Imperfect sustainability

Plus, a recipe for celebrations and some thoughts on gifts.

“We don't need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.” 

When Anne-Marie Bonneau, aka The Zero Waste Chef, tweeted the quote above in 2019, it instantly went viral—and for a good reason: Bonneau was right. If 10,000 people reduced their waste by 10-percent that would reduce ten times more waste than if 100 people actually managed to get their waste down to zero. Progress not perfection is my attitude towards all the lifestyle choices that impact the climate. And if I can help a few people take steps towards imperfect sustainability at home, I’d be thrilled.

So what does an “imperfect” sustainable lifestyle look like? Instead of going vegetarian, maybe it means eating beef just once or twice a month. Imperfect sustainability looks like my family repairing our 13-year-old combustion-engine car (again!) to extend its useful life and amortize its embedded carbon footprint–because we don’t have the infrastructure to charge an electric vehicle yet (nor do we have the big bucks for a brand-new car!). It was me trying to convince my apartment building to add a few native plants to our shared yard–and vowing to try again next spring when I failed. 

What does imperfect sustainability look like in your home? Where have you had success? What do you struggle with? What do you want to change in the New Year? I want to try even harder to cook plant-based meals (less dairy and eggs), finally move my 401K from an old employer to a sustainable investment plan, get our old chairs refinished, and persuade my co-op to figure out electric vehicle charging (I might just go rogue with the native plants).

How else can we be the change that needs to happen?  

A draft version of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2022 report echoed my sentiment's above and went a step further, noting that “if 10-30% of the population were to demonstrate commitment to low-carbon technologies, behaviors, and lifestyles, new social norms would be established.” So, not only would a 10-percent improvement do its own good, it would have ripple effects.

Friends, I’m here to promote these “new norms.” I’m constantly saying that my family’s habits–living in a small apartment, composting, buying everything secondhand—are “weird,” but what if they were “normal?” Reading about other people’s efforts to live a more sustainable life has given me permission to lean into my unconventional choices, like, say, buying a second-hand crib mattress.

If we want to slow down global warming, those of us in wealthy countries need to quickly make some big behavioral changes—and I think that starts in our homes, imperfectly, one small (and sometimes big!) change and a time.

A Few More Things

Reading: So, what does sustainable living look like? Maybe like Uruguay. I loved this long, thought-provoking read, and I hope you will too. 

Writing: I'm digging way back into the archive to resurface this piece I wrote about strategies to reduce the gift giving madness for Refinery29—it holds up 6 years later.

Cooking: Bookmark this savory tart for future feasts. I've made it three time; this year, I used store-bought pie crust and only butternut squash to keep it simple.