In a few days, the new year 2022 will start and many people, including you, will use the turn of the year as an opportunity to reflect and set new goals. Is one of your New Year’s resolutions to make your life more sustainable? Then you’ve come to the right place! Because we have a few suggestions for you on how you can really put this plan into practice.
Small changes, big difference
Even small adjustments to your everyday life can work wonders for the long term, e.g. proper heating. This not only saves CO2 but also money. Because the largest share of energy (approx. 73% (as of 2018)) consumed in households is used for heating. Efficient heating is not that difficult, you just have to know the right temperature. This varies somewhat depending on the area.
Here are a few guidelines:
Living area: 20 to 22 °C
Kitchen: around 18 °C
Bedroom: 17 to 18 °C
Bathroom: 22 °C
At night you can just turn the heating down.
While we’re in the flat, we might as well stay there: The new year is a good time to tidy up and clean out. However, you should not simply throw away clothes, books and the like that are still usable and in good condition, but sell or donate them. This way, the things you no longer need will have a second life. If you are then thinking about new purchases, try buying second-hand. Sometimes you can’t avoid buying new. But nowadays you can find almost everything second-hand. In many special department stores, you can also find furniture, sports equipment and household goods in very good condition.
Waste food? Not with us!
Something that all of us deal with is food. However, this is also associated with a lot of waste and less sustainable consequences. It starts with shopping: very many products are packed in plastic. For some, this is necessary because of the shelf life. For others, you can do without. For example, you can buy fruit and vegetables unpackaged or use reusable fruit nets.
You can also always pack a bag so you don’t have to buy a new one. If you forget and have to use a new bag, don’t throw it away, but use it several times.
You can also drink water from the tap instead of buying it. This way you create less plastic waste and save a lot of money.
You can also save on waste when you go to go: At the bakery, bread is often given to you in bags. Due to hygiene regulations, it is not always possible to bring your own container, but asking is free and many bakers now offer it themselves.
Another alternative is unpacked shops. They can now be found in almost every city, and you can also find unpackaged food delivered to your home online at Kornkiste, for example. You can read about how this works on their Website.
However, waste-saving shopping is of no use if the food ends up going bad because it is not eaten. Unfortunately, a lot of food still ends up in the rubbish in Germany. A study found that Germans throw away about 75 kilograms of food per year (if you want to read the study yourself, you can find it here). In addition to leftover food, this also includes waste such as nut and fruit peelings. There are many ideas on the internet about what you can do with leftovers. Nut shells, for example, can be used to make environmentally friendly barbecue lighters. You can find a suitable “recipe” here.
Have you ever noticed that you often had to throw something away because you cooked or bought too much? Then why not try a precise meal plan? Meal Planning or Meal Prep helps you to calculate exactly and not to buy more than you need. It also provides inspiration when you don’t know what to cook. Plan once a week and you only have to look at the plan instead of having to come up with something new every day.
For meal planning, you can simply use our Weekly Planner.
Speaking of pre-planning food, why not plan for Veganuary? We at Matabooks will also be providing you with information about the vegan lifestyle throughout January. So stay tuned!
How to: Really stick to your goals
But how do you actually manage to put your resolutions into practice? First of all, it is important to set concrete goals. That is, instead of writing down “shop unpacked more often” as a resolution, you can resolve: “I will go to the unpacked shop on Saturday and get most of my weekly shopping there. Or if you want to try vegan food, make a resolution to cook vegan food one day a week.
Also, set realistic goals and not too many at once. You don’t have to save the world in a week. Take it slowly. It also helps if you find a support buddy. You can then encourage each other to keep the resolutions.
If things do get difficult and you are on the verge of throwing all the good goals overboard, remind yourself why you set them.
It will work even better if you write down all your resolutions and draw up a plan. Do you still need a beautiful and sustainable planning buddy? Then take a look at our Matashop. There you’ll find our Yearly planners, which will faithfully accompany you through every project. Or you can use our weekly planner to track your goals every week.
It is also helpful to define the goals SMART. This means they must be specific, measurable, attractive, realistic and timed. This way, resolutions do not just fizzle out as terse prose goals. You can find a more detailed explanation of the Smart Method here.
So let’s go! Make 2022 your year and finally turn all your dreams and goals into reality. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for you and wish you a happy new year. See you next year, your Matacrew 🙂
Sources:
www.blogs.nabu.de/guter-vorsatz/
www.gopandoo.de/blogs/blog/35-vorsatze-fur-mehr-nachhaltigkeit
www.the-ognc.com/lifestyle/vorsaetze-fuer-mehr-nachhaltigkeit/
www.ecowoman.de/koerper-geist/achtsamkeit/nachhaltige-vorsaetze-tipps-fuer-umweltbewusstes-gesundes-leben-5307
www.fairlis.de/post/nachhaltige-jahresvorsaetze/
www.umweltbundesamt.de/themen/richtig-heizen
www.verbraucherzentrale.de/wissen/umwelt-haushalt/nachhaltigkeit/einkaufen-ohne-verpackungsmuell-fuenf-tipps-gegen-ueberfluessiges-plastik-26237
www.co2online.de/klima-schuetzen/nachhaltiger-konsum/fleisch-klimawandel/
www.bmel.de/DE/themen/ernaehrung/lebensmittelverschwendung/studie-lebensmittelabfaelle-deutschland.html