7 Rules for Sustainable Living

Celebrate Earth Day every day

Earth Day is Tuesday, April 22nd, hide your credit cards. Started in 1970 to raise awareness and inspire action for environmental issues, this is a day “celebrated by millions” and ignored completely by billions. Search “earth day criticisms” and you’ll get page after page of people complaining that “Earth Day ain’t what it used to be.” The problem? Only taking one day to mitigate the damage we’re doing the rest of the year is just a drop in the ocean. The rising, warming, overfished, plastic-filled, reef-bleached ocean. A problem this large feels overwhelming and no single person is going to solve it. Which might have you ask yourself, “does my behavior matter at all?”

It's only a drop in the ocean - but the ocean wouldn't be the same without that drop.

-Mother Teresa

Of course your behavior matters. This Earth Day, you can commit to try to live more sustainably, to clean up your drop, so to speak, and I’ll show you how. Why start now, you might wonder? Here’s a depressing stat for you:

Global warming is projected to commit over one-third of the Earth’s animal and plant species to extinction by 2050 if current greenhouse gas emissions trajectories continue.¹

If you think the planet is better with Tigers, Rhinos, Elephants, Polar Bears and literally millions of less cute but still important species, NOW is the time to act.

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If you’ve been reading my posts for more than 5 seconds, you’ll know I love a good list. The only thing I love more than a good list is a goal tied to a list. The goal, you may want to adopt as stated in my post on Personal Goals Worth Stealing is: Live more sustainably. Put together plan for reducing my household’s carbon footprint².

This was the challenge I made for myself several years ago and continue challenging myself to this day. Even though I’ve worked in solar for over 15 years which means I can tell myself I’m devoting all my work hours to helping the planet which is better than most, right? Right?? And yet, big exhale, and yet, despite my work life and personal values being aligned, I wrestle with my own hypocrisy. I say I love the planet but just like so many people that don’t give a crap about the environment, I am driving around town burning up gasoline and polluting our planet. The difference? I have environmental guilt, they don’t!! Feeling guilty didn’t solve the problem but it did help drive me (see what I did there?) to create an important question: “What else can I personally do to make a less negative or, if possible, a positive environmental impact on our planet?” This exercise birthed one thing that won’t be extinct by 2050; a List of Rules for Sustainable Living.

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7 Rules for Sustainable Living

Rule 1: Reduce Consumption

• Borrow what you can

• Buy used when possible

• Buy only what you need

Rule 2: Eat More Sustainably. Grow own food if possible.

Veges. Fruits. Grains. Packaged Items. Chicken. Ham. Fish. Meat

«——————Lower Impact on left—————Higher Impact on right——————»

Rule 3: Vote with your dollars. If you don’t want to outsource American jobs to China, buy American! If you don’t think clothes should only last one season, don’t shop at H&M.

Local Is Better: If you need to buy, buy things made as close to home as possible. Buy high-quality long-lasting items. Buy from companies that are committed to good practices (ie Patagonia, Allbirds, etc.)

Keep $ in community and minimize transportation by trying to buy in this order:

1. Made in your community

2. Made in your state

3. Made in your country

4. Made in a country that has good environmental controls

Packaging matters. Less packaging and more easily recyclable packaging is better. For liquids: Cans over bottles. Bottles over plastic (unless you’re on an island, then all the waste needs to be shipped off and plastic is maybe better than bottles). My wife refuses to buy vegetables wrapped in plastic.

Rule 4: Conserve. Don’t use resources unnecessarily and minimize waste

• Avoid single use items like silverware, bags, napkins, coffee cups and bottles of water.

• Carry a multi-utensil tool or at least a spork as well as a coffee mug, bandana (use as napkin), and especially a water bottle. Keep reusable grocery bags in car.

• Used over new

• Drought tolerant plants / landscaping

• Be mindful of water use

• Recycle

• Compost

Rule 5: Decarbonize & Energy Efficiency. Shift to less polluting energy sources and don’t waste them

• Electric over gas in home and vehicles

• Solar power at home

• LED lights, not incandescent and don’t waste electricity

• Insulate house; attic and walls

• Seal ducts, windows, doors, clean fridge coils, AC coils

Rule 6: Transportation. Less flights, more bikes. Use the minimal polluting source of transportation when possible and live close to where you work.

• Walk

• Ride bike (or ebike) wherever possible and for all trips <2 miles

• Public transportation

• Carpool

• Personal vehicle

• Plane/Flight (one of the top polluters for individuals)

Rule 7: Make a Positive Impact

• Plant trees

• Advocate for environmental programs / initiatives in local community

• Clean up trash when out and about

• Work in field that enhances the environment

• Help others learn to love the outdoors through leading trips, building trails, etc.

• Fall in love with species and work to protect them

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Go for the Triple Win

As you read the list above, you might realize that being more environmentally conscious is usually better for your pocketbook and your health. Every bike ride you take saves money on gas, helps with your fitness and avoids burning a fossil fuel; a triple win! When was the last time you had even a single win, let alone a double win? Well here’s a triple win served up on two wheels for you, get after it!

What about buying less or buying used? You prevent using resources in the first place and the pollution that goes along with that and you save money. Boom! Double win.

Earth Day Every Day

Let’s bring this post full circle, shall we? Of course we shall. We live in a society where we are constantly being sold to, where we are brainwashed into being consumers, where we are told that stuff will make our life better and happier and sexier and whatever-er. When those promises fall short, we try the next thing. We are encouraged to be lazy and go for convenience over quality. We need to fortify ourselves against this mentality. We need to recognize the programming, counter it with personal responsibility and vote with our dollars and actions for the type of world we want.

What you do, what you buy, what you drive, it all matters! You don’t need to do everything on the list above but my ask is that you pick out a few things on the list and give them a try. Once those become habit, try a few more. If all you do is carry around a refillable water bottle, you’d save 156 plastic bottles³ from being used each year. A few little changes make a big difference! We cannot hope to clean up the ocean overnight but we can focus on our drop and little by little we can make strides towards cleaning up our ocean.

Is there anything you do or don’t do to live more sustainably? Anything I missed?

1. Center for Biological Diversity

2. A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) that are generated by our actions.

3. The average American uses 156 plastic water bottles per year

Thanks for reading Jared’s Weekly Wisdumb! Subscribe for free to receive 1 new potentially life-altering post each week.

And another thing! An extra couple helpings of Wisdumb.

Here’s a comedy/eco sandwich for you. Funny, Not Funny but illuminating, Funny.

When you know you’ve done everything you could:

@netflixisajokewe did everything we could #marcmaron #standup #comedy #environment #climatechange #climate #paperbags #straws #polarbears #seaturtles #plasticbags

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What really happens when you recycle OR why packaging matters more than you think:

If you don’t laugh, you might cry.