Category Build Back Better

After we move into the weekend (and after a bit of a delay with posting here – sorry about that!), let’s talk sustainability. Sustainability means a lot of different things:

• reducing/eliminating our carbon emissions, by downsizing, radically reducing our flying, switching to a plant-based diet, and more
• ensuring that our programs are well designed and achieving their goals
• electing governments that have truly sustainable policies at their core
• and so much more

So, for today – here’s the question:

What’s one (or more) areas of sustainability that you are interested in learning more about? What’s something that you would like to see more of? What resonates with you?

Share in the comments, and I’ll build your answers into future posts. Let’s talk!

There are a lot of reasons to switch to a plant-based diet. Today, we’re talking about eggs! You might think that they are tough to switch out, but they are actually really easy to eliminate, with a few simple substitutions.

So, you might be wondering why we are talking about substitutions – people have eaten eggs for a long time. Why switch now?

What changes have you already made? Which are you curious about? What might you be ready to try in the next week or two? Share in the comments and I’ll answer your questions!

Sustainability in clothing comes in lots of different forms. Here are a few ideas for how to build more sustainability into a wardrobe.

• Own less – share items you no longer use. Buy fewer additional items. (Also means a less cluttered closet!)
• Buy better quality – have a few quality items instead of many cheaper ones.
• Mix and match – buy basic items that can easily be matched with other items.
• Support sustainable brands and make thoughtful purchasing choices. (Check the MennoAdventures online store for lots of great options!)

Here are today’s questions (you are invited to answer any or all, in the comments!):

• What sustainable choices have you made in your wardrobe?
• What changes are you curious about but unsure how to proceed?
• What is your favourite switch that you have made so far?
• What’s one sustainable change that you wish everyone would do?

It’s true – it’s possible to have a great holiday without turkey, ham, cream, butter and eggs. It’s not only possible – it’s easy, and better for the environment!

Many of our holiday traditions centre around food – and great food is still part of a plant-based holiday, just in a slightly different format. (Plus, if we are lucky, we still get time with loved ones – which is far more important than a turkey! 🌈)

What does that look like? Here are a few simple tips to help get you started. Start with a few easy adjustments – or go all-in, if you are ready for a bigger change.

Instead of dairy cream, mix cashews and water (about equal parts) in the blender. Add salt, pepper, garlic etc as usual. Use in mashed potatoes, or gravy on everything!

Instead of dairy milk in pies and other desserts, use non-dairy milk (homemade is easy) or use a bought alternative. Top with non-dairy ice cream, if desired.

Looking for a main protein dish? Try making a lentil loaf, or buying a ready-made veggie roast or sausage. There are countless options, so try a few until you find your new favourite. Remember that you probably don’t love absolutely every animal product that exists – but you still like some. So if the first veggie sausage you try isn’t your new instant favourite, just keep going and try something different. Be careful not to write off the category (eg “I tried one plant-based sausage and I didn’t like it, so I’m going back to meat”), just because of a few bumps in the road. You have probably been eating animal based products for decades – so don’t be surprised if you don’t find your new favourite lentil loaf on the first try. Give lentils as much time/space to become a staple in your diet as you previously did to meat, dairy and eggs!

What changes have you already made? What would you like to switch but aren’t sure about? Share your questions and wins in the comments and I’ll answer all of your questions!

When it comes to sustainability, one of the big mistakes that people make is treating change as individual OR systemic. Either we change our lifestyle (quit flying, quit eating animal products, quit using single use plastic and so on) OR we elect governments that will enact policies in line with climate science and climate justice. However, it’s not an either/OR – it’s a both/and. We need to radically alter our lifestyle AND elect governments that will radically alter how we operate as a country.

Today, we’re talking about changes that we can make at home – the good news is that these changes are easy to make, can be done today and can be done regardless of what changes your local government is or is not making right now.

So, here are a few ideas to get started. You might have already done and others might not be applicable, so pick and choose the ones that are right for you.

• Instead of single-use zipper bags/wrap, try reusable bags, beeswax wrap or glass/stainless containers
• Instead of single-use water/juice bottles, buy a glass/stainless steel water bottle and refill it. Or, buy juice from concentrate, mix it in a pitcher, and fill from there.
• Switch your bathroom products to zero-waste. Did you know you can get reusable cotton wipes, swabs and more to replace the single use options? Shampoo comes in bars, instead of a plastic bottle!
• Try owning less stuff. Buy a few better quality items and reuse them often – including clothing, footwear, household items and more.
• Want to go one step further? Consider downsizing your living space, if you currently have more than what you need/use. In a larger house, try a smaller house. In a house, try an apartment. Have a long commute to get to most places? Try moving to somewhere closer to public transit.
• Eat fewer (or zero) animal products, and lots more rice, lentils and other plants. It’s better for the environment, healthier, cheaper and easy to stock up in bulk.

What changes have you made? What are you interested in changing but unsure about? Let me know in the comments. I’ll answer your questions, and we’ll celebrate the successes together!

