We have our baseline and New Year’s goals for sustainability. Now what?
Before we move forward, these baselines include figuring out how often we do an unsustainable practice such as how much solid waste we send to the landfill, where we do it creating a system to not do our identified unsustainable practice.
Now, we want to take those goals to the mat and attack them, piece by piece. To see this in action, we’ll use a reference goal of recycling all of our plastic that we couldn’t avoid using from the start.
In other words, 100% recycling of our recyclable plastics we couldn’t avoid using. This is set to occur within one year. A second goal here could also be to make sure that the unavoidable plastic is made from recycled material as well. Both goals truly promote circularity.
When we break up the goal into pieces, it’s easier to attack, like chipping away. It also helps keep the individual or company on track to meet those goals when we have checkpoints. Did we meet our monthly or quarterly goals? If no, then what did we do wrong and how can we change that? This is a standard business practice for companies and individuals that become successful.
What are the benefits of following your system?
- Following your plan (system) will eventually lead to success. Yes, we all falter, but carry on.
- You’re holding your company or yourself accountable for your actions.
- You’ll be able to see your success in real time and be motivated to continue.
How do I make sure my goals are met for the coming year?
Accountability: Make sure you have systems in place that lead to accountability. One way is to create a checklist of the steps to avoid not recycling. You’ll feel better after you check each box, knowing you met that goal. Make monthly or quarterly goals. The same type of feelings of success can come during these periods here as well because you met your larger goal within the time that you originally set.
Tracking: This goal can be met by following the methods from the accountability section. You could also add another layer here by considering the dynamics of what issues you’re working to solve by recycling. What we mean is looking at the potential for mitigating climate change and biodiversity, two good examples. This isn’t an exact science, but it will create a clearer picture of why you took on the goal in the first place.
Goals: Your goals should be specific in order to make them come alive. As in this example, they should also be realistic and have a specific timeframe to be completed in.
Planning: Planning is highly important in making sure your goal will come to life by the end of the year, or by whatever timeframe you’ve chosen. With the complex web of sustainability, we need to understand how and why we’ve taken this task on. The question of whether a goal makes sense will come from the sustainability indicators (SIs) you come up with. These indicators could be a reduction of solid waste and solid waste sent to a landfill. As we have here, our 100% goal matches the two indicators because we’re reducing solid waste in the first place and we’re sending it somewhere else.
You’re ready to start doing good. Have a wonderful new year…