Sustainability Journey

Hello hello!

Happy New Year! I hope the first week of 2020 has been a good one!

With the arrival of a new year comes new resolutions. I am notoriously bad for keeping my list of resolutions after January passes and I was considering not making any this year. However, the more I thought about it, I decided to make just one for 2020: become more sustainable.

I know the word 'sustainability' is being thrown round a lot at the minute and environmental activism is on the rise (which is amazing). I'm not the world's worst person for sustainability all things considered: I have a reusable water bottle which I bring everywhere, a travel mug which I am never without at uni, I don't use plastic straws, I bring my own bags to the supermarket... but there's so much more that I could be doing.

There is increasing awareness around the effects of climate change and I'm so thankful that today's technology is enabling us to educate ourselves and to find out more about global warming and other environmental issues. However, although we hear about the big profile disasters like the bushfires in Australia at the minute and the Amazon fires in Brazil in 2019, there are so many happening that we don't hear about. In fact, according to an article by The Guardian, the UN estimates that climate crisis disasters are happening as often as once a week in developing countries. And these are disasters are causing death, displacement and suffering. It is so true that the time to act is now.

Although big companies and governments have a huge role to play in terms of the environment, I do honestly believe that we, as individuals, can play our part too. No matter how small, no action is insignificant in my opinion. Everything contributes to the greater cause.

That is why for 2020 I am going to:

• Become vegetarian

I think going vegan would be too much all at once for me and I want it to be a long-term change, not just a month-long challenge, so I am going to cut out only meat in order to reduce the part of my carbon footprint related to meat.

• Not take more than 8 1+ hour flights

Flying is definitely one of the biggest contributors to my carbon footprint. Last year I was quite excessive with flights. I was on my year abroad and travelling about in my free time and I took 30 flights in total, 20 of which were longer than 1 hour each way. I do want to travel a bit if I can this year but I don't want to take more than 8 flights which are an hour or longer.

• Shop second hand

Fast fashion is one of my biggest sustainability downfalls. I know it's terrible for the environment but as a rather poor university student, I am drawn in by the prices. However, I started frequenting charity shops at the end of last year and they are so cheap. I know they can be a bit hit or miss, but the ones in Bath that I have been to have a pretty wide range of stock. As well as charity shops, I will also use Depop - there is so much being sold on the app and for reasonable prices too. To quantify this goal, I am going to try and only buy a maximum of 6 new items of clothing this year.

• Reduce my plastic consumption

Despite using my reusable water bottle and travel mug everyday, there is more I can do to reduce my use of plastic. I have bought some beeswax sandwich wrap (this pack to be precise!) so I won't use plastic bags or cling film anymore, and I am going to avoid buying fruit and veg or any other food that comes in pointless plastic packaging.

So that's the plan...  I also feel like it's important to point out that if you are planning to do something similar, don't be disheartened by a slight setback. I saw the below photo on an Instagram post from the Earth Hero app and I think it's a good one:

Throughout the year, I will do updates to check in and see how I am going with these goals.

If anyone has any tips or tricks to help with becoming more sustainability, it would be great to hear them!

Until next time! -C x