Sustainability is easy in little steps

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Sustainability is easy if everyone takes little steps every day. It can't happen all at once, but it can happen. It must happen!

All too often people get discouraged in their attempts in sustainability and sustainable living as they try to do too much all at once. That is a recipe for disaster with any undertaking and even more so with anything that is going to be a long term project.

You cannot run before you have learned to walk and you will start, just like a child learning to walk, by crawling more than anything. So, don't expect to get too far immediately with any attempts in sustainability but that does not meant that your small, even tiny, steps do not have an impact; they do. Every little helps, as they say.

So, start small. A little here and a little there. And the take it from there and add more and more to it. Soon you will be doing all that you need, and maybe even more, as long as you have the right ideas coming your way (so keep reading this Blog), to make sustainability reality in your life.

There are many things that, on their own already, can make a difference even if they are but small steps and there are many of those suggestions in the past post and in future posts of this journal that shall guide you into the right direction.

Start with what you can do easiest, whether it is various ways of reusing and upcycling paper, tin cans, bottles, etc., or whether it is growing some of your own food, or implementing some water saving steps, or just turning off applicances that are not in use, such as you r PC at night, your cellphone and other charges, etc. It all helps the Planet and, even, I would like to add, your wallet.

Sustainability is and should be a win-win situation. It should be good for the Planet and good for your wallet and the small steps that are often better and easier to achieve that the big ones certainly have the ability to do just that.

Yes, going off-grid and producing your own electricity by a variety of means from renewables, cooking with wood (ideally locally harvested), etc., certainly do the Planet good and your wallet too, but the latter only in the long run and it takes often money to get the various devices, money to install them, and then it will take a fair number of years before you actually notice any savings.

I am not saying you shouldn't do it. What I am saying is that you should start small rather than big. Small steps are needed to learn walking and that also applies to sustainability and going green.

Reuse and upcylcling items of waste to something that you want or need is one way in which every small step helps the Planet and you wallet.

© 2012