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If you are looking for zero-waste or sustainable items, check the online store at mennoadventures.ca – we have clothing, containers, compostable phone cases and more!

There has been some work going on behind the scenes, and I invite you to check out the new and improved MennoAdventures IG page! There are still a few updates being integrated, and I appreciate your patience as those get fixed.

In the meantime, in the comments, please introduce yourself and share where you live – and one sustainability change you have made in the past that you are excited about. Have you reduced or quit flying? Switched to more plant-based eating? Become vegetarian or vegan? Encouraged your office/school/worship space/extended family/friends to be more actively LGBTQ+ safe? Something else? I look forward to hearing what everyone is up to!

After a quieter than expected spring and summer here, due to some scheduling conflicts and vacation time on my end (sorry about that!), things are back up and running – and there are some big ideas being worked on to build up and improve the website over the fall and winter.

You may have noticed that the online store has been growing slowly and steadily. If you haven’t checked it out recently, I encourage you to do so. One of my favourites, from this summer, is the Lomi home composter – we tested ours on some camping trips this summer, and it performed beautifully!

I also had the privilege of attending my first Toronto Pride Parade this summer, visiting with some family and friends, and finding time for some much needed vacation.

Now, we are into fall, and that means it’s back to work! For the website, fall and winter, this year, means an increased focus on all things sustainable, looking at both individual and systemic changes that we need to make, as well as individual changes that lead to systemic changes.

Looking for things that you can change right now, to help build a better tomorrow? Here’s today’s list:

• Eliminate (or very significantly reduce) consumption of animal products
  • Animal products are a very significant contributor to the climate crisis (plus a Whole Foods Plant-Based diet is far healthier!).
  • Want to go all the way and go into winter plant-based? Use up what you currently have in your fridge or freezer, and don’t by anything else. Instead of adding chicken or other meat to your pasta (for example), add a tin of chickpeas or kidneys – it’s more sustainable, healthier and cheaper. Why pay more to wreck the climate?
• Quit flying
  • If you can’t quit all the way now, cut the worst flights first:
    • short and medium haul flights, as well as any flights for a short trip eg flying to a resort for a week in winter, flying out for a conference/meeting etc. Instead, find somewhere local for a holiday, and join the meeting remotely.
    • If you must fly, limit it to only the absolutely essential trips, and limit yourself to one flight/year or less (as your max – less is much better). Can you challenge yourself (and others in your circles) to reduce yourselves to one flight every 5 years? Every 10 years? Something else?
• Advocate for better choices and policies at the institutional level
  • Ironically, some faith groups (and others) are still acting in a manner that seems completely backwards – actively refusing to do what’s needed to address the climate crisis, while ALSO putting huge amounts of time and energy into things like ensuring that they continue to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people, newcomers, women, minorities and others. It’s wrong, and the only thing that will change it is if we all speak up and demand something better.
  • We need to put all of our time and energy into doing what’s right – saving the planet and ending discrimination.

Travel, and especially international travel, has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. With my first international flights, when I was young, not surprisingly, the carbon emissions of our flights was not on my radar. Even later, as an adult, I was, at times, doing more than one return, trans-Atlantic flight per year, without a second thought.

In the last 5-10 years (maybe a bit more), in my circles, at least, I have started seeing increased awareness of the fact that the way we are travelling (either for work or for fun), is not sustainable. At the same time, even in my circles (which include many people who are very aware of the climate crisis, as well as others for whom climate awareness is fairly low), very few people (other than the most highly dedicated climate activists among us), are reducing their flying. People are still flying for work trips (which could perhaps have been done remotely) and still flying long distances for short vacations.

For the climate, Covid was, in many ways, a blessing in disguise. It forced us to stop flying unnecessarily and cut down on endless hours of driving and commuting to work, among other things. However, now that we are two years into Covid, some people are starting again with flying and other high-emissions activities, in some cases with a premise of “we’ve got 2.5 years of missed flying to make up for, so we’re doing extra now…”

Disclaimer for chart on right:

Among other things, this is trying to estimate carbon price/person for a fixed unit (eg an airplane) with inconsistent variables (eg number of people on the plane). If, as it often the case due to Covid etc, a plane is less full than the baseline for this calculation, the emissions/person will be much higher than indicated in the chart.

So, what does this mean? How do we move forward more positively?

• Tourism is responsible for roughly 8% of the world’s carbon emissions. (link). Flying accounts for a significant piece of that, and is a very easy piece to eliminate. Not only do we save $ by not booking expensive flights for holidays, we also significantly reduce our climate impact, especially if we are very intentional about choosing an alternative that is much more climate safe.
• Short and medium flights are very damaging, and are a very carbon intensive way to travel. This is even harder to justify if the trip was non-essential, or could have been done in any other way (eg train etc).
• Long-haul flights are lower emissions/km traveled (in some cases) but the damage is still there from the high number of total KMs travelled. As with shorter flights, many long-haul flights are non-essential and could easily be cancelled.
• Many trips in which a long-haul flight is booked, at least one shorter flight (if not more), is also included in the itinerary eg a short flight from a starting point to a major international airport, for example, and again on the return. Therefore, many trips are adding both the damage from a short-haul flight, with the extensive KMs of a long-haul flights, resulting in very high emissions for what may be a very short vacation.

