Picture this – a world where each one of us plays a part in creating a sustainable future. And it all begins with the first step. Today, I want to provide you with a sustainability starter pack, a guide to help you kickstart your sustainability journey. Here are three things you can get started with today to make this a reality:
- Find sustainability inspiration online
While I grew up in a relatively sustainable family, I felt quite alone when my passion for the environment started blooming. Many people in my life didn’t share the same interests that I did. Some even took it personally when I started speaking out against unethical and environmentally-damaging industries like fast fashion. I didn’t know anyone who worked in the space, I couldn’t ask anyone how they compost in our local area (because no one I knew did) and I didn’t have anyone to chat about microplastics with.
So I decided to build that community, which started with my Instagram. I’m @Sustainable_Sarahb if you’d like to connect, please send me a message and say hello because I’m always happy to talk sustainability! I followed lots of like-minded accounts, organised some online meet-ups with people I connected with and started learning from other’s experiences. Without this, there’s no way I would’ve started working in sustainability or had the motivation to create the impact I have. Never underestimate the power of community in helping build motivation and teaching you new things.
- Protect your mental peace and take it slow
The problem with opening your consciousness to sustainability and caring for the planet is that you quickly realise how almost everything around you is unsustainable and causes environmental damage. My personality is to go down the rabbit hole when I find something new I’m interested in. I’ll binge YouTube videos, listen to hours of podcasts and Google anything and everything on the topic. When I first started to do this for environmentalism, I developed crippling climate and eco-anxiety. A trip to the supermarket would make me overwhelmed, knowing that the shelves of single-use plastic would end up in landfills and that the fridges full of red meat would cause heavy environmental destruction to produce.
This turned into overthinking spirals where if a friend would ask me to get a coffee, I’d stress out if I didn’t have my keep cup. I’d plan to buy another one but then I’d think about every step of the process of making that stainless steel keep cup - from mining the metal to the coal power needed to melt it down in China, then to the oil needed to ship it to Australia for to buy before it will inevitably end up landfill when it breaks (which will probably be pretty soon because few things are made to last these days). I felt paralysed by every decision I had to make, knowing that it was likely harming the planet in some way. It took away a lot of my happiness and I desperately wanted to unlearn all of the sustainability information I’d discovered because being conscious was just too difficult - especially considering how limited the average person’s decisions are within our unsustainable system.
This is why I always implore people to start slowly. Make little changes and don’t spiral into feeling like Atlas with the world on your shoulders. It’s not your fault the system is like this and it's not your responsibility to be plagued with thinking about every impact of everything you do. Give yourself permission to not always make the sustainable choice if it's not available to you. I now try to approach sustainable living the same way I approach healthy eating and 90% of the time I’m doing what I know to be best and 10% of the time I’m indulging, recalibrating and not stressing.
- Find your sustainable why
Finding my purpose in sustainability has given me such an immense amount of happiness and fulfilment. Many people who care about the environment realise humans have a spiritual connection to the earth. Indigenous cultures are some of the only surviving populations that have managed to live as one with nature, often through religious or cultural connections. These are also some of the only populations in history that haven’t faced human-induced environmental degradation the same way the Western world has. This wisdom has led me to work on nurturing my connections with Mother Nature.
This might be sounding a little bit woo-woo for some. And as someone who works in science and is studying a science-based degree, I’m happy to report there’s a lot of evidence showing the benefits of connecting with nature. Research shows things like spending time in nature, walking barefoot on the ground (also called grounding) and eating lots of plants is wonderfully beneficial for the human body. Developing practices like these and consciously connecting to the earth will not only help motivate your sustainability journey, but it feels amazing!
Your sustainable why might be that you want to see a better environmental future for your children or younger family members. It might be that it feels good to connect with a cause outside of yourself and give back, especially to something so tangible like the environment. It could even be that you’re trying to find actionable ways to quell your climate and environmental anxiety. Take a moment to think about why you care about sustainability and hold onto that when things get tough.
