Impact
We start with the footprint...
Diversity
[What is the footprint]
The ecoCity Footprint Tool - www.ecocityfootprint.org – which helps local governments calculate their footprint and identify pathways to achieving a One Planet Community.
Diversity
[What is the footprint]
The ecoCity Footprint Tool - www.ecocityfootprint.org – which helps local governments calculate their footprint and identify pathways to achieving a One Planet Community.
Making your own life more sustainable
Here are a few things to prioritize as you look at your own life and take action:
Maximizing impact means focusing on footprints and taking action beyond your own household. Certainly, acting on your own is good, and it’s worthwhile to reduce your own footprint. But this is unlikely to lead to changes at the broader system level, which is what we really need in order to achieve one-planet living.
Here's an example: what we’re talking about here is the difference between walking or cycling to work yourself (a good individual-level action!) and establishing community active transit options embraced by your whole neighbourhood, every day of the week (an even better system-level action!). Both are worth doing, but the impact of the latter will be greater over time.
- Know your biggest footprint areas - calculate your footprint and find out what the biggest contributions are: food? your transportation choices? and find ways to address those as a priority. Think in terms of long-term reductions - for example, you might think about changing one of your meals to be more plant-based so that you get more familiar with easy recipes and make this a more regular part of your life; plan how you might move closer to transit in the coming years; or research grants to install a heat pump in your home next year so your home's energy mix is lower-carbon. The Lighter Footprint App – www.lighterfootprint.org – is being piloted and uses British Columbia data and helps individuals calculate their footprint and identify actions they can take to reduce it.
- Changing your food footprint - this can include dietary shifts towards more plant-based meals, meal planning to reduce wasted food.
- Moving towards lower carbon transportation - you can see whether you can work from home more often, change up some of your regular trips to be lower footprint (e.g., bike there - maybe get an e-bike if it's far), walk more and shop locally, look at options outside of personal car use (e.g., taking public transit; car sharing; commuting together with someone).
- Think twice before you buy something - e.g., can you borrow or rent something instead of owning it? is there a second-hand option? can you repair what you were going to replace?
- Your home - we often think about what we bring into our home, but - if we have the choice - can we live closer to where we work (or on good transit)? are we well-insulated and ventilated to keep heating and cooling costs down? do we check out second-hand for furnishings and renovations?
- Align your job with sustainability - If you're starting out, think about the jobs where you can build the future we want - and what volunteer opportunities help get you there? If you're in a job, how can you support your company or organization to evolve its goods, services or how they work. If you're looking at a career change, where might your skills make a difference in a job aligned with sustainability? Or is there a way you can offer them as a volunteer (e.g., marketing)?
- Exercise your voice and vote - let your views be known; vote with your values; explore how your passion for sustainability can translate into your financial decisions too (buying green, local, rethinking your investment portfolio).
Maximizing impact means focusing on footprints and taking action beyond your own household. Certainly, acting on your own is good, and it’s worthwhile to reduce your own footprint. But this is unlikely to lead to changes at the broader system level, which is what we really need in order to achieve one-planet living.
Here's an example: what we’re talking about here is the difference between walking or cycling to work yourself (a good individual-level action!) and establishing community active transit options embraced by your whole neighbourhood, every day of the week (an even better system-level action!). Both are worth doing, but the impact of the latter will be greater over time.
Your neighbourhood, your school, your workplace...
You can find great ideas for action at a community scale in our guide
School resources:
Workplace resources:
Reach out to us to brainstorm possibilities and resources you can draw on.
School resources:
Workplace resources:
Reach out to us to brainstorm possibilities and resources you can draw on.
Create an action plan
You can be inspired by One Planet Saanich...
Prioritize
Assess your assets
[Neighbourhood guide]
Keep building from success
Diversity
[Tips]
Action plans for schools, etc. Goals & Guidance - Guides, best practices and training resources to support you in creating your action plan - www.bioregional.com/one-planet-living
The One Planet Action Plan Tool – www.oneplanet.com – which walks you through the steps of creating an action plan, in a way that enables you to collaborate with stakeholders to achieve your sustainability outcomes. It provides a ‘mind map’ of your plan and a downloadable report feature
Prioritize
Assess your assets
[Neighbourhood guide]
Keep building from success
Diversity
[Tips]
Action plans for schools, etc. Goals & Guidance - Guides, best practices and training resources to support you in creating your action plan - www.bioregional.com/one-planet-living
The One Planet Action Plan Tool – www.oneplanet.com – which walks you through the steps of creating an action plan, in a way that enables you to collaborate with stakeholders to achieve your sustainability outcomes. It provides a ‘mind map’ of your plan and a downloadable report feature
Find your allies
Here are some great places you can find others on this journey in British Columbia:
- Join the Facebook group Zero Waste Vancouver
- Take the Master Recycler course - which is well beyond recycling to understand zero waste
- Join Coro Strandberg's job alert list
- Connecting Environmental Professionals brings together mentors and mentees in the sustainability space.
- Greenest City newsletter
Start, grow or build out your own initiative or enterprise
Here are some great accelerators, spaces to grow or learn from others to build your community or entrepreneurial idea:
- The Share Reuse Repair Initiative has two new programs aimed at private and public sector entities: SHIFTing consumer behaviour, Frontrunning Youth Innovation
Explore our action-packed guides
A great resource is Sustainable Lifestyles: Options and Opportunities (and its companion: "in the Workplace"). Here are the summarized priority action pages from the guide. You can also get a sneak peak of the suggested actions (and links) on the second Mobility image or the second "General" image. Download the full guide here (PDF) and the companion guide for the Workplace (PDF).