The impact of one.
The lifestyle choices of one person puts a serious force on nature, other people, and finite resources. While we don’t have control over everything, what we do have control over, in our daily lives is our food, transportation, home, clothing, self-care, waste, and water; due to the beautiful power of choice.
For example, The average North American emits 688 tons of CO2e in their lifetime. There are 368,869,647 (~368 million) people in North America. That's roughly 253,782,317,136 (~253 billion) tons total. That's a lot of tons...
This is why we at Sustaio believe that the micro-changes of one person could have a macro-impact of the collective many.
You as an individual have direct control over these areas when trying to lower your impact:
Food: What you eat; the quality; the quantity; the source.
Transport: What vehicles you use to travel; how far you travel; how much; if you travel with others.
Household: What energy resources (electric & gas) you use to power your home; how much you use.
Clothing: How many clothes you buy; who you buy them from; how much care you take of them.
Self-care: What you are put in and on your body.
Waste: How much you produce; the responsibility you take for it; how you take responsibility for it, how you reduce it.
Water: The value you place on it; how much you use of it.
These direct control areas are interconnected
We have direct control over these areas of our lives. Achieving a low-impact lifestyle starts with reducing, awareness, and smart decision-making.
Food has to be transported. Clothing takes water to grow the materials and produce the final product. Self-care and body products are sold in plastic bottles that become waste in a landfill. And THIS is just the tip of the (melting) iceberg.
Depending on your unique habits your impacts will be greater or smaller in these different areas depending on how you do you. Your impacts can be measured in different ways; ecological footprint, carbon footprint, waste, material health and social implications that are a result of demand, consumption, sustenance, luxury, and quality of life.
One thing is for sure, depending on how ‘big’ you do it, the earth may never be able to forget you.
