Living the "Sustainable" lifestyle
Hi SEE-Change community! I’m Jahnavi – I started off as a volunteer for SEE-Change but have been working here for just under a year now. I’m doing a degree in environment and sustainability with a minor in science communication.
As someone who cares about the environment, the main thing that I have learned through my degree and work at SEE-Change is that there is no universal answer on how to be a perfect environmentalist. It seems like there are a million different aspects to living a more sustainable life.
I’ve been mulling over doing a social media or blog series about making sustainable lifestyle choices for a while, but I’ve been stumped. My main barrier is the fact that there is just so much to consider. Every single action you do, no matter how tiny, seems to have an impact (whether good or bad). Sometimes, I try to choose a more sustainable option only to find out that it has its own flaws!
So, I want to really go in-depth about how I’m trying to implement and ingrain sustainability into all aspects of my life from the kitchen to the bathroom – keeping in mind that it’s not easy and perfect. I want to show the experimentation processes that I’m going through so that we can tackle some of these changes together.
When I say ‘sustainable lifestyle’ – what do I mean? I think that this might differ from person to person. Looking at my habits with a critical eye, I really want to focus on reducing. Reducing packaging, reducing waste, reducing consumption, reducing carbon.
I want to be recycling as best I can, making sure I’m reducing the plastics I use and that I’m not buying anything that I don’t really need. I want to tailor my personal journey to the kitchen, my wardrobe and my transport – because these areas tend to be where I consume most often. The things I might look at could be substitutes and alternatives to unsustainable products, tips and tricks, product guides and the best place to buy them. I want to talk about my decision-making processes, on how I balance the environmental and personal costs and benefits of my choices.
What areas of your life do you want to focus on? Throughout this process, it will be good to get your inputs and experiences to get diverse perspectives!
While I’m doing this, I want to openly talk about the barriers I’m facing in implementing some of these changes. Sometimes, it’s just not easy or convenient to choose the sustainable option and talking about the guilt associated with this is important! For me, knowing that sustainability isn’t always a breeze and other people are struggling a bit too is a great motivator. I’d also like to talk about navigating greenwashing and ‘eco-friendly’ marketing and weeding through contentious or contradictory environmentalism advice.
What I’m hoping to do is create a conversation, an open dialogue, about all this confusion. I want to make our individual sustainability adventures into a community one! SEE-Change is a community organisation, and we thrive off your engagement, inputs, and expertise.
Sustainability is a journey, and we’re all on this trek to be better friends to the planet together. I’m hoping that, together, we can create an ongoing resource and discourse we can keep coming back to reference and talk about – because that’s where all the learning is.
I’m open to hearing your ideas on how you want me to go about this, and how you’d like to contribute! You can respond with your thoughts below or email me on jahnavisamprathi@seechange.org.au. We have already hosted one in person discussion group, and we’d love to arrange more of these if SEE Changers are keen :)