Reflections On My Sustainability Series

Hello:) 

If you’ve been following my posts for the last few months you know that I’ve been focusing on a sustainability series, where I chronicle many of the changes I’m making in my life to lower my ecological footprint. The inspiration came from a book called “Things You Can Do – How To Fight Climate Change and Reduce Waste”. As we near the end of my writing season, I want to close out this series with some final thoughts.

Since the beginning of this series I have made many small changes, but more importantly I’ve really reshaped my thoughts on convenience and consumer culture. This series has urged me to think deeply about the society I live in and question a lot of the values that’ve been instilled in me. It has also made me question “good” and “bad”; “better” and “worse”. This post will be a reflection of these thoughts, and a summary of this series. 

Of all of the changes that I made, there are three that I see as being the most significant. The first is that I have made a big effort to buy local and in-season food products. The second is my effort to buy items secondhand, rather than brand new. And the third is my reduction of single use items, which I’ve been able to do by shopping bulk with reused containers. Which brings me to the first thing I’ve noticed/want to write about today. All of these things are very much less convenient than their alternatives. 

Convenience is something that we’ve become so accustomed to in our busy lives. The companies that are the most “successful” are the ones that can remove as much friction as possible. Amazon is one that likely comes to mind for most people. A sentiment I often hear (and express) is “Ugh I really don’t want to shop on Amazon but it’s just so easy”. One of the main issues with creating a more environmentally sustainable life is that the current status quo of convenience is just NOT geared towards this shift. 

One thing the status quo is geared towards is buying stuff. Ever since the start of this series I’ve been extremely conscious of every single thing that I buy. Shopping second hand not only aided in waste reduction, but it provided just enough friction for me to really think about whether or not I truly needed what I was buying. Beyond my own buying habits, I’ve also found that I now notice when other people buy things. “You really are just going to buy that without more than 10 seconds of thought???” I think to myself. Which brings me to another aspect of this whole thing that I’ve been thinking about. 

It becomes easy to feel very up on your high horse when you’re doing something you deem “good”, and this is something that’s super prevalent in the world of environmentally conscious lifestyles. There’s a feeling that “I’m better than you because…x”. And here I think it’s really important to remember a couple of things. First of all, as I’ve already expressed, the more “eco-friendly” choices are often the ones that are less convenient or more expensive. Meaning they are really not very accessible. People are really just trying to live their lives and do the best they can and often these options (such as shopping locally and in season) are simply out of reach. It’s a privilege to have the time, resources and bandwidth to make these choices. 

And there’s more. All of this stuff is SO nuanced and the idea of there being “good” and “bad” choices can get so muddled within the topic of environmental footprints. Take the topic of renewable energy vs fossil fuels. I’ve become so conflicted about this recently because I’ve always thought of solar power as “better” than gas power. But in reality, I don’t know very much about what goes into constructing a solar panel or a battery, and therefore it’s really much more complicated than just asking what’s better. 

Lastly I’ve been thinking a lot about the fact that I’m having this conversation on such an individual level. Obviously the whole point of this sustainability series was that I was making small changes in my life, but I do think I should address the fact that climate change is something that is so far out of our individual hands. A study that is cited in every article I read found that 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from only 100 companies. And while that can leave me feeling very hopeless, I try to remind myself that everything is interconnected. We can have a small part of the fight with where we spend our dollars and who we vote for.

This feels very much like a both/and moment. We can both fight for big change with governments and corporations, AND we can strive to make choices on an individual basis that do better by our earth. With both of these, we will be constantly learning and adjusting and pivoting. Thanks for reading.