Change takes time. Motivation. Dedication. It can be painful and uncomfortable. It can be frustrating, especially when you feel that things go too slow, or do not make a difference. Those moments you look at your garbage bin and it is full of plastic yet again, eventhough you go to the market every week with your reusable bags. When you do a footprint calculation and you are still not within the boundaries of the planet. When you read that yet another 10 species went extinct in the last month.

I found out that making a list of all the things I already did and the things I still want to do to lower my footprint helps me at those challenging moments, where I just want to sit in a corner and cry because I feel it doesn’t make any difference what I am doing. I use the list to reflect, to look back at what I already achieved and at the same time to look forward to what I still can do. And what better moment to make such a list than in January, the moment for New Year’s resolutions!

What did I do in 2018 to lower my impact on the planet?

Let’s start by looking back. It’s so easy to forget the things you already did. We have the tendency to focus most of our attention on the things we still have to do. And eventhough looking forward is important, a moment of reflection every now and then is just as valuable. Here are 20 of the things I did in 2018 to reduce my footprint.

1. Switch to menstrual cup
2. Don’t buy any clothes for 365 days
3. Switch to soap bars
4. Make my own pizza dough
5. Make my own pita bread and hummus
6. Make my own tortilla wraps
7. Stop eating yoghurt for breakfast to reduce the amount of dairy
8. Go plogging
9. Buy food on the market with my own reusable bags
10 Make my own all-purpose cleaner
11. Switch to soda for cleaning tasks
12. Use the Ecosia browser to reduce my internet footprint
13. Participate in #5minutebeachcleanups
14. Successfully complete the “project333 challenge”
15. Declutter my bookshelf and donate more than 200 books to charity
16. Replace disposable cups with a reusable bottle for water, coffee or tea.
17. Upcycle an old piece of furniture
18. Participate in the Dutch Sustainable Fashion Week
19. Replace paper napkins with cotton ones
20. Read the book “The Hidden Impact” of Babette Porcelijn to learn about the impact of our lifestyle choices.

This list makes me happy. I am not there yet. Not even close. But I am making progress. And seeing this list gives me an incredible amount of positive energy to keep lowering my footprint.

My low impact bucket list for 2019

I composed a list of 20 things I would like to do this year to keep lowering my footprint. Some acts are smaller than other ones. Replacing my old plastic toothbrush with a bamboo one will not require the same effort as completing the 30-day vegan challenge (which I took in 2018 as well by the way, but I messed up on the first day already) I like that balance. If all actions would be enormous, I think I would feel overwhelmed.

Here is my list:

2019: the year of the food waste warrior

As you can see, I compiled a list that includes quite a lot of actions to prevent food waste (such as the cooking techniques from the awesome team of Instock or through the Too Good to Go app). It’s an area I really would like to focus on this year. Why?

According to the United Nation Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), global food waste represents more greenhouse gas emissions than any country in the world except for China and the United States.

With so much food being wasted (it is estimated that roughly one-third of the food produced for human consumption worldwide goes to waste) and the big amount of plastic packaging used in the food industry, this is a part where I think my individual actions can have a big impact.

I really hope that the actions on this list can contribute to pushing Earth Overshoot Day back, even if it is just a couple of days this year.

Feel free to use items from my 2018 and 2019 list to create your own low impact bucket list. And if you have one already, don’t hesitate to share it. I would love to be inspired by your actions. Let’s turn 2019 into a green year together!

The post Low impact bucket list: 20 things to do in 2019 to lower your footprint appeared first on My Happy Footprint.

This is how easy it is to make your own hummus

There are tons of variations for hummus. I am sharing my classic hummus recipe here, but don’t be afraid to experiment by adding other herbs or veggies!

• 250 grams of cooked chick peas. I bought cooked, organic chickpeas at the supermarket (they came in a glass jar, which I then used to store the hummus). Next on the list is to cook the chick peas myself.
• 1 tablespoon of tahini. Tahini is a paste made out of sesame seeds. You can also make your own tahini from scratch.
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.
• 1 garlic clove (chopped or pressed)
• 1 teaspoon of cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon of red bell pepper powder
• 1 dl of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of water
• Salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients in a food processor and process until you get a smooth paste. You can add more water if the paste is too thick to your taste. If it’s too dry, add a bit more of oil.

That’s it! Seriously, it’s that easy. And it’s delicious. Store the hummus in a glass jar in the fridge and enjoy with a fresh piece of bread/toast at any moment of the day.

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Well, not this time. My apples did not make it to the trash

I am a big fan of Instock. That’s an awesome initiative where they turn food surplus into delicious meals. Instock has restaurants (luckily also one only 15 minutes away from where I live, yay!), a foodtruck, books, workshops, everything to help food from getting wasted.

I am subscribed to their newsletter and a couple of days ago, I received an e-mail with an extremely easy recipe on how to dry your own fruits. The perfect solution for my wrinkled, shrinked, soft apples!

