365 Sustainable Decisions Challenge

69 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:   This week I learned that a former colleague, a kind and warm-hearted man, unexpectedly passed away. Apart from being shocked and sad, I'm glad that I've decided to dedicate myself fully to #sustainability today, as I might not be able to do so anymore tomorrow.

Looking back: 221 days into my 365 Sustainable Decisions Challenge:  I know this reasoning is incorrect: Swans are white + this swan is black -> swans being white is nonsense. Therefore, I also believe this reasoning is incorrect: the earth is getting warmer + Antarctica just had a cold record -> global warming is nonsense.

During a recent trip, I bought something that came in a paper bag. Instead of throwing it away on the way home, I decided to take it with me. Now it is sitting in my waste bin to be filled with garbage. This gives the bag a second life and therefore saves one.

68 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  Has it happened to you that someone shared an idea and you thought: "I can't do that"? When I think this, I prevent my mind from coming up with a solution. Instead, I ask myself: "How can I do this?" For example, "How can I live more sustainably?". Then I find a way.

When I take my drawing tablet on a journey, I of course want to make sure it doesn’t break. That’s why a case is helpful. I found one from an old laptop. It is slightly too big, but nevertheless has a good size, so I now don’t have to buy a new one.  

67 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  I learned a new viewpoint: when animals are treated badly by the food industry, they are stressed. The released stress hormones negatively affect the quality of the meat. So, it's not good for them, nor for me. Another good reason to eat less meat or happy animals only.

Even though micro-SD is becoming more often the way to recharge batteries, I still have a few devices that need the more old-fashioned AA or AAA batteries. I am using rechargeable batteries to make sure that I have to throw away as few batteries as possible. And I’m glad that the local supermarket takes the ones that I occasionally do have to throw away, so they get at least disposed properly.  

66 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  On Saturday November 28th 2020, I'll be speaking at the Veggienale & FairGoods fair in Stuttgart, Germany. I'm really looking forward to it and hope to see some of you there!  If you like to have me speak on your event too, please drop me a line.

In the past, I printed ticket whenever I went on, for example, a flight. But I realized that it works really well to upload the document on my phone and then let the ticket be scanned from there. And sometimes it is possible to load the ticket in an app. This saves me ink and paper.  

65 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  When I realize I do things that do more harm than good, I stop digging the hole I'm in to prevent it from becoming deeper. Instead I change my approach to get out. That's why I live sustainably and share how I do so: I feel we're in a deep hole and need to get out now.

When I take a shower, I make sure that I don’t fully open the tap to save water. When fully opening the tap, it feels that doing so causes an unnecessary amount of water to pour down the drain. And as I take warm showers, this also reduces the amount of energy that is needed to heat up the water.

64 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  Today, in #400, I shared the idea of moving tiny trees. In The Netherlands, a similar and I think brilliant initiative is expanded: volunteers will move seedlings from places where they can't become full-grown trees to more suitable spots, saving trees and money.

Next spring, I’m planning to grow some trees in my garden. When they are large enough, I can then move them to a suitable spot. (This year, I already did so with a tree that grew by accident; #357).  

63 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  In the last few weeks, I had to pay extra attention to my priorities due to many tasks. The course I've been doing was on the top of my priority list during the last few days. However, this Sustainable Decisions Movement is too, that's why my posts kept coming. 

When I mow the grass in my garden, I usually leave the grass on the ground. This works great as natural fertilizer. Also, I minimize generating biodegradable waste that needs to be processed.

62 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  When I wanted to use my tripod this week, I realized that a plastic piece is broken. Luckily, I learned on 🌱Day 354 that I can fix plastic with super-glue and baking soda. I repaired it but because of the pressure it broke again. But yes, my final improvisation worked!

I don’t know whether this is the case in other countries as well, but in Germany, quite a lot of buildings, walls etc. are sprayed with graffiti. As it is not necessary to do so, and causes a lot of waste. Buildings, walls etc. can also left be left they are.  

61 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  My flexibility this week has been worth it! And even though I sometimes go through phases that are not so comfortable during my course, I enjoy it! And I'm sure that what I learn will benefit our Sustainable Decisions Movement too.

As I promised yesterday, I found an even better way to brew my tea. I remembered that I have mint in my garden, so with fresh leaves, I can brew delicious tea. The good thing here is that I not only reduce waste, the tea also doesn’t have to travel the world to end up in my cup. This saves transportation costs, including fuel.

60 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  To me it's important to take action for our planet. Yesterday, I also took action by emptying my diary when I heard that I can do a course this week that replaces next week's course. Although it fills my diary from 9am-10pm for 4 days, I look forward to learning a lot!

219 days into my 365 Sustainable Decisions Challenge:  To get rid of pain in a crisis, something has to change. But although there is pain, there also are costs related to change: uncertainty, judgments, effort, money. I believe that change is unlikely when the experienced costs are higher than the experienced pain. I also believe that in the climate crisis, we haven't reached the tipping point. So, for change to happen, the pain should increase or the cost decrease. The pain will increase when we continue like this (e.g. floods); with my Challenge, I contribute to reducing the cost.

This is not something I can do. But for those who do plan roads: a roundabout compared to a crossroad with traffic lights saves using electricity for the traffic lights and fuel due to a more fluent traffic flow.

59 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  During my this week's drawing course, I again realized how much I like constructive feedback. I drew the left mouse and got the tip that it looks better when the weight of the black line is not always the same. I changed this and wow, it looks so much better!

