2018 Sustainability Goals – Why am I doing it?

My last year has been somewhat crazy with me moving location 2 times, but this year I am going to stay put in one place and sustainability is at the forefront of my personal agenda (as well as finally graduating). Because of this I decided to set myself some 2018 sustainability goals.

I calculated my ecological footprint right now, and came to 1.4 earths. My overall 2018 sustainability goal is to reach 1 (or even less, because that way I would make up for others having more than 1). Obviously, this calculator isn’t 100% correct, but it is a good guideline to see where you are at. As you can see in the second image, my three major parts are mobility, food and services so those are also areas I want to work on.

 

It can be hard to set goals for an entire year, so rather than making them super exact and stressing myself out because of it, I want to use them as a general guideline. The purpose of these 2018 sustainability goals is for them to underline my thinking throughout the year and guide the decisions I make. I roughly grouped the goals into food, transport and home.

If you do or did something similar, feel free to drop your link in the comments as I would love to see some other approaches towards sustainability goals. Now, without further ado, here are my 2018 sustainability goals:

 

 

Food

Food is a major contributor to our carbon footprint. Not just the packaging of our food but our diet itself has a huge impact on the planet. Because of that, (and because I am a major foodie) food will be one of my major focuses this year.

Stay vegetarian and further reduce animal products

Quite recently (about a month or so) I decided to go vegetarian as part of reducing my impact on the planet and because I simply don’t feel like I ‘need’ meat in my diet. I’ve never been much of a meat eater anyhow so this may come easier to me than to some others. But even just adding one or two vegetarian meals to your weekly dinners can already make a huge impact. For myself my goal for 2018 is to stay vegetarian and further reduce animal products.

Bring my own lunch (or at least bring my own container)

From February until June I will be studying at university to finish my degree, because of that I will be out of the house much more. One of my major goals for these first 6 months of 2018 is to bring my own lunches to university as much as possible.  This not only saves me a ton of cash, but it also allows me to reduce the amount of trash I produce in terms of eating out and gives me more control over what I eat.

Shop as many dry goods plastic free as possible (or make them myself)

I have been trying to adopt some principles from the zero waste movement, among other things, shopping plastic free. There are certain items (especially dairy products) that I simply cannot find  plastic free at this point in time. There is a zero waste supermarket in Copenhagen (Løsmarket) that is about 1 hour away from me. I have started to plan my pantry hauls trying to get as much as possible from them. One of my 2018 sustainability goals is to make even more of an effort to plan and get my dry goods plastic free. I also want to get better and simply saying no to things that come packaged in plastic or making them myself instead (I am talking to you ice cream).

Grow even more of my own food

Finally, I want to make a real effort this coming spring to expand my container garden. Last year I grew chili peppers, tomatoes, pickling cucumbers and of course herbs. It was my first year of indoor growing and it was…. interesting. Some plants did great, other not so much. I really want to work on this aspect next year and also talk about it on the blog a little (if you guys are interested?), because there are so many plants that can be grown in containers with fairly little space.

 

 

Transport

As I mentioned before transport ranked fairly high in my carbon footprint. I live outside of Copenhagen and have to commute into the city quite often. I don’t have a car, so I already take the train almost always (although sometimes I get a ride in my boyfriend’s car or motorcycle). That being said, I still want to try to reduce my transport footprint this coming year.

Get a bicycle

One of the things on my list is to get a bicycle. This lets me get around better once I am in the city and avoid having to take buses. It will not only save me money but is also good exercise.

 

 

Home

Finally, there are a number of goals I have that fall into the general home or household category. Of course there are a ton of things I would love to see happen around our apartment (like a major decluttering), but since I live together with my boyfriend, I have kept these goals more general or things that I can realize on my own without affecting him too much.

Switch to a renewable energy provider

One of my major goals for our home is to switch energy provider to one that sources from renewable energy. Right now, we get our energy from the company that is also responsible for burning the waste here in the Copenhagen area. I have, however found a few providers that source energy from renewable sources instead. As part of my 2018 sustainability goals I would like to switch to one of these providers.

Slow Fashion

I have already begun diving into this topic with my blog post about slow fashion and my capsule wardrobe experiment. For 2018 my goals is to keep maintaining a smaller wardrobe and to work on making it more functional. Right now, my wardrobe just isn’t very functional but a collection of clothing that doesn’t match each other or the climate here. So I want to slowly work on making my wardrobe more functional while still keeping it small and buying all my clothing second hand or from sustainable sources.

Finish my non-toxic bathroom

The bathroom is one of the first things I decided to tackle when I decided to go completely natural in what I put in and on my body. There are a few last chemical or commercial products that I want to use up and replace with natural ones such as my make-up, conditioner and toothpaste.

Phase out plastic, single-use items and teflon in the kitchen

Finally, I want to phase out plastic, single-use items and teflon in my kitchen as part of my 2018 sustainability goals. I have already begun this project, but want to go even deeper into it as I finish my bathroom. As items wear out or are used up I want to replace them with plastic-free, sustainable or homemade alternatives. On the forefront of the list are sponges, which I’m almost out of. If you have a good suggestion drop it in the comments. Next I am looking at cutting board (which are already very worn) and then I will continue from there. Another thing I want to phase out are teflon pots and pans which I want to replace with cast-iron, stainless steel or other healthier alternatives.

 

These are my 2018 sustainability goals. What are your goals for the coming year?

 

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