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Recognizing system change for sustainability

Posted on August 24, 2020September 28, 2022

This is a topic I’ve changed my mind about in the last couple of years. My journey towards a sustainable lifestyle has mostly been about my personal behavior. I share all the things I do and all the things I personally can do to make a change. I still support that and I think I will never stop sharing all these things. But today I want to recognize something else we really need, which I’ve never mentioned before, system change. Yes, of course I am recognizing system change for sustainability.

our economy

Yes, I really need to talk about system change. Most of our systems in The Netherlands (and beyond) are just wrong if you’d ask me. I’d even say the entire economy is wrong (but I’ll come to that in a different post). After about 5 years, I think a know a lot about a sustainable lifestyle. And so, I am quite confident to say that it’s not always easy due to the systems we have.

A perfect (mind you, the word perfect here) zero waste lifestyle for example, is extremely hard due to our disposable system. Throwing things away is just cheaper than reusables. Organic food, is overal more expensive than non-organic food. Public transportation is more expensive in a lot of cases than driving a car. An electric car is more expensive. A holiday to a foreign country is cheaper by plane than by train or car. Buying new stuff is cheaper than repairing. Welcoming the homeless into your home causes you to be cut on income. The list goes on.

System change

And that’s why most systems need to change. Yes, we need to make sure repairing is cheaper than buying new. We need to include the real price into our products. We need to make public transportation the cheapest option. In the end, we need to change the systems that we rely upon. And that’s hard! Quit eating meat, that’s easy. But making sure meat has a true price can’t be done by one person. But we do need it too!

Today I want to recognize that most people can’t be perfect when it comes to sustainability. I am not perfect, partly due to the system. I don’t live zero waste because the system sometimes forces me to buy waste. When I accidentally forget my water bottle for example, there are no zero waste options. Another example, I want to avoid the supermarket and fast-food restaurants, but I can’t do that 100% because the system is built so that I have no other options sometimes. You can do a whole lot, but you can never be perfect. We need true pricing, we need a donut-economy.

Never ending discussion

With that being recognized, I don’t want to imply that we as civilians should’t change because we need the systems to change. It goes both ways. If we change, the systems change. If the systems change, we change. For some people I know and what I hear in discussions about sustainability pointing fingers is an easy way out. People say that the government should change the systems. Or that corporations should change their systems. I would agree, but I never make this into an or-or discussion. And so with me recognizing system change I am not saying that we have as civilians a free pass. No! It’s an and-and-and. We all need to take our responsibility here. It’s all hands on deck if we want to fight this climate crisis. Recognizing system change doesn’t equal ditching your own responsibility. Not at all.

‘We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.’ – Anne Marie Bonneau

We don’t need perfection

I really want to emphasize that perfection is not possible. Not on zero waste, not on veganism, not on zero emissions. As I said, we can’t be perfect, partly due to the system. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try at all. I think the basis, an eco-neutral lifestyle, is very well possible. I’m not there yet, but I’m very confident I’ll make it this year or the next (I’ll calculate it again this September). It does take effort and time, but eventually we can all do it. But if we expect everybody to be perfect, we’ll never combat this climate crisis. If we all do the best we can, I’m sure we’ll be able to! So yes, we do need system change, but we also need to do the best we can at the same time.

Do you think recognizing system change for sustainability is important?

Yours sincerely,
Romee

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ABOUT ME

 

when a teen goes green

Hi! My name is Romee Hoeksma and I am on a journey to an eco-positive life. An eco-positive lifestyle is a lifestyle in which I have a more positive than negative impact on the beautiful planet earth. On this blog you can follow my journey to a life with only positive impact. At this blog you can find all sorts of things, from tips to recipes to personal experiences, but most of all fun (I hope!). I write about how I want to change the world, but don’t look at it as if I’m judging you. If anything, I like responses from my dear readers the most, so don’t hesitate to contact me or respond to any of my posts!

Yours sincerely,
Romee

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Dit is hoe ik met de trein van Krásná Lípa (🇨🇿) naar Bratislava (🇸🇰) reisde. Dit was reisdag 3/6 van onze duurzame interrail reis. Ik ben vandaag 25 jaar geworden 🥳. Ik hoop heel hard dat dat betekent dat ik ongeveer op een kwart van mijn leven ben. En wat een verjaardag is dit! Ik mag het vieren in Kopenhagen met mijn favoriete persoon @casperchristiaanse , terwijl ik met de trein door Europa reis 🚃. Ik ben een gelukkig mens. Op naar de 50! Dit is hoe ik van Dresden (🇩🇪) naar Krásná Lípa (🇨🇿) reisde. Niet een bijster lange, maar wel een prachtige treinreis, omdat je door het nationaal park Boheems Zwitserland gaat. Dit was de tweede reisdag van onze interrail (2/6). We zijn op de helft van de interrail. Terwijl ik dit typ zijn we onderweg naar Warschau (8,5 uur vanaf Bratislava). Nog twee bestemmingen te ontdekken, maar wat hebben we nu al veel genoten. Elke dag goed en lang slapen, nieuw vegan eten proberen, bijzonder lang wandelen, spelletjes spelen, weinig schermtijd, genieten van de mooie uitzichten en zon: deze reis is genieten 💜. Dit is hoe ik met de trein van Amsterdam naar Dresden reisde 🚃. De interrail is officieel begonnen! (1/6) Vandaag verschijnt er geen artikel op mijn blog. En de komende twee weken hierna ook niet. Dat is voor het eerst, in de 7 jaar dat ik schrijf. Een heel leuk onderdeel van duurzaam leven is tweedehands kleding. Hier zijn 4 tweedehands outfits die ik droeg in augustus 2023 🌞. Je zag het al in de reel van vorige week: ik ben op vakantie geweest naar Gent, in België. Het was een ontzettende aanrader, en daarom verscheen er vandaag een artikel op mijn blog over de leukste en duurzaamste hotspots in Gent 🌆. Check it out via de link in mijn bio Gent, wat was je prachtig 🌆. Dit is absolute een duurzame vakantietip (oh, maar wees niet zo naïef als ik en ga lekker met de trein 🚃). Binnenkort is op Youtube de gehele vakantievlog te bekijken.

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