Here’s How To Make 2025 Your Most Sustainable Year

Welcome to 2025! You may have a stack of goals and resolutions with plenty of motivation for the year. Perhaps you gave up on your resolutions days ago. You might not be a person who sets goals at all. Wherever you land on goals, here is one we can all adopt: Making 2025 our most sustainable year yet. 

Here are five tactics to get you there: 

Always Carry a Reusable Water Bottle 

Americans purchase an estimated 50 million plastic water bottles each year, which results in an insane amount of unnecessary plastic waste. Reusable water bottles reduce plastic waste while saving you money. In 2025, remember to keep a reusable water bottle on you when you leave the house. You never know when you’ll be thirsty, so getting in the habit of carrying one will help you maintain this routine. 

Make a Room Plastic-Free 

Trying to go completely plastic-free is overwhelming. But in 2025, could you challenge yourself to make one room plastic-free? For example, all my bathroom supplies are produced and packaged without plastic: bar soaps and shampoos instead of plastic bottles, toothpaste bites and a bamboo toothbrush instead of conventional items, and other similar swaps. What could you try in your home? 

Implement Meatless Mondays (or other eating challenges) 

If you eat meat, adopting Meatless Mondays is one of the easiest things you could do to positively impact the planet. According to Climate Generation, just one day of meatless eating can reduce your carbon footprint by 7.5 pounds of carbon monoxide! However, challenging yourself to eat more sustainably can take on many forms. 

I’m already a vegan, so this year, I want to buy more local foods, grow, ferment, and sprout food at home, and reduce plastic packaging in my pantry. Maybe you also want to do one of those things. Or maybe you’re already rocking Meatless Mondays and want to expand into vegetarianism or veganism. There are lots of ways to eat with the planet in mind. 

Leave Things on the Shelf 

You might think that sustainable living requires a lot of swaps, but it’s much more about what you don’t buy. Use up what you currently have before purchasing a more sustainable version of that thing. Then, get really good at leaving things you admire on the shelf. Americans have an overconsumption problem. Learning to underconsume is great for the planet, but it could also positively impact your finances while reducing clutter around your home. 

Pick a Sustainable Charity to Support

There is only so much individuals can do on their own—that’s why the nonprofit sector exists! We can live more sustainably through our philanthropy alongside our improved habits. Do you care about the ocean? How about reducing carbon emissions? What about endangered species? Determine which environmental issues matter most to you and financially support nonprofits working in that space. 

If we believe individuals can make a difference and personal responsibility can be more effective than government regulation, we must step up and take action ourselves. This could be the year when you commit to living a life that is friendlier to the planet.