Taking steps to enact sustainability practices into our everyday lives is not always easy, and can feel daunting. As we approach New Year’s, a time when many people reflect on areas they might improve upon in the new year in the form of resolutions. If you feel motivated to do something for the natural spaces in your life and take action, here are some tips about how to achieve real and attainable goals of sustainability:

• Start small and specific. It’s easy to want to overhaul everything in your life, going zero waste and selling your car. But that is, for many people, unattainable. Instead, set small and actionable goals like “bring my reusable cup to work every day” or “use alternative transportation two days a week”. 
• Track your progress. To keep yourself accountable and motivated, keep a journal or Note in your phone to track your success at your goal. It is rewarding to look back on and can keep you accountable when your goal seems inconvenient or unreachable. 
• Be creative! For example, decreasing car use is great, but there are tons of actionable, impactful behavioral changes of sustainability like ‘cooking one plant-based meal a week”, “thrift store first before buying new clothes”, or “starting an herb garden”. 
• There are important steps to take that may not be direct action. Reading about topics of sustainability, environmental history, or ecology are great ways to connect with natural spaces. 
• Prioritize community and connection with others in your resolutions. Everything’s better with a friend! “Start a sustainability reading group”, or setting plans to “carpool twice a week with favorite coworkers” are great ways to motivate yourself and build connections with others around you centered around sustainable action and loving where you live! 

Here are a few more sustainable resolutions for the new year and holidays:

• Visit one new area outside every week.
• Explore the parks and trails near you!
• Participate in a monthly clothing swap and donate old clothes. 
• Carry a waste jar for 24 hours – carry around a jar and everything that would go into the trash, goes in the jar. This will help you visualize your daily impact and can inspire others to do the same. 
• Bring a reusable mug to the coffee shop every day. 
• Use reusable shopping bags at the store, limiting single-use plastic.

Find Your Next

We invite you to share the ways you care for Minnesota’s natural place to inspire others to go Upstream.