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One of my most faithful readers pointed out that she frequently feels guilty when she reads some of my blog’s sustainability suggestions that will not work for her. That is sooooo not the intent of this blog. This blog is a menu of suggestions that you can follow if you want to. Please, no guilt! The title of my blog is 3% sustainability. What this means is that if a large number of people reduce their impact on the earth by 3 % (or hopefully more), all those little things will add up and begin to make a difference. Changing by 3% will not solve the environmental problems facing the earth right now, but each small thing we do can be the seed for other beneficial changes. None of us can make all of the changes suggested by this blog, but most of us can reduce our impact on the earth by 3% without making huge changes in our lives. I do not implement every suggestion in this blog. I implement those that work for me and continue to look for other changes I can make. Mobility, geography, medical issues, personality, living situation, and similar factors will affect which ideas work for each of us. Rural locations do not have public transportation. A person in a wheelchair cannot use the stairs instead of an elevator. Few people are able or willing to be fully vegan, but you can incorporate one or two plant-based meals into your weekly menu. If an idea does not appeal to you, you are unlikely to make that change, so pick ideas that do appeal to you. Evaluate if some of your daily actions can be modified to be slightly more sustainable. And give yourself credit for the changes you have already made. To help remind readers that this blog is meant for sharing suggestions for small changes, my posts will now end with “baby steps toward 3% sustainability”.
“Baby steps toward 3% sustainability”
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In a recent post, I linked to a video of a TED talk that includes discussion about how climate action can be “contagious”. In the video, the speaker says that once a few people in a neighborhood install rooftop solar on their homes, many other homeowners quickly follow. This illustrates the power of providing a GENTLE example of sustainability actions you’d like to promote. When dealing with individuals in your life, strident demands may cause these individuals to dig in harder against the action you want to promote. Quietly but visibly performing these actions is more likely to interest people in trying the sustainability activity. If you do this often, in many different settings, you may start a trend that spreads beyond your individual influence. I have been trying to start the trend of taking a reusable container to restaurants for my leftovers instead of using the disposable container provided by the restaurant. So far, most people who see my container like the idea, but then don’t remember to bring a container. I remain hopeful, though, that eventually I will start a trend. Maybe some of you will decide to help start this trend. Pick an action you want to encourage and see if you can start a trend.
A few weeks ago, I was going through the back of my clothes closet looking for clothing to donate. I found two items that I’d forgotten I had that were very nice and very similar to items of clothing that I intended to shop for. This led to three sustainability thoughts.
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