The Sustainability Project (eBook)

INTRODUCTION:

A GIRL LIVING IN A THROWAWAY WORLD

I am a serial murderer. I have killed the environment one small step, one insignificant choice, one mylar-coated birthday balloon, at a time. I have been a plastic-using, environmentally ignorant, consumption machine. I have gone through countless shampoo bottles, Starbucks cups, and squeeze pouches of applesauce. I have tossed out straws, plastic bags, and toothbrushes. I have spent many unnecessary hours in the shower, walked blindly past litter, and driven miles out of the way to get my favorite queso.

I never would have predicted that I would write a book about saving the planet. But here we are.

My journey began two years ago. I was reading How to Give Up Plastic: A Conscious Guide to Changing the World, One Plastic Bottle at a Time by Will McCallum, a book I had checked out of the library on a whim. In the book, there is a story about a picture that had gone viral. I’d never seen the picture, but the book’s description of rescue workers pulling a plastic straw painfully out of the nose of an innocent sea turtle turned my world upside down.

This was happening in the world? It had to stop!

Of course, on some level, I had known that this kind of harm was happening in the world around me. I knew that plastic floated in the oceans and that landfills were growing larger every day. Up until that moment, however, I hadn’t made it a personal mission. I had always believed that other people would make the changes. My mistake.

And now here I am, trying to change that.

Shortly after finishing How to Give Up Plastic, I decided that my “word” for the following year, my focus and goal, would be “sustainability.” I wanted to figure out how to ensure that my habits, purchases, and lifestyle were in line with living on the earth sustainably. Instead of focusing solely on environmental concerns or ethical ones, I settled on “sustainability” because it is very future-focused. The choices we make today and continue to make tomorrow will produce benefits for us all.

And so, on January 1st, I embarked on the goal of learning more, being gentler on the earth by reducing my waste, and reducing my support of destructive industries. It was a year-long path, one I want to help you to traverse, too. I hope this book will help guide your journey and save you from some of the pitfalls and potholes that I stumbled into along the way.

I am far from perfect even now as I write this book. But the more people I talk to, the more I have realized that most people know that they need to make different choices — they know that many of the choices they are currently making are damaging the earth. But many people have no idea where to start. I understand that. I didn’t either.

As I began to live out my sustainability project, there were times I felt paralyzed by indecision and overwhelmed by statistics and information. But I was convinced even more that this book had to be written.

My writing style was influenced by two other books in this genre. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and The Wellness Project by Phoebe Lapine both inspired readers with the idea that we can pursue lofty life changes through measured steps of marginal improvement. Changing your life, without changing your life.

These books, and my sustainability project, are “projects” designed to be undertaken during a calendar year. As a New Year’s Resolution coach, I know how much change can be made between January 1st and December 31st, so it is no surprise that my project would follow the same pattern. I also understand the power of living in alignment with our personal values. As I planned my own sustainability project, I knew that the coming year would be the perfect way to transform my life while also demonstrating that transformational power to my community and my clients.

And while the main focus of this book is environmental sustainability, that topic touches on other major social issues — world hunger, animal activism, racism, classism, and countless others. This is a beautiful reminder that our actions in this one area can spill over into so many others and vice versa. For example, environmental issues don’t affect everyone proportionally.

Statistics show that the wealthiest 10% of the population is responsible for 50% of global emissions. The wealthiest 20% contribute 70% — like the Pareto principle, but not in a good way.

People of color in the US are three times more likely to die from pollution-related diseases, ranging from lung cancer to heart disease to stroke, and they are 1.5 times more likely to be exposed to pollutants in general. They are 79% more likely to live in neighborhoods with toxic industrial pollution and are exposed to 38% higher levels of nitrogen dioxide, which inflames the lungs and can lead to an increased risk of respiratory problems.

These issues don’t have easy answers or easy solutions but the statistics do not relieve us of our individual responsibility to the environment we share. We must all work to be informed and take actions that will better care for our planet and our neighbors. Both are infinitely important and being able to make a difference that impacts both is extraordinary.

Government and big businesses play a massive role in sustainability, or rather the lack thereof, in the world today. When both refuse to take the necessary steps towards sustainability, that action, or some part of it, falls to the consumers. Whether they don’t listen to us or whether we aren’t speaking loudly enough (with our words or our wallets) is a different question, and one I don’t intend to delve into in this book. Research indicates that 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions. But that doesn’t mean our actions as individuals aren’t important. I urge you to fight for legislation that supports sustainable practices, reach out to brands you love (or brands you hate) to revolutionize their practices and increase transparency and sustainability, fight with your words, dollars, and actions. We definitely have a role to play in ensuring that sustainability advances are made on these levels.

In this book, I focus on what we, as consumers and individuals, can do to affect sustainable change — in our habits, practices, and purchases. I’m not discounting the importance of institutional change, and there have been other great books written on that topic, but the actions I wanted to focus on in my sustainability project were my own.

I want to encourage you to make changes in your life. But the effects of these changes will stretch far beyond yourself, into the lives of others, and to the world as a whole. As a wise person once said, we aren’t inheriting this world from our forebears, we are borrowing it from our grandchildren.

There is no wrong way to build a sustainable life — except to ignore that you probably need to do it. It is comfortable to think that our actions make little difference. But that is simply not true. And through this book, I hope to inspire you to pursue important, if small, actions.

I share a lot about how our lifestyle, actions, and purchases can impact the planet. But it’s not just a long list of items you need to buy, or things to check off, to live a “sustainable” life.

You can still live a sustainable life and use plastic straws sometimes. You can live a sustainable life and eat meat every day. You can live a sustainable life and drive a Suburban — growing up with four siblings, I know some people need to.

When plastic was invented only a few decades ago, it was considered a marvel. But as the decades passed, people began to see the impact it has and will have on the environment in the future.

I want to give you a direction and a starting point. My suggestions will not be perfect. I hope that you will join me in doing what we can, with what we have, with what we know in this current time.

Some people will disagree with me, and that’s okay. If they are living a 100% environmentally conscious and sustainable life, I am happy for them and support them in their efforts, 100%. But I think that you can be sustainable, and still dry your clothes in your dryer, and not on a clothesline. Just like you can be healthy and still eat cake. But it is important to understand that you can’t likely eat cake, cookies, chicken alfredo, soda, onion rings, chocolate bars, donuts, and fried chicken and still be the healthiest version of yourself — unless you indulge in extreme moderation.

My goal is to help increase your awareness of the choices you make as you progress in your sustainability journey and not to let having a big car, a big family, or a big pile of laundry make you believe that you can’t make a big impact.

As I began my journey towards living a more sustainable life, I read numerous articles about the things we do because we think we are helping the earth but actually may not be, or at least not as much as we think. These articles, while well-intentioned, often do much more harm than good. I hope to bring clarity to some of these ideas.

Be aware that you may meet opposition from unexpected places. While you are enjoying the “high” from making incremental changes to improve the environment, you may meet others who will try to convince you that you’re doing it wrong. This phenomenon is called “whataboutism.” You share about your progress, and someone will say “well, what about…” This often arises with conversations about fast fashion, what milk to drink, reusable grocery bags, and other topics....