Do I need to become vegan or start doing yoga?
Should I throw away my all stuff to become a true minimalist?
Should I delete all my social media accounts to have healthy social relationships?
It is okay to find the balance between believing in your principles and acting on them. You decide what impact you want to make on your life. Because making changes, is not easy.
Taking on a sustainable lifestyle should not make you feel like what you are doing is never enough. Besides, turning your life around is not something you do overnight. It is a daily practice with a lifelong perspective. You’ll need guidance and inspiration. Being a sustainability seeker is a learning process to live by.
How do I make my life more sustainable?
Making your life more sustainable depends on your current lifestyle and the outcome you seek. Taking control of your life is a path you follow, and you will be picking up on truths and principles along the way.
So let’s first agree on what a sustainable lifestyle really is. Living your life in a sustainable way means that your decisions of today meet your current needs preserving the ability to meet your needs of the future. Similar to sustainable development we can define 3 areas:
Every life decision you make would fit into one of these 3 categories. Your work could have an impact on your financial situation. But could also change how you interact with other people.
You adapt to a sustainable lifestyle by keeping these 3 pillars in balance. So driving up your economic pillar should also benefit your social and environmental outcome. Or changing your ecological impact should not affect your social life or personal finances.
Where do I start?
We can’t really tell you what to do. There is no right or wrong. Instead, we want you to understand the root of the problem and then find a way to act on it. Once you have an understanding of the problem, you can set your goals.
Get started with the 17 Sustainable Lifestyle Goals!
There are some leading global organizations and personas that can guide and inspire you. These organizations are privately held and usually start from an individual initiative. They don’t focus on selling services or goods but they talk about truths. So you can make better decisions.
This list is a guideline and is always incomplete.
One Project
One Project is a non-profit initiative working globally with communities to design, implement, and scale new forms of governance and economics that are equitable, ecological, and effective.
www.oneproject.org
The Minimalists
Minimalism is a lifestyle that helps people question what things add value to their lives. By clearing the clutter from life’s path, we can all make room for the most important aspects of life: health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution.
www.theminimalists.com
Center for Humane Technology
Tech platforms make billions of dollars keeping us clicking, scrolling, and sharing. Just like a tree is worth more as lumber and a whale is worth more dead than alive—in the attention extraction economy a human is worth more when we are depressed, outraged, polarized, and addicted.
www.humanetech.com
Wellbeing Economy Alliance
The alliance is a global collaboration of organizations, alliances, movements, and individuals working together to transform the economic system into one that delivers social justice on a healthy planet.
www.wellbeingeconomy.org
Certified B Corporations
Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. B Corps are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.
www.bcorporation.net
Fairtrade International
Fairtrade’s approach enables farmers and workers to have more control over their lives and decide how to invest in their future. As a leader in the global movement to make trade fair, Fairtrade supports and challenges businesses and governments while connecting farmers and workers with the people who buy their products. By choosing Fairtrade, people can create change through their everyday actions.
www.fairtrade.net
1% for the Planet
The organization represents a global network of businesses, individuals, and nonprofit organizations tackling our planet’s most pressing environmental issues.
www.onepercentfortheplanet.org
Fridays For Future
The movement’s goal is to put moral pressure on policymakers, make them listen to the scientists, and then take forceful action to limit global warming.
www.fridaysforfuture.org
World Economic Forum
The foundation demonstrates entrepreneurship in the global public interest while upholding the highest standards of governance. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas.
www.weforum.org
The Plant Based Treaty
As a companion to the UNFCCC/Paris Agreement, the Plant Based Treaty is a landmark international treaty and first of its kind to put food systems at the heart of combating the climate crisis. The Treaty aims to halt the widespread degradation of critical ecosystems caused by animal agriculture, to promote a shift to more healthy, sustainable plant-based diets and to actively reverse damage done to planetary functions, ecosystem services and biodiversity.
www.plantbasedtreaty.org
Oceanic Preservation Society
OPS inspires, empowers, and connects a global community using high-impact films and visual storytelling to expose the most critical issues facing our planet.
www.opsociety.org
Arctic Basecamp
Arctic Basecamp was created by Professor Gail Whiteman, as a vehicle to bring this message of Arctic risk to global leaders. We work with global scientists and world-class organisations and individuals raising awareness of the global risks from Arctic change and to highlight the urgent need for scalable solutions to climate change.
www.arcticbasecamp.org
