Renewable Commitment (Click to Read Full Blog Post)

Taking the daily reminder to appreciate mother nature.

Those who know me well often tease me with a moniker such as the “sustainability queen.” It is a title I am more than happy and willing to wear. However, too often, my days are occupied with work and family, leaving little, if any, time for me to carve out a small hour for myself. So often I feel I have negated some of my sustainable practices, such as the writing on these pages here, which was one of the ways I could serve to inform and inspire you. The other is my podcast series, sharing simple ideas that might help you start your commitment to sustainability. Today, after taking a long pause to examine my work as an advocate of sustainable practices and my daily routines of purchasing and consuming to measure my carbon footprint, I realized that I have been diligent in many aspects but recognize there is room to expand on them. 

The nature of sustainable principles is exactly that: practices that need to be sustained. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals serve as a blueprint on a grand and global level. As such, they are overwhelming in their scale, especially as we have only six years left until the original deadline set up on the Agenda 2030. It is too easy to simply give over to the obvious fact that we won’t make this benchmark. But this “date” doesn’t take away from the potential of the goals, nor does it remove our global obligation. The commitment is renewable. 

In smaller ways, our practices are easier to moderate but sometimes just as hard to maintain. They require the measure of a shorter-term obligation – the 24 hours in our day and the days within our week. If and when we let them slide, we put them on the grander scale of global measures and tell ourselves they will not be missed because our “individual” efforts are just one drop in the bucket.  

Yet, just as we might have inconsistently maintained some of our practices, this glorious International Earth Day offers a chance to recommit. So, I invite you to reflect on this day the way we are apt to on New Year’s Day. Imagine all the great things you want to accomplish for yourself in the 365 days ahead. In the same way, ask yourself, what would the earth ask for if it could express itself in words? Then, make a set of Earth Day resolutions. Jot them down in your journal—small acts to renew your practice. Measure your actions and impact throughout the year. And share best practices with family and friends. Reduce your consumption of something – plastic water bottles, fast fashion, or toxic cleaning products. Reuse and repurpose items – donate old clothes or reuse old glass and plastic containers.  Recycle – Use cloth shopping bags and separate your garbage properly. 

This “Earth Day,” I renew my commitment. I encourage you to do the same.