Sustainable goal setting

New year, new focus!

Happy New Year all! Welcome 2023. We are another year closer to 2030, the year where most sustainability targets are set, and so we need to ramp up the action another level this year. While huge change needs to happen at a big scale, this may be a good time to look inward and set some personal goals for your own life to keep making positive changes.

A good exercise for January is to sit down for a few minutes with a notebook and pen and write down your own targets for the year. You may find it useful to split them up into different areas of your life, such as home, work and wider impact. Approach this in whatever way you like, be it a simple list, a ‘habit tracker’ style calendar to keep yourself accountable or a yearly log that you can keep checking into, whichever way works best for you. Need inspiration? Here are some ideas to get you started, pick whichever are relevant for you and try to make them specific to you…

Home

• Eat plant-based three days a week
• Shop for dry ingredients at a refill shop
• Make a habit of turning plugs off at the wall when not in use
• Reducing my showers by 2 minutes
• Take the bus when visiting friends (making use of £2 cap on bus tickets! – )
• Learn to repair clothes when damaged
• Use lower temperature on washing machine

Work

• Take lunch in a reusable container
• Use public transport and read/do something nice on the commute
• Support environmental initiatives implemented in the workplace
• Take part in Carbon Literacy Training with colleagues to earn an environmental qualification

Wider impact

• Keep up to date with petitions and use my voice actively
• Be aware of my MP’s policies on the environment and get in touch if they aren’t doing enough/there are improvements to be made
• Talk about climate change and sustainability to friends, family and conversations in general!

These are just ideas to get you started. You might want to go really specific, e.g. I aim to not buy from any fast fashion stores this year/ I aim to only eat beef once a month maximum, or you may choose to pick an area to focus on e.g. public transport – I aim to not use my car as often as I do now by the end of the year/I will not travel by plane on holiday this year.

Write your goals somewhere you can keep track of them and set them up in a way you’ll want to keep working towards them, whatever keeps you motivated. Set a day each month to reflect on them and renew or adapt them if needed. There is so much going on in this world of ours, and while some things are just out of our control, choose to focus on the things nearest to you. Imagine in December what you will have achieved – it’s going to be a good year. Let’s do 2023, sustainably 🌿