10 Steps to Sustainability

With all this talk about the importance of increasing our individual and societal sustainability the question always comes up - What Can We Do? Here is a short list of 10 items we can all do to help.

1. Plant a Garden – Being able to grow some of your own food is not only a way to suppliment our diet but working with the soil can also be very grounding.

2. Learn to Cook – Eating out is one place where households can reduce their spending. By learning how to cook we not only reduce the cost of food but gain the enjoyment of making fresh healthy meals with our own hands.

3. Make Things – Participating in this consumerist society is not only expensive but reduces our opportunity to give of ourselves. Birthday, holiday, house warming gifts made by hand are greatly appreciated and can often cost little or no money.

4. Ride, Walk, and Bus Wherever You Can - Using single person cars to get around is the least efficient way to get around.

5. Eat Less Meat – Our food system is one of the most energy and water intensive on the planet. By making changes in this area we can have a significant reduction in the overall energy we use.

6. Meet Your Neighbors – Old fashion community. Humans not only know how to do this but it has been the way we have lived for 95% of human history. We have lived in extended families, and tribes for thousands of years, villages and small towns for many hundreds and only the last 100 or so years have we experimented with the idea of rugged individualist.

7. Wear a Sweater – Household energy use comprises over 20% of our nations overall energy use. What ever we can do to reduce the amount of energy we use in our homes, can have a substantial effect on our national dependence on foreign sources of energy. Steps we can take are numerous from turning down our heat a few degrees and putting on a sweater to adding insulation, replacing light bulbs and adding renewable energy systems to our homes.

8. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – In our “throw-away” culture we have become accustomed to tossing almost everything into the trash. By reducing how much trash we generate, we can have a substantial positive effect.

9. Live Local – As the famous saying goes ... Think Globally, Act Locally. By increasing the amount of our needs that are satisfied locally we can build resistance to the ever growing shocks from global changes.

10. Be Casual - The assumption that we "need" fancy homes, clothes, cars, and lifestyles leads us to increasing consumption. Shifting to a more casual lifestyle will allow us to consume less and enjoy life more.