Although Earth Day is a fantastic celebration of everything green we do, it is also a day that invites the obvious question: “why only one day a year?”. Earth Day Canada has addressed this criticism this year with their “Make it Count” campaign, which has asked Canadians to set Earth friendly goals and track them throughout the year. What is fantastic about this campaign is that I know firsthand what they are proposing works because I tried it last year. However, instead of setting goals I committed to one relatively simple resolution. 

Proposal: We use #EarthDay as a day to set resolutions about being more green friendly year-round.

— Victoria Pleavin (@pleavin) April 22, 2013

Earth Day 2013 I resolved to use my reusable grocery bags. The dust my reusable grocery bags were collecting in my closet was neither an aid to the environment, nor to myself since I was still paying 3¢ per bag at the store and am allergic to dust. This was a very measurable goal – I had kept all the plastic bags I had received to reuse them as garbage bags. Although my supply of garbage bags greatly outstripped demand, I watched my grocery bag supply slowly shrink throughout the year 

One year later, I consider the exercise a success. My grocery bag collection isn’t quite gone yet (remember, I had written “greatly outstripped demand”) but the habit has formed and I can build upon my success again this year. 

Revisiting Your New Year’s Resolution

If you’re looking for ideas on how to participate in “Make it Count” you can start by revisiting common New Year’s Resolutions. Below are some New Year’s Resolutions but with an Earth Day twist to make it count this year.

New Year’s Resolution: Healthy Eating

• Eat more fruits and vegetables: if you’re striving to eat healthy this is the most often recommended place to start. Coincidentally fruit and veggies often have a smaller water footprint. A simple way to get more vegetables and fruits into your diet is to add a “Meatless Mondays ” to your calendar. For inspiration you can visit the Meatless Mondays website, search Pinterest for Meatless Monday recipes or borrow a vegetarian cookbook from the library.   
• Eat Local: Many claim that local food has more nutrients and is better for you. Whether you believe that or not anecdotally I can tell you that going to the farmers market means that many tempting foods (I’m looking at you chips and cookies aisle) are not available or are made from all natural ingredients.   
• Drink more water: replace pop and other unhealthy beverages with water whenever possible.

New Year’s Resolution: Saving Money

• Reduce your utilities usage: this will reduce the size of your utilities bill and your impact on the environment. There are numerous ways to work towards this goal: 
  • Don’t let the tap run while brushing your teeth. Try rinsing the brush with short bursts of water.
  • Take shorter showers.
  • Make a rain barrel and use the collected rain water on plants, the garden or bird bath.
  • Turn off and unplug electronics you aren’t using. 
  • There are plenty of more ideas for this in the conserve water  section of the WaterPortal.
• Bring your lunch to work: preferably in reusable containers.
• Bring a bottle of water with you when you go out. 

New Year’s Resolution: Fitness

• Don’t drive (when possible): Bike, scooter, roller skate, snowshoe (let’s face it, the snow only just melted for parts of Alberta), or walk to your destination if possible. 

Of course these ideas are by no means the limit of what can be done. Some of these may be very big changes in lifestyle, so ease into it. Let us know in the comments what goal you’ll be pursuing. Happy Earth Day everyone! 

Victoria Pleavin is a Project Engineer at Alberta WaterSMART but is often seen out livetweeting events on behalf of the Alberta WaterPortal.