9 Tiny Ways to be a Big Hero

2015 has come, and its shiny new and improved glory can bring hope and promise … and cast a shadow of frenzied panic for perfection. Turn over a new leaf! Make those major changes you swore up and down you’d finish last year or the year before or in 1999! Make a list, check it twice, gonna find out who’s … sorry, wrong holiday.

There are all sorts of resolutions we usually tackle: from getting healthy to getting organized, butting out to living a meaningful of life … these are pretty big propositions. If you’re all worked up about your resolutions, or as we’ve called them, revolutions … just breathe (which, hopefully you were doing this whole time, but maybe in a more relaxed, groovy-yogi kind of way). Instead of aiming (and failing) big, let’s think tiny, manageable and often.

This being an eco-minded blog and all, our mini but mighty shifts focus on shrinking our carbon footprints. I’ve taken advice from our green team experts mixed with tiny habits method to get us all a little greener this year, at work, home and everywhere in between. There are 9 for obvious reasons (9 is tinier than 10).

1. Lug a Mug once/day for your first cuppa on the outside, be it coffee, tea or kombachu (gezundheit!). Need a cue? Grab the mug when you grab your keys. Heck, attach your keys to your mug if that makes it stick.

   

2. Kiss HAL goodnight before you go home i.e. turn off your computer at the end of the day, especially pre-weekend or vacation. Twin this with turning on your computer right when you come in, then take off your jacket and fill your mug (ya, the one up there). Any reboot and software updates will be ready when you are.

   

3. Adopt 1 Light, and turn that sucker off when you leave. Cara and Sue at TRI adopted their very own meeting rooms at work, and check them periodically to ensure that the lights are off when nobody’s home. Toni and her team at TGH won the Golden Lightswitch for their will to give a FLICK.

   

4. Litter-less Lunch: Stop waste before it starts by busting out the reusable containers. Trigger it by “forgetting” to replace your plastic wrap. David loves the swanky new reusables he won from our #WasteFreeUHN event.

   

5. Group it to sort it: Group your recycling, garbage and organics bins together in an area you walk by all the time. We find it much easier to sort your trash, and keep the good stuff out of landfill.

   

6. Post it: Put signs and posters on your recycling and organics bins so everyone else at work or home can use them as well as you do. Hang these at eye level since knees don’t read so good. Veronica and Chad suggested this.

   

7. Stash a bag in your bag or pocket. Flash your fancy reusable bag when you pick up your free range eggs. There’re lots of sturdy and stylin’ bags that compress down to practically nothing. Just ask Marie, Tammy & Dorette from the green team.

   

8. Go loco for local: food group by food group, season by season. Just switch one thing right now. Foodland Ontario has an excellent availability guide to let you know when to reach for a local peach. FYI: Jul-Aug-Sep! (Shameless plug: join our local food Conversation Cafés with Adeline)

   

9. And manic for organic: especially the Dirty Dozen aka, the 12 fruits and veggies that tend to have most pesticide residue. Since a dozen is a lot to remember, just switch out the top 2: apples & celery.

   

With suggestions like these, we’ll all be big heroes (in our own tiny ways).

Happy New Year!

Lisa

P.S. gotta leave you with a laugh …