Measurable goals are attainable goals
It’s often easier to make and keep a commitment—like going green—when you set measurable goals. A simple strategy is to determine actions you can reduce and others you can increase around the home. Choose specific ways you can make changes (like a percentage of the bill, number of occurrences or within a timeframe) to affect your household’s habits around these areas:
Reduce
- Energy and water usage
- Food waste
- Purchase/replacement of new electronics
- Paper use
- Single-use plastics
- Frequency of lawn mowing
- New apparel and household decor purchases
- Meat consumption
- Number of trips to run household errands
Increase
- Recycling, upcycling, and repurposing efforts
- Strategic and eco-friendly landscaping using native plants
- Composting
- Purchasing or making environmentally friendly household items or yard products
- Areas in the yard left natural to provide habitats for insects
- Experiential, rather than physical, gifts
- Repair, refinishing and recovering of furniture
- Consumption of more organic and minimally processed foods
- Purchasing of items with minimal or recyclable packaging
- Use of items that can be refilled in their original container