In #21, I promised to look for alternatives to tea bags. I found two. The first is to use a tea infuser, which is better because this tea is sold in one large bag and in some shops only the leaves. I herewith can definitely reduce the amount of waste. I’ll tell you about the second one tomorrow.

58 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  Some argue that we should panic about climate change. I believe it's important to see the urgency, however panicking would bring me in a emotional roller coaster ride. That's why I stay calm as much as I can and focus on making a difference.

When I used to buy detergent to clean the toilet, I didn’t pay attention to whether it is eco-friendly. From now on, I do to use as little chemicals as possible.  

57 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  Every year, my energy company sends me a letter like this one to tell me how much electricity I used and how this is compared to other households. As I'm at home a lot due to home-office and now Corona, I'm pleased that I'm in the category "good".

I used to buy butter in a plastic cup as you can see on the left. I still use this cup, but fill it with another type of butter that comes in merely a wrapping. Yes, this is similar to the decision I made in #7, but importantly, in the hotel I couldn’t change their purchase anymore, but I can at home.

56 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  This week was an exciting week as you're now able to read the 365 Sustainable Decisions book, we reached 50.000 members in this movement and I am now self-employed so that I can continue my work for this movement. I celebrated this by dancing freestyle in my house.

Looking back: 218 days into my 365 Sustainable Decisions Challenge:  I'm not a geese expert, so it would take me ages to identify this one. I'd prefer to ask experts and base my judgment on their analyses. They might be wrong, but are more likely right than me. In the same way, I judge the criticality of the Corona and climate crises.

Recently, I had to sign a document that someone sent by email. Instead of printing the document, signing it and scanning it, I looked for a functionality to sign it digitally. I found it and it worked really well. Glad to have saved paper.

55 days into my 365 Clover Challenge: Currently, I'm doing a drawing course about still lives. The exercise this week required me to draw in a completely different style than normally. As with #sustainable living, I can't tell whether I like this (life)style without having tried it.

Some chargers still use electricity even when no device is attached to it for charging. Therefore, I unplug the charger whenever it is done. I have to admit that I also sometimes forget, but well, no one’s perfect.

54 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  Last year, I was alone; now we are over 50.000 in this Sustainable Decisions Movement! I aim to at least double this number before Day 365 as together we can achieve more. Will you support me by sharing with others (both on- and offline) what this movement means to you?

Looking back: 217 days into my 365 Sustainable Decisions Challenge:  Corona makes people worry about our economy. That makes sense, as business depends on a healthy social system. Also, a healthy social system can't exist without a healthy environment. So, to make business work in the long run, we need to take care of our environment.

When I was young, I was taught that when beetles end up on their backs, they are not able to turn themselves around anymore and die eventually. So whenever I see a beetle with his feet in the air, I turn him around to rescue him.

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This one is related to #4. Not only do I use my bags better by flattening my waste, I also put in as much as possible before using a new one. The bags are made of plastic, so each additional bag causes more plastic waste.

52 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  This week, I'm exceptionally busy as several things happen at the same time: I'm finishing everything off at my job (including bringing my equipment back and saying my colleagues good bye), am finishing the book and am already working on tasks for my future projects.

During a walk, I came across these blackberries. Most of them weren’t ripe yet, but some were. I harvested them and found out that they tasted very well.

51 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  I have read about this, but this is the first time I've seen it: instead of putting a sticker on this pumpkin to mark it as biological, it is engraved. I think that is a clever idea to save plastic!

In # 9, I spoke about taking shorter showers. This one is related as it also saves water. During soaping my hair, I decided to turn off the shower to save water. I have to admit that I got a little cold, but that made the shower even more wonderful afterwards.

50 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  I read about how beneficial it is to speak positive words to yourself. I didn't realize, but that is what I do: when I for example forget or spill something, I think "oops!" and get it sorted out, instead of calling myself a dumbhead. It makes me feel much better.

Looking back: 216 days into my 365 Sustainable Decisions Challenge:  In an unpleasant situation I can do 3 things to feel better: 1) do something about it (act), 2) leave the situation (abandon), 3) make the most out of it (accept). For the Corona crisis I stay at home and disinfect, but otherwise accept; for the climate crisis I act.

I got the hint that I can only use half a block for the dishwasher and that it still works well. I tried it, and it sometimes, not always, works for me too.

49 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  This week, I've been thinking about dinosaurs and that they got extinct whereas nature survived. Then I wondered whether humans tend to feel immortal and believe a similar fate due to climate change is impossible. Anyway, dinosaurs couldn't change their fate ... we can.

I love ice cream and always eat it in a cone. I like the taste of it but also hate the waste that is caused by using a cup with spoon. The cup you can see on the picture is biodegradable according to the info plate that was displayed. But it also says that it takes a maximum of 5 years for these cups to degrade. Even if it’s 3 years, that is way too long for me!

48 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  On my cycle tour, I drove past the tiny shop next to the road. What I like about it - apart from that it sells local foods only - is that there's no one there to sell it: you just have to put the money in a jar. So no electricity is needed to run this shop.

I've been reading this article, which has helped me to understand the difference between "carbon neutrality", "climate neutrality" and "environmental neutrality". And how important it is for goal setting that everyone involved has the same understanding.  https://t.co/30E4FClO2m?amp=1

As I’m living relatively close to a railway station, I these days walk home (or to the railway station) instead of taking a taxi. Especially after a long journey, this is a wonderful way to stretch my legs.  

47 days into my 365 Clover Challenge:  When I was 14, I did a course on making websites. The knowledge I gained back then has come in handy this week: to make the e-version of the 365 Sustainable Decisions book. It is structured in HTML, as are websites, so that it will suit whatever device you use.