Here is how you can dry your own fruit

1. Peel or wash the fruit, whatever is necessary. I only washed the apples and dried them with the skin. If you are drying bananas, you’ll take of the skin, but washing is not necessary.
2. Cut it into small and thin slices. There are some recipes that use big slices, but I prefer the small ones as I think this is great to add to your yoghurt.
3. Place the sliced fruit onto the oven tray. I used baking paper, although some recipes recommend regular kitchen paper as it would absorb more juice. I haven’t been able to try that yet. It depends on the type of fruit you would like to dry. For apples, the baking paper was just fine.
4. Leave it to dry for about 3 hours on 50°C.

The happy results

I was so excited to taste the apples ones they were out of the oven. The idea was to store them and use them the next day at breakfast, but both my husband Gabi and I couldn’t resist and throughout the day we snacked the little dried pieces of apple.

Can’t wait to try this receipe with other fruit. Have you ever dried you own fruit? Leave your thoughts and comments below!

The post Don’t throw those apples! Easy receipe to dry your own fruit appeared first on My Happy Footprint.

Watch them, rewatch them, take notes, analyze what is important for you. If you want to share your thoughts, leave a note at the end of this post or drop an e-mail at hello@myhappyfootprint.com.

1. Tristram Stuart – The global food waste scandal

A farmer invested 16.000 pounds to grow spinach. Not a single leaf of which he harvested, because there was a little bit of grass growing in amongst it.

Tristram Stuart is a British activist and writer of the acclaimed book Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal. He helps charities, governments, businesses and institutions to implement reductions in food waste.

In his TedTalk Stuart shows how much food is actually wasted. For cosmetic reasons, overproduction, or to feed the ever growing livestock market. He also shows how unequal food is actually distributed and how rich countries hold between 3 and 4 times the amount of food necessary to feed their populations.

The solution might not be that easy, Stuarts request though is simple: “Stop wasting food”

2. Graham Hill – Less Stuff, More Happiness

Graham Hill is the founder of TreeHugger.com and LifeEdited, two blogs that I highly recommend you to follow if you want to know more about sustainability and minimalism.

In the first 25 seconds Hill captures the essence of his message, by sitting on a box. Watch the talk to find out what’s in that box, I bet it’s pretty familiar. The complete talk is a little over 5 minutes and will get you thinking about how much unnecessary stuff you actually own.

3. Lucy Siegle – The Wardrobe To Die For

Lucy Siegle, journalist and producer of the movie “True Cost” – which is available on NetFlix and 100% worth a watch, elaborates on one of the most contaminating industries, the one of fashion. Contaminating in many ways, not only destroying nature, but lives as well.

“It takes between 11.000 and 20.000 litres of water to produce a single pair of jeans.”

Eventhough the estimates of Siegle of how much water it costs to produce one pair of jeans are a bit higher than other sources (that claim it to be between 3700 and 10.000, which is still shockingly high! ) this talk will definitely open your eyes about the impact of fashion.

 4. Monica Araya – How to get rid of fossil fuels

When you think about Costa Rica, the first thing that might pop up into your head are the stunning beaches. Or the fact that it’s the happiest place on earth, according to the Happy Planet Index. But did you know that Costa Rica also set a world record?

In 2015 the country didn’t use ANY fossil fuels to generate electricity for 299 consecutive days.

Monica Araya talks about the energy transformation of her country. She wonders how the rest of the economy can be ‘decarbonized’, pinpointing the transportation industry as the main problem.

Earlier this year, the government of Costa Rica announced initiatives to ‘greener’ the transportation sector, which I can only assume made Araya happy. I am closely following the developments of Costa Rica on it’s mission to get rid of fossil fuels.

5. Tshering Tobgay – Put happiness before economic growth

This TedTalk is full of happy energy, not in the last place because you clearly notice the love Thsering Tobgay has for his country and its traditions. He explains how Bhutan became the first carbon negative country on the planet, how the tiny country has pledged to remain carbon neutral for all time and elaborates on a unique measurement of the Bhutan government: The Gross National Happiness.

If you have any thoughts, comments or notes to share after watching (one of) these TedTalks, let me know in the comment section below!

The post Five TedTalks that inspire a change in footprint behavior appeared first on My Happy Footprint.

Iceland’s managing director Richard Walker said

“The world has woken up to the scourge of plastics. A truckload is entering our oceans every minute, causing untold damage to our marine environment and ultimately humanity. The onus is on retailers… to take a stand and deliver meaningful change.”

The retailer said it would be replacing plastic with packaging including paper and pulp trays and paper bags which would be recyclable through domestic waste collections or in-store recycling facilities.

It has already removed plastic disposable straws from its own label range and new food ranges set to hit the shelves in early 2018 will use paper-based rather than plastic food trays.

A survey for Iceland revealed overwhelming public support for a shift away from plastic by retailers, with 80% of 5,000 people polled saying they would endorse a supermarket’s move to go plastic-free.

I don’t know much of the total amount of products sold in the supermarket are Iceland own brand products, but let’s hope the initiative encourages both other supermarket chains as well as manufacturers to re-think their packaging. If you want to show your support for Iceland and urge other supermarkets to do the same, take a second and sign this petition at SumofUs.org, just like I did.

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