Often when we as individuals think about a sustainable or an eco-positive lifestyle, we think about our own behavior. And when we look at our own behavior, we tend to look at details as well. We look at recycling or cutting food waste, when the biggest impact is in the supply chain of the products…
Category: Increasing positive impact
All the posts in this category are about increasing your positive impact in whatever way. There are a million ways to increase your positive impact and this category is just here to give you some inspiration.
I do have one very important thing to say. When it comes to living an eco-positive lifestyle, there are steps and a sequence. And the first step is to live at least eco-neutral. Meaning, that if we’d all live like you, we’d 1 or less earths. This is something you can calculate. Right now, most people in The Netherlands have a much higher score, around 4/5 earths, meaning that we take more than we can. So, please, before you start to make positive impact, take a step back. Start in the category about reducing your negative impact and get your score at 1 or below. Then come back to start increasing your positive impact, making your life eco-positive.
My positive impact in 2024
Two weeks ago, I shared all the stuff I bought new and secondhand in 2024. That’s an evaluation of (possible) negative impact. Today I want to look at the other side of the medal when it comes to an eco-positive lifetyle: the positive impact. The base of an eco-positive lifestyle is to live within the…
Choosing a sustainable health insurance
The end of the year is approaching and that means that everybody above the age of 18 in The Netherlands has about 5 weeks left to decide whether we want to switch to a different health insurance company. The average fee paid for a health insurance in the Netherlands in 2025 will be 158 euros…
My positive impact in 2023
I try to live an eco-positive lifestyle. This lifestyle has two sides. On the one hand you try to minimize your negative impact, so that you live within the earth’s capacity. In September 2023 I measured this again and I had a score of 1,01 earths. We’d need 1,01 earths if everybody lived like me….
Effective altruism
This article is released on the first day of Christmas. I am not religious, but I do celebrate Christmas. And for me, Christmas revolves around gratefulness and being with family. Gratefulness for the privileges I have, while others do not. And aspirations for a happier world, for peace. That’s why I chose to write an…
I am a poop donor
This title may seem clickbait. Because for some people this sounds insane. However, it is 100% true. I am a poop donor. And the story gets ever crazier. People may be cured from a certain disease with my poop. I say may because I am a poop donor in a scientific research program. Today I…
Mapathons
Today I want to share a very specific way to make positive impact with you: mapathons. I want to dedicate a full blogpost to mapathons because I feel like they’re a fun and accessible way of volunteering and creating positive impact, but not many people know about them. Up until this point I’ve joined 2…
Donating organs, blood, plasma and stem cells
From this week onwards we have a new law amazing in the Netherlands. Yes! I am very happy with it and celebrated it. The old donor law used to say that you are not an organ donor, unless you object and sign up otherwise. Right now the rule goes: you are an organ donor, unless…
Volunteering opportunity: NLdoet
The 11th of March it is national volunteering-day in The Netherlands. NLdoet is the Dutch organization which plays a big role in this day, they organize actions throughout all of The Netherlands. Painting jobs, planting flowers, spending time with the elderly, there are all kinds of things which you can do. This way, everyone can…
Volunteering At The Gouda Clean-up
As I’ve written before, I went to my second volunteering activity with Greenpeace on March 4th. On a lovely Saturday noon I went Gouda, because we were going to clean the streets (and the canals) together with The Party for the Animals, the local Greenpeace group of Rotterdam and anyone else who wanted to join….