
These days, many businesses are taking steps to go green. They have changed their packaging, distribution, and customer service. These changes reflect a general gravitation towards producing a smaller carbon footprint. Making sustainable choices don’t have to be hard and can come in ways that are practical, such as saving money while going green or starting a side hustle! Here are some eco friendly ideas to make money while going green!
Table of Contents
Passive Green Ways to Make Money
These days, many people are looking for ways to make passive income, which is investing in something that will make you money while you are busy doing other things. If you’re looking to make passive income while helping the planet, here are a few suggestions.
Selling Digital Products
Physical products often create mounds of waste to only fill our landfills and produce greenhouse gases in one way or another. One great way to use less physical products is to use digital products, and you can sell them as well!
Selling digital products, such as courses, guides, and art, is an easy way to make passive income while still being green. With every source of passive income, there is always an initial investment of time or money. Digital products will initially take you a bit of time to create but once they are online, you can sell them and create endless copies.
The best entrepreneurs sell digital products online using a few different websites. Sites such as Etsy, Shopify, and EasyDigitalDownloads.com are easy platforms to sell products online. Products that will always be in demand are logo design, wedding designs, funeral design, and wall art. These products are easy to make on platforms such as Canva.
Investing in Green Companies
If you’re looking to make money passively while supporting other green companies, consider investing in green companies! Investing in clean and green corporate stocks can make you feel good about your investments and add diversity to your long-term portfolio. As these stocks continue to grow, some may also produce short-term dividend income. As global warming becomes a more widespread concern, government policies will continue changing to favor green companies. This makes it the perfect time to begin your plight into green stocks. Companies that produce green energy, sustainable packaging, or net-zero technology, are the ones to look out for. Tesla, Nio, Canadian Solar, and Brookfield Renewables are among some top leaders in green investments.
These days, even companies that haven’t traditionally been positioned as green have net-zero goals for the near future. Amazon, for example, is a company that is currently heavily investing in green business solutions and aiming to reach net zero carbon emission by 2040. Look into investing into these companies as a way to feel good about where your money is going.
Selling Courses Online
Creating courses and selling them online is one great way to reduce physical waste. Sites such as Udemy, Teachable, and Thinkific, make it extremely easy to create and sell your courses. These platforms allow you to focus on content creation and do all the course creation, product management, and finances for you.
Selling online courses invites people to learn from the comfort of their own homes, which in turn will reduce carbon emissions from less traffic. Course materials will also be digital, which will create less waste. Feel good about creating a course and educating people while going green!
Applying for Green Tax Breaks
With new administration and government, more and more incentives to go green are being offered. This includes things like tax credits for home businesses, electric vehicles, and green energy. Tax credits change from country to country, state to state, and year to year so be sure to talk to your accountant to maximize how you can earn money while going green.
Active Eco-Friendly Ways to Make Money
On top of the passive ways to make income, there are other ways that you can actively make extra income and stay green. These are some simple strategies that anyone can use for some extra cash.
Selling Unused Clothing and Furniture
Selling unwanted items is eco-friendly on many fronts. Packaging is a major contributor to the tons of waste sent to landfills. When you sell items second-hand, you eliminate the need for more packaging while also reducing the necessity for more materials to be used to make new items.
Selling unwanted items through internet platforms has become easier and easier. The traditional sites such as Craigslist, Kijiji, and eBay are still going strong while new platforms such as OfferUp and Mercari have been added to make mobile selling even easier. Varage Sale, Facebook Marketplace, and Poshmark are a few more to get you started. These platforms are all extremely easy to use and are as easy as taking a picture, listing the item, and waiting for someone to respond.
Note: Learn how to make money selling used clothes with Poshmark here!
Start a Green, Environmentally Friendly Side Hustle
An eco-friendly side hustle can be anything that makes you extra money while reducing carbon output. Consider what you’re good at, and start from there. If nothing seems profitable right away, start with something simple. Junk removal, upcycling, bicycle delivery, sustainable party planning, or yard maintenance are all great zero waste business ideas. Depending on how much extra time you have, starting an eco-side hustle can be quite profitable. Often it can even turn into a full-time gig!
Grow Food and Sell It
If you have access to a yard or a garden, consider growing fruits and vegetables on your own! Once your garden produces enough fruits and vegetables, consider selling them as organic produce to others. Put up a sign near your house or list your produce on places such as Facebook Marketplace to sell your fruit. If you can’t get rid of most of your produce in time, making fruit jams, canned goods, and preserves can extend your selling window. Most fruit trees will take a few years to produce, so look to the future to plant your roots…literally!
Drive People On Your Way To Work
If you’re commuting to work anyway, why not turn on your Uber meter and pick someone up? Limit it to those who are traveling in the same direction. It may take you an extra 10 minutes to drop them off, but it will at least pay for your gas and part of your insurance. At the end of the month, depending on your commute time, you may have an extra $500 in your pocket for doing next to nothing. Driving people while commuting will reduce the carbon footprint of you and your passenger as you will be carpooling. You will also earn money while you’re doing it. Carpooling will also lessen the need for new roads and therefore the need for new cement, which will improve air quality in the long run.
So what do you think? What method will you incorporate to make money while going green? Which of these green ways to make money is your favorite? Comment below!
Eva Petruzziello is the Editor-in-Chief of Simple n’ Delight, a website about sustainable living. As an eco-schools teacher and business owner, she implements many of the side-hustle tips she discusses in this article. She avidly invests in green companies, shops second-hand, and sells unwanted household items online routinely. In her own household, she embraces steps towards a zero-waste lifestyle by composting, recycling, and adopting sustainable strategies to save money and keep our planet green.
