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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

 

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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Ik ga dit jaar weer de challenge aan om de winter door te komen zonder de warming aan te zetten. Hiervoor ging mijn essential, een warmwaterkruik 💦, kapot. In deze reel laat ik je zien hoe ik een ‘nieuwe’ tweedehands kruik kocht. Vandaag te lezen op whenateengoesgreen.com: een inspirerende documentary over Greta Thunberg: I am Greta. Een documentaire over hoop, maar vooral over doorzettingsvermogen 🔥. Lees het nu via de link in mijn bio. Meer vegan producten in de schappen, yay! Gisteren probeerde ik voor het eerst de vegan lentil tikki masala saus van Patak’s 🧑🏼‍🍳. Zie in deze reel wat ik ervan vond. Vandaag verscheen er een nieuw artikel op mijn blog over: 5 dingen die ik niet koop. Want we denken vaak dat we dingen écht nodig hebben, maar vaak is dat niet zo 🧠. Check het artikel via de link in miijn bio. Vorige week verscheen er een artikel op mijn blog over alles wat ik nieuw kocht in 2022. Dat is een groot deel van mijn negatieve impact. Deze week was het tijd om te kijken naar de andere kant van de medaille. Vandaag lees je op mijn blog een artikel over al mijn positive impact in 2022 🌞. Je vind de link naar het artikel in de link in mijn bio. Afgelopen week verscheen er op mijn blog een artikel over alles wat ik nieuw heb gekocht in 2022. Eén ding op de lijst waren deze onderbroeken (een stuk of 20). En nu denk je misschien: waarom zou je in één keer zoveel onderbroeken kopen? Op 31 december, nog net op de valreep in 2022, kwam er een video online op mijn Youtube-kanaal over voedselcoöperaties. Ik denk namelijk dat voedselcoöperaties ons voedselsysteem democratischer en eerlijker kunnen maken 🥦. Elk jaar stel ik mezelf als doel om geen nieuwe spullen te kopen. Er is weer een jaar voorbij, dus het was tijd om te evalueren. Is het me gelukt om in 2022 geen nieuwe spullen te kopen? 🛒 Je leest het vandaag op m’n blog. Ook tijdens het gourmetten kan je heel makkelijk vegan eten 🌱. Zie hier wat ik at als vegan op de tweede kerstdag 🎄. Gourmetten is een topoplossing als je niet uren in de keuken wilt staan. Lekkere snacks kopen, even snijden en alles neerzetten en bakken maar!

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  • Documentary: I am Greta
  • 5 things I don’t buy
  • My positive impact in 2022
  • All my new purchases in 2022
  • Eco-positive toilet paper: The Good Roll

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