If you want to respond to climate change, we need to change some of our personal habits. And change can be overwhelming at times. So one of the ways to make change more approachable is if you start out by making a few small adjustments as a family: try a few new recipes, experiment with new ways to recycle water or maybe just find new ways to increase the number of steps you take in a day. Each of these are actions you can take that don’t require any budget or lifestyle overhauls… but they all move us closer to a carbon neutral lifestyle
That’s why we love the Seven Days of Sustainability! You can start by integrating new behaviors just one day at a time. Try doing these things just one day a week and see how it goes.
Meatless Monday
If the entire U.S. skipped meat and cheese just one day a week, it would be the equivalent of taking 7.6 million cars off the road. Start out by having just one meat-free day a week. Try some vegan recipes and start seeing if you can introduce them to the rest of your week in the future.
Transit Tuesday
A single person who switches to public transportation from a private vehicle can reduce his or her annual CO2 emissions by 4,800 pounds per year. So find new ways to commute via public transportation.
Walking Wednesday
If everyone in the U.S. stopped driving for one day, we would prevent approximately 3.5 million metric tons of CO2 emissions. Not to mention the number of calories you burn and all the other health benefits that come along with walking.
Thrifty Thursday
If every person in New York City used just one less grocery bag, it would cut waste by 5 million pounds and save $250,000 in disposal costs. Find one thing that you were going to toss (a plastic bag, an old pair of jeans) and find a way to recycle it instead.
Fix-It Friday
People forget that “reduce, reuse, recycle” is a hierarchy. Reduce your consumption and then re-use what you can. Reusing materials and recycling materials can have a huge impact. If everyone recycled just ONE can, it would reduce green house gas emissions equivalent to taking 6,750 passenger cars off the road. This is a great chance to get to some of those projects you’ve been meaning to work on.
Showerless Saturday
If everyone in the US, just took one less hot shower per week, it would save over 285 billion gallons of water. I mean – some of the kids in my life already love showerless Saturday!
Set-Up Sunday
Find new ways to make efficiency improvements to your home over time. If every American home switched their five most-used light fittings to energy-saving LED bulbs, they would reduce greenhouse gases by nearly half a million tons. There are tons of ways to make your home more efficient. Make every Sunday a chance to find ONE new opportunity.
All of these might seem small, but if you can start making these choices in small ways every day and you can also help others to make better choices… they’re going to add up to some big impacts. And that’s how the seven days of sustainability can be a resource for your family every day.