Sustainability Swaps I’m Making Each Month

I haven’t been the most environmentally conscious person and I want to finally hold myself more accountable and build community with others who want to do the same. Matt has helped/forced me over the last couple years to be less wasteful and recycle more, and sharing my journey here is the next step.

This all came to be thanks to my friend Maddy of Cassidy Lou who asked if I would be interested in participating in Sustainability Swaps 2020. We just met in October and I instantly connected with her and here she is already making my life more meaningful and less wasteful! Melanie of Bliss & Vigor is also participating this next year so be sure to check out their posts as we take on new challenges each month.

What is sustainability?

Maddie wrote a description of the project that I wanted to share starting with a definition of sustainability:

1.the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level.  “the sustainability of economic growth”

2. avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance. “the pursuit of global environmental sustainability”

Making Small Changes, Baby Steps

The goal is to make better choices daily and create more earth friendly habits since I’m a wasteful bitch. Small changes can make a big impact. For example, bringing a reusable coffee cup is a small, simple choice. Bringing a reusable coffee cup every day for a year is the culmination of that simple choice, and that is 365 (or 366 this year) single use cups saved. 

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with where to start and how to become a more sustainable human, which is why we decided to work with monthly challenges. The goal is to focus on that one challenge for an entire month, then slowly keep building throughout the year, until ideally we have switched out some negative habits for positive ones, and switched single use items for reusable ones.

Monthly Sustainability Challenges

The plan is to announce each challenge each month and then recap at the end of the month. We would love for you to join us, tag us on Instagram, and use the hashtag #sustainableswaps2020.

We would love to feature people who are joining us at the end of the month recaps, so definitely DM your experiences or photos of your swaps to any of us on Instagram.

The first month challenge is..

Ditch single use drinkware

We’re challenging you (and us!) to bring a reusable coffee cup with you if you’re taking coffee to go, a reusable water bottle if you’re out and about, or a shaker cup to the gym. 

This is a small step and something I’ve been doing more and more of and with this challenge, I’m hoping to remember my reusable water bottle every day at work and at the gym and use one of my many Yeti mugs for coffee! And skip straws altogether (I personally have no interest in glass or steel straws, I know I’ll lose them.)