Sustainable New Years’ Resolutions: Revisited!
Did you set New Year’s resolutions last year? If so, how did you do?
A year ago today I asked myself four questions that helped me set out my sustainability intentions for the year. I posted those questions—together with my 2024 resolutions—on social media, both to see if they might be helpful to others (I was happy to hear that quite a few of you found them useful) and to also try to hold myself accountable for my resolutions.
I woke this morning to a LinkedIn message from a colleague asking me how I did with my 2024 resolutions. Thank you, Daniela, for helping me with the accountability piece of this exercise. You can judge for yourself how I did, but first, here were the questions I tried to answer for myself:
Is there something more I can do to reduce the plastic waste in my life? (answer: there is always something more!)
Though I’m not a vegetarian, can I raise my ambition to eat a more plant-based diet?
What is a sustainability goal that could increase my connection to my community?
What can I do to amplify my voice through organizations rowing in the same direction as I am?
And these were my 2024 resolutions:
Make Matt’s favorite granola at least twice a month to avoid the plastic and cardboard cereal packaging.
Add 5 new vegetarian meals to my repertoire, and aim to eat 4 vegetarian dinners each week.
Re-learn how to make reusable produce bags and offer them at our local farmers’ market around Earth Day.
Work with my local chapter of Sierra Club to help raise awareness and support for introducing a bottle deposit bill.
So what happened? The year started off well enough: the aroma of homemade granola wafted through our home for weeks; my husband and I were good at meal planning in January and February and we incorporated more plant-based meals into our week; I organized an on-line vegetarian cook-along which introduced us to four new delicious dishes by March; I had not yet organized the reusable produce bag initiative, but that was in the works; and I started more regularly attending the Zero Waste Committee meetings of my local Sierra Club chapter.
Then in early March, my aunt called with devastating news that my beloved uncle had died. Life turned upside down as my sister and I spent the next few months helping my aunt set up her new life. Five months later, my aunt passed away unexpectedly.
Despite the impact of those terribly difficult losses, I regained some balance later in the year and turned my attention back toward my sustainability resolutions. I missed my Earth Day goal of course, but I redoubled my efforts to support the bottle bill campaign: marching in a parade on Kingman Island and tabling at my local farmers’ market to raise awareness about single-use plastic pollution and the prospect of a bottle bill. It feels exciting to be part of a campaign that is making good strides: the bill is expected to be introduced in the DC Council early this year.
By December, our house was once again filled with the aroma of homemade granola baking in the oven.
Is it worth making New Year’s resolutions that you may forget by March? I think so. I love any opportunity for a reset: a new day, a new month, a new year. I still believe that putting down my goals in writing cements them in my mind and sharing them with others adds that accountability dimension.
I’ve revisited my four questions and they still work for me. Here are my 2025 resolutions:
To avoid plastic, I will limit my online purchases (I find most of the single-use plastic in my life comes from the way items are packaged for shipping).
I will aim for four plant-based dinners every week.
I will re-learn how to make reusable produce bags, organize a sewing group, and give out the bags at our local farmers’ market around Earth Day (thank you, Anne-Marie Bonneau, for the inspiration!)
I will continue to work with my local chapter of Sierra Club on the bottle bill campaign.
I’d love to hear your resolutions if you’re open to sharing them.
Will I manage to stick with mine throughout the year? Ask me on December 31, 2025.
Happy New Year!
