2019 is a new year and a good time to reflect on the past year as well as to look forward to new possibilities. For 2019, we encourage everyone to make sustainability one of their resolutions for the coming year by shifting their focus from recycling and prioritizing reducing and reusing. Shifting the focus from recycling to a sustainable lifestyle will lead to success in other areas of your life such as saving money, developing or practicing a hobby, and leading a healthier lifestyle. Leading a sustainable lifestyle does not happen overnight, but with continuous conscious effort, it will feel more achievable.
A common resolution every year for many Americans is to prioritize health and wellness. By building awareness and keeping the environment in mind, it will inadvertently lead to a healthier lifestyle. The decision to opt for more sustainable food choices will manifest itself in the conscious decisions you make to buy unpackaged foods, cook more carbon neutral recipes, and to use alternate transportation. All this will build towards maintaining your health and achieving your resolution. Cooking more carbon neutral meals such as vegetarian or vegan dishes will reduce the amount of emissions produced by the meat industry. By making sustainable decisions about the food we buy and limiting ourselves as much as possible to unpackaged, bulk, wholesome food, it will automatically have an impact on our health as well because the majority of food that are available in bulk and unpackaged are grains, pastas, and whole produce.
Practicing sustainability will also help you achieve another common resolution amongst Americans; saving money. Once the holidays are over and we ease back into our everyday routines, Americans make it a common resolution to strive to become more financially conscious. With practicing sustainability, you will develop a “saying no” attitude to the things that impact you fiscally and the environment negatively such as opting out of unnecessary purchases like takeout in single-use containers and single-use coffee cup indulgences. Investing in reusable items and developing the skills to determine between impulse purchases and necessities will lead to an obvious change in the way you spend money, and through this, will find a healthy balance that impacts both you and the environment positively.
If one of your goals for 2019 is to develop a new hobby, keeping sustainability and the environment in mind will help you achieve this. With maintaining your goal of becoming more sustainable, you will opt out of buying packaged product and opt to learn how to make your own beauty products, food produce, ect, instead of buying the packaged alternative. You will learn to develop your creativity and skills needed to achieve this as necessary such as cooking and gardening. The possibilities are endless and totally up to you. Sustainability creates many opportunities for one to become creative. Factoring in sustainability will lead you to develop a higher sense of consciousness in your everyday life and will lead you to become more thoughtful towards yourself and the environment, impacting the rest of your life. Aiming towards sustainability in all aspects of your life is a win-win for your personal goals and the environment.