Sustainable Resolutions for 2021

3 Easy Resolutions You Can Implement Today for Planet Earth

Sabrina Bocaranda
Sprightful
Published in
6 min readJan 11, 2021

Happy New Year! 2020 has finally ended, and while the challenges of the past year aren’t fully behind us, we can at least look towards the future with renewed hope.

A new year brings in a fresh start to realign our intentions and set our goals onto new horizons. We’ve seen how simple acts, like staying home or wearing a mask, can have a historic impact on our future, so for 2021, let’s make our goals count.

The changes we make today can help define our future for years to come, and not much is in such dire need for change than our environment. In 2013, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated, “Climate change is real and human activities are the main cause.” There is no denying it: we are the problem… but we can also help be part of the solution.

Here are 3 sustainable resolutions to implement this year. As difficult as they might seem, they are all much easier than reliving another pandemic, going into lockdown, or facing an environmental crisis (which is for sure to come if we don’t make changes ASAP).

1. Conscious Consumption

In full transparency, becoming a conscious consumer will take some effort. So many of our toxic shopping habits are deeply ingrained into our lifestyles, it’s hard to imagine waiting for more than two days for shipping. But it can be done. There are alternatives to next day delivery, seasonal trends, and transatlantic shipping.

The biggest and most impactful step you can take to become a conscious consumer is to shop less. It’s not about renouncing money and all material goods, but about needs vs wants. It’s not about not buying anything ever again, but making purchases that bring you the most value. “How often will I use this?” “What is the actual [environmental] cost of this new purchase?” “Do I already have something like this that I can use instead?”

When you do go shopping, try to buy local. Buying local not only helps decrease your environmental footprint by lowering transportation costs and CO2 emissions, but it also helps support your local community.

Another option is to buy secondhand. This is especially important for fashion purchases, one of the most environmentally destructive industries in the world. The modern chase for trend and style has wreaked havoc on our air and water.

Every year the fashion industry uses 93 billion cubic meters of water — enough to meet the consumption needs of five million people.

The fashion industry is responsible for 10% of annual global carbon emissions, more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. (The World Bank)

The worst part is that much of that clothing goes to waste; less than 1% of clothes used are recycled and 85% of it ends up in landfills. Websites like ThreadUp, Depop, or TheRealReal can help you sell and buy pre-loved clothing in great conditions. You can also buy secondhand furniture and household items.

Another positive resolution tied to consumption is to buy less plastic. This can easily be done by switching to recyclable shopping bags or reusable water bottles.

2. Go (kinda) Vegan

Switching to a fully vegan lifestyle can be hard — trust me, I know. It involves changing many of our daily habits and unlearning the way we eat. But even lowering your meat consumption to certain days a week can help. The environmental cost of meat and dairy products includes animal methane and CO2 production and major deforestation.

“26% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from food. And 58% of those emissions come from animal products.” (BBC)

Including more plant-based ingredients and protein sources in your diet can not only help achieve health-oriented resolutions, but also environmental ones. Some easy switches can be replacing cow milk with oat milk. In fact, it actually tastes better in coffee and cereal! Also, meat-substitutes are starting to taste like the real thing. So next time you go grocery shopping, just make a couple of simple swaps and test it out. Come back and share it with us by tagging @sprightful_solar.

3. Switch to Solar!

Solar energy has been growing at an active pace for the last couple of years, producing about 1.5% of all U.S. power in 2018 and expected to more than double in the next upcoming years (Forbes).

Solar is the gold standard for accessible, renewable, fast-growing energy worldwide. However, it was still out of reach for many until today. At-home solar systems were once limited to only the rich, with high prices and limited companies in the market. But with the growing rate of solar companies in the country, high tax incentives from local governments, and a decrease in costs of solar panel production, this technology is becoming even more widespread.

Some companies, like Sprightful, are even taking the mission to spread solar energy even further, pushing programs that make it accessible for EVERYONE to make the switch.

At Sprightful, this has been one of our long-standing missions: to make solar contagious.

Our new Savings Sharing Plan (SSP) will help anyone who has thought about going solar but deemed it impossible a reality. SSP allows you to add a new solar system to your home completely for free. A portion of your monthly savings will go to pay for the system as you use it, so Sprightful only gets paid if we can get you to save!

The catch? None. Ironically, it is more expensive to continue as you are by NOT joining SSP than it is to participate and finally #gogreen with our beautiful panels. A win-win-win. To learn more about SSP, you can visit www.sprightful.com/ssp. What are you waiting for? ☀️

Conclusion

Whether it is taking on changes to your shopping habits, diet, or even adding solar panels to your home, there are many ways we can help protect our environment.

Earth is the only home we’ll ever have (TBD on Mars), and it’s our responsibility to care for it! This new year, let’s look towards the future with hope, optimism, but most importantly: action. We’ve learned the impact these can make, so let’s make a promise to change, for our climate, for the better.

Here at Sprightful, we’re redefining residential solar. Our sole mission is to make solar accessible to everyone — we’ve just launched our most innovative solar plan in South Florida to make that happen! Learn more at www.sprightful.com & find us on social media @sprightful_solar ☀️

Be sure to follow, like, and share to help spread solar energy awareness!

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Published in Sprightful

Redefining residential solar and making it accessible to everyone. Solar should be simple. ☀️ At Sprightful, our mission is to give everyone access to the magic of solar energy. ✨

Written by Sabrina Bocaranda

A new member to the world of social entrepreneurship, dreaming of making the world a little brighter ☀️.

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