Why Creating Personal Commitments to Sustainability Isn’t Very Difficult
I've spent a lot of personal time learning about leading a more sustainable life over the last few years. Climate change has inevitably become a daily topic in our household whether we're talking about electricity use, recycling and compost, our driving patterns, or simply what's on the menu each day. Sustainability has quite honestly been unavoidable as world events continue to make headlines throughout the media on a daily basis.
The exciting thing about the relentless news cycle is not the content of the coverage, but the visibility. The volume of coverage forces people to become more aware of the effects of climate change. Disregarding skeptics, motivated individuals will be encouraged to make changes in their lives to honor sustainability and improve our planet's health. With the overabundance of online resources, there are many places to start.
For me, this is a living topic—meaning I continue to add more content and research articles to my Notion folder as my thinking evolves. Through my study, I've learned of 3 core pathways to get started making personal commitments to sustainability that don't involve major changes to your lifestyle: time, money, and attention. I'll touch on one for now and come back to the other two in another post:
Devote some time
Devoting your time to further the cause of climate solutions is very broad, but today I want to write about one organization called the Climate Reality Project. My wife introduced me to this organization founded by Al Gore that motivates individuals to embody a sense of change and urgency with the agenda of promoting global solutions.
I like the mission of CRP because it focuses on the individual to help motivate change and create an impact across business sectors. They've created what are called Climate Reality Leader activists, which are simply individuals like my wife that have gone through training and committed themselves to learn more about climate solutions through the lens of and single person that can join a movement to make waves. They are supported by millions of supporters that further the cause through sharing on social.
Her involvement has ranged from bi-monthly meetings after work to discuss events to some after-dinner chapter website updates and even some small contributions to their newsletter. Similar to reprogramming habits, these small contributions not only add to a movement that impacts many but reinforces her beliefs and reprograms her thinking to align with the goals of sustainability. Thousands of small contributions and a devotion to learning about climate solutions continue to motivate a great collective to lead more sustainable lives.
Learning from experts and thought leaders
One critical part of the CRP program is to teach individuals about how they can affect change within their communities whether it's on the city, regional, or state level.
They recently hosted a Zoom meeting where the presenter spoke about proposed legislation to ban the use or installation of new gas-based appliances in homes and commit homeowners to 100% electrification over the next few years and what we could do. While this is already in effect for new construction projects in a few cities including Berkeley, San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco, the majority of homes in the Bay Area (and around the country) rely on natural gas to power stoves, furnaces, water heaters, etc.
Because of my work, I'm exposed to new and changing regulations to building code, including updates like SB13 that benefit the development of ADUs in favor of housing density, and Title 24, California's Building Energy Efficiency Standards that cover everything from insulation to new solar requirements. With a dedication to sustainability in our buildings, I was aware of Reach Code requirements in municipalities like San Jose that ban the use of gas appliances in new buildings. These requirements are unique to specific sectors of industry and the typical homeowner is unlikely ever to be aware of these requirements, their purpose, and the programs that promote them.
Through the media, we're seeing a growing collective awareness of climate change, but the far more impressive part is the collective understanding of the damages caused by climate change and the willful cooperation and collaboration between individuals, organizations, and industries to help promote a sustainable future.