“People are so worried about what they consume between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worried about what they consume between the New Year and Christmas.”
—Unknown
I like New Year’s resolutions. They provide a great opportunity to reflect upon the successes and shortcomings of the past year, and set goals and intentions for the new one. I don’t believe in making the kind of resolutions in January that ensure I will be self-flagellating in February, but I do think it is important to set progress benchmarks for doing things I care about over time.
Really, a resolution is nothing more than a firm decision to do or not do something. This year, I’ve made four firm decisions for the Small Footprint Family. We will…
#1 Do something physical in the sun with my family as often as possible.
The older I get, the more it seems that the aches, pains and dis-ease of modern life are really the result of deficiencies in sunlight, regular physical activity and nutrient dense, whole foods. These are three essential things we were evolutionarily designed to require in large, daily quantities. And they are also three things American consumer culture has almost completely designed out of our lives over the past 50 years.
I have always been happiest and healthiest when I have been doing regular outdoor work, whether that be tree care, greenroofing, farming, or at least puttering outside daily in our food garden. Since leaving my greenroofing business to have Babyzilla, I have gotten away from fulfilling this biological need, and I am really feeling the effects physically and mentally. (Not to mention the fact that my Vitamin D levels could use improvement.) So, this year, I resolve to complement our already very healthy diet with daily sunshine and enough outdoor physical activity to get our heart rate up. Babyzilla is very excited about this—as you can imagine any toddler would be!
What are you doing in 2010 to make sure you get enough sun and activity?
#2 Increase our local food consumption by 10%.
We currently get about 75% of our produce, meat and eggs from local organic farms and ranches as members of two CSAs and weekly visitors to the farmers’ market. But here in California, finding local produce year round is very easy: We grow a majority of the nation’s organic fruits and veggies after all. Nevertheless, I’d like to increase the amount of local food we eat by 10% in 2010—including finding a local source for pasture-raised pork bellies, so I can learn to make my own bacon this year!
If you’re wondering why choosing local food is so important, and how to get started with eating more locally-produced foods in the new year, please read Why We Should All Eat Locally.
How can you eat 10% more local foods in 2010?
#3 Reduce our trash output by 20%.
We eat few packaged foods, and compost most of our food waste, but somehow we still produce at least two tall kitchen bags of trash every week. The biggest single sources of trash in our house are disposable coffee cups from the corner coffee shop, spoiled leftovers that contain meat and so can’t be composted, and plastic food bags that can no longer be washed and reused. This year, we will strive to get the thermoses washed more regularly, among other waste-reducing measures.
If you’d like to learn more about composting or reducing your waste output, please read Waste Not, Want Not and Compost Happens.
What can you do to reduce your trash output by 20% in 2010?
#4 Quit extraneous spending and buy second-hand. This resolution is dear to my heart. Some would argue that consumer spending will get the economy going again, so we should all go out and do our part for the country by buying stuff. Never mind that many of us no longer have the money or the credit to keep buying things we don’t really need that were designed to be provide only short-lived satisfaction anyway.
Rather, I believe it is all the stuff we buy—as part of a consumption-driven economy dependent on limitless growth—that has brought us to the brink of the greatest economic and environmental crises humanity has ever seen. The wanton, subsidized exploitation of natural resources and fossil fuels that brings us $5 radios and ripe tomatoes in January simply cannot be sustained. We cannot maintain an economic system or a culture requiring infinite growth on a finite planet. We cannot endlessly consume from limited and vulnerable resources—and we are destroying or running out of a lot of things we’re gonna need in the future. You know, like fresh water.
It’s not enough to recycle your bottles and cans, install CFL light bulbs and bring your own bags. It’s time for a new economic paradigm: one where return on investment is not measured just in dollars, but also in how a product or service benefits regular people, communities, and the fragile land, water and air we depend on—a “triple bottom line” of economic, social and environmental sustainability.
In such an economy, many industries, products and services we take for granted today would no longer be considered profitable or ethical, and they would be replaced by new closed-loop industries, social entrepreneurship and relocalized community economies.
And yet the endless quest for Stuff is not only damaging to the Earth and threatening to our very survival, it is also spiritually debilitating too. Since when did spending money become an American pastime? For all our wealth relative to the rest of the world, Americans are not a happy people. In fact, we are becoming quite depressed, impatient, despondent, and diseased, despite—or perhaps because of—how much stuff we consume.
I believe our unhealthy and unsustainable cultural relationship to earning/spending money in order to acquire material things is supplanting what really matters at the end of the day: strong, authentic relationships with our family members, friends and neighbors; nutritious, whole food meals enjoyed with others; daily sunshine and physical activity; and ample time for recreation, contemplation, reflection and rest.
For this reason, in 2010, I want to spend my money in support of the new paradigm. We will severely curtail buying things we want but do not need, and anytime we do need to acquire something, we will try first to get it from a local, second-hand source before buying it new. Fortunately, San Diego has many, many outstanding thrift stores, and other resources like flea markets, FreeCycle, CraigsList and eBay are available too.
This spendfast means a year-long experiment in not buying any more clothes, shoes, books, DVDs, magazines, excess toiletries, stuff for the kitchen, stuff for the house, stuff for… the sake of Stuff. Should be an interesting challenge. I’ll keep you posted…
To learn more about “spend-fasting,” please read The Story of Stuff – Reducing our Consumer Footprint.
What are you doing in 2010 to trade quantity for quality in your life?
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What a great list! If I were writing a list, it would be almost identical! Especially #4, this is definitely my goal for 2010. I’ve spent the past weekend cleaning out the house so make things more organized, and nothing is being tossed. It is either being sold or going to the Goodwill. Best for 2010.
Thanks for your comment Krys, and Happy New Year! I am just now cleaning out our house too. I’ve lately had the urge to travel lighter and purge a lot of stuff we seldom use. With a toddler around, who needs more stuff to keep up with?
I definitely need to steal your #1. I do not spend enough time in the sun and I can feel it. Thanks for the reminder to get outside more often!
Great, inspiring list. I really agree about spending more time outside and active– that’s one of my resolutions, too. Luckily, it coincides perfectly with my resolution to spend less time in the car.