As we start looking at how to spend this time summer, what changes can we, collectively, make to ensure that we build community and explore, while also not adding unnecessary damage to the environment?

For me, I will not be flying anywhere, as tempting as it is, because of the carbon emissions. What can we do instead?

• camping (in a tent or trailer)
• train trips
• exploring nearby cities or outdoor areas (eg provincial or national parks)
• explore something related to the region you want to travel to, but closer by eg want to travel to Italy? Your nearest big city probably has lots of great Italian restaurants and grocery stores to check out! Want to explore the ruins of an ancient city? Check out your nearest museum instead.
• others?

So, for this summer, and beyond, what changes will you make to how you explore the world, without damaging the climate? Let’s do this together!

Pyramids are often uses as a model within development and other spaces, whether correctly or incorrectly eg pyramids of needs, food pyramids and others. Some work well, some not so well. However, I did come across one recently that I think has value for where we are at right now.

These days, there is far too much of every level of the pyramid – including anti-LGBTQ+ laws in countless places, pointless wars, genocide, a climate crisis that is being ignored and many other challenges

There is far too much hate (for people and the planet), and not enough love, peace, kindness and inclusion and sustainability.

So, why did I post this today?

Far too often, I still see people posting (or sharing in other ways), things that land on the pyramid of hate – either the bottom, or even much higher up. Might be something discriminatory, might be support for a politician or law that discriminates against others, might be support for a war that hurts others, might be lack of support for refugees, might be hateful comments about how a minority (eg LGBTQ+ or others) don’t belong in one’s faith group or family or so many other awful things.

So, what would this look like if we flipped it around, and made it a pyramid of inclusion? (Apologies in advance: my design skills are not good enough to actually redesign it here, so we’ll have to use our imaginations.)

Instead of thinking and acting on our negative biases, leading to discrimination and violence, let’s reverse the cycle. Let’s actively include, and find space for others. Let’s stop justifying our own bad behaviour (eg hateful attitudes, discrimation, sexism, racism, exclusion, pollution and others), pretending that “it’s not that bad, and not hurting anybody” (or any of countless other excuses and justifications). Just because somebody else’s behaviour is worse, doesn’t make our behaviour OK. Both can be wrong, in different ways. We all have ways to improve and learn how to do better.

The Giza pyramids have been around for a long time. Likewise, our legacy – of hate, discrimination and climate destruction OR love, inclusion and a safe planet – will last just as long. So, which do we choose?

If we want a pyramid of inclusion, we need to face our own areas where we need to learn more, find ways to be more inclusive, take radical action to to love creation (switch to a plant-based diet, quit flying, get rid of our gas-powered vehicles, downsize our homes and many others, depending on individual circumstances etc).

So, as we start a new week, what kind of pyramid are we going to build? 🙂

‘OK Doomer’ and the Climate Advocates Who Say It’s Not Too Late https://nyti.ms/37R4NR4

A growing chorus of young people is focusing on climate solutions. “‘It’s too late’ means ‘I don’t have to do anything, and the responsibility is off me.’”

‘OK Doomer’ and the Climate Advocates Who Say It’s Not Too Late https://nyti.ms/37R4NR4

With evidence of the climate crisis growing every day, along with the rise of authoritarian governments, war and other tragedies, it can be hard to stay motivated to keep working for what’s right, for a sustainable, livable, safe planet, for everyone.

In development and sustainability circles, a phrase that is often heard is

Individual action is a great place to start, but a terrible place to end.

And it’s true, in certain ways. We absolutely need strong government action on many things. At the same time, the downside to phrasing our work like this is the somewhat implied apathy, which can lead to

It doesn’t really matter how much or little I try to change my own life, my own actions, how much I try to influence my circles or institutions to change. Someday, some bigger agent than me is going to swoop in and fix everything, so I’m off the hook. I can try a little bit, and then stop when it gets hard or inconvenient.

Here’s the catch. Big systems changes are needed, and we have to keep working for them AND those changes if/when they happen will simply accelerate the changes that, in many cases, we can already make now, for ourselves, without waiting.

For example:

So, while we continue to advocate for massive government intervention, which changes can we – individually and in our circles (extended family, faith group, community groups etc) make today? Which changes are you ready to make today? Which changes are we each prepared to make, even if nobody else does it with us?

In the comments below, let’s share which changes we are ready to make today. Which might we be ready to encourage others to do with us? What steps are we taking, today, for a better tomorrow?

More details on sustainabilty, and lots of zero-waste items, on the website!