The Employee’s Guide to Sustainability
Written BY Hunter Rae / Photography provided by Elizabeth Bagley, Linkedin learning and SHACK15
It’s no secret that corporate sustainability is fast becoming a pillar of today's companies, and as with many other forward-thinking trends, the tech industry has proven itself to be a pioneer in sustainability commitments.
Last week, we hosted an event dedicated to the latest innovations in corporate sustainability which was led by a powerhouse of female changemakers who have led corporate sustainability at Google, the Department of the Environment for the City and County of San Francisco, and Gap. Our moderator was Dr. Elizabeth Bagley, Director of Drawdown Learn at Project Drawdown and former Director of Sustainability at the California Academy of Sciences.
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Elizabeth recently launched a new LinkedIn Learning series, The Employee's Guide to Sustainability, which stresses the importance of all sustainability efforts, big and small, in our everyday lives as individuals and employees. In it, she showcases the ease as well as the importance of making small changes to our daily routines. She also equips her audience with new language and ways of thinking that can help bring these monumental concepts of saving the planet into the most casual conversations.
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The course is available free for 24 hours on LinkedIn Learning. To get a taste of the actionable insights Elizabeth shares in the course, check out her 5 tips for what you can do right now to live more sustainably.
1) Learn what sustainability means to you.
To Elizabeth, sustainability means healthy people, communities, and environments both now and in the future. For some of us, sustainability might be a completely new and different way of thinking. But it's important to understand that we're all starting at different places on our sustainability journeys and we shouldn’t feel pressured to make drastic life-altering changes overnight. A simple way to start is by learning about the metabolism of your city. The landfills, wastewater treatment plants and recycling centers all work harmoniously to keep our cities thriving. Taking time to learn about what systems your city has in place will drastically increase your understanding of how your community operates and how the choices you make directly contribute to these systems.
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2) Calculate your footprints vs your handprints.
As humans we leave lots of proverbial footprints on our planet, and we use those footprints to measure our impact on the natural world. Our ecological footprints and carbon footprints are ways for us to measure how quickly we use resources and produce waste compared to how nature can absorb our waste and generate new resources. You can measure your carbon footprint using this carbon footprint calculator, and take stock of which of your actions have the greatest impact on the planet, as well as ways to reduce this impact. Then, consider your ecological handprints, the ways you bring positive changes to the world. This could be as simple as choosing to ride your bike to work, composting, or getting involved in a beach clean up. It’s important for us to take the extra step to do more good in the world instead of only aiming to do less harm.
3) Improve energy efficiency at home.
Now that we're working from home it's more important than ever to make sure that we’re improving energy efficiency in our homes, and using the smallest amount of energy possible to power our lives. A great place to start is with an energy audit. Energy audits might be offered through your energy company, and they can help you understand the whole picture of energy use in your space. The audit will help determine how much energy your space uses, where your space is losing energy, and which problem areas and fixes you can prioritize to make your space more efficient. Upgrading appliances is also a great way to improve the entire system. The Energy Star logo or the global equivalent is a great place to start if you're looking for energy efficient products for your spaces. Look for efficient LEDs that use roughly 75% less energy, and last far longer than incandescents. And if you have the option, opt for natural lighting. Use shades that let in natural light, giving you the added boost of sunlight and reducing the need to turn on the lights.
4) Make sustainable food choices.
The last time you went to lunch with colleagues, what were you thinking about when you decided what to order? Were you thinking about the ecological footprint of your food choice? What we eat and how we grow food has the biggest impact on the planet’s landscapes, water resources and climate than anything else. Agriculture uses up about 40% of land area, dries 70% of freshwater and uses 25% of heat trapping greenhouse gas emissions. Our diets, especially those heavy with animal products, have huge impacts on water resources and climate change. It’s a big problem, but you don't have to give up meat altogether to reduce your ecological footprint. Start small. Simply shifting from red to white meat can be extremely helpful. Incorporate meatless Mondays into your family or team at work. Explore foods with lower carbon footprints, like lentils and beans. Another big way to make a change in your food practices is to reduce food waste. When we waste meat and dairy products, we're also wasting all of the corn, soy, hay and other foods the animals ate during their lifetimes. So, if you have meat and salad greens in the fridge, try to prioritize eating or freezing the meat first, so that all the resources that went into it are not wasted. Small steps to reduce food waste, will help save our land, water and energy upon which both people and wildlife depend.
5) Refuse, Reduce, Reuse Recycle.
Everyone has heard, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” but Elizabeth stresses that the most important step is to refuse waste in the first place. Refusing means saying no to waste in the form of single-use disposables like plastic water bottles, plastic bags and other short-lived things that have a one-way ticket to the landfill. So when you order takeout for your next meal, refuse the single-use disposable silverware and instead, invest in reusable silverware. A fun way to bring sustainability awareness to the people in your life is by gifting friends and coworkers a reusable metal silverware set! This small gesture invites them to be part of the mindset of using reusable instead of single-use items. Changing the mindset that goes with the word recycling is an important step in our global sustainability efforts so instead of thinking about recycling as a way to continue using single-use plastics, think of it as the last resort before the landfill.
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As the undeniable and alarming effects of climate change continue to shape our world, the time to ramp up our sustainability efforts is now. We should be proud that the City of San Francisco has hit our goal of being carbon-neutral as well as set the goal to have a 100% renewable electricity supply by 2030, but the work is never done! To really see change, we need to work together as a global community to improve humanity and protect the environment.
To learn more and continue your sustainability journey, check out Elizabeth’s full LinkedIn Learning course The Employee's Guide to Sustainability, which is free for 24 hours using this link!