Taking a Sustainability Audit at Home

Sustainability is one of the core principles of DBK Home, but it’s also a big part of our life, and this year, one goal I have is to share more sustainability with all of you!

When we have the desire to live a more sustainable life, we need to also balance that out with making conscious decisions for how to do that. One way I like to do this is by taking a Sustainability Audit to better identify where my lifestyle could be improved.

Have you ever heard of something like this or tried to do one? Let me walk you through it.

This is something that can take place over the course of a day or up to a few weeks.

What is it? It’s the process of taking stock of the details of your lifestyle and which things are less eco friendly.

It creates mindfulness, and every time I’ve done it, I’ve been able to generate and change one habit that isn’t serving the sustainable lifestyle I’m aiming to live.

What it isn’t…something that causes more stress, more anxiety, and more pressure. What we don’t want to do is stir up too much negative while doing this process, because that will ultimately lead to you freezing your forward progress. 🙅🏼‍♀️

So make sure to take a deep breath and if as you’re working through this, it all starts to feel overwhelming, take a break and come back. You got this! 🙌🏼

Ready? Let’s dive in! Here is how can you do your own sustainability audit!

Take out a notepad (not sustainable, I know, but easily accessible and serves this purpose really well, you can compost or recycle the paper later); Put it in a central area of your home; over the course of the next 1-14 days, take stock of the things in your home that are single use. (If your more experienced with sustainability, take stock of the things that you ultimately throw away or recycle-or consider the overall volume of garbage and recycling you generate on average.)

The pantry is a big culprit, but you can (and should) also consider things from when you’re out and about…tissues, coffee cups, etc., add it all to your list. ✔️✔️✔️

You can decide you’re done adding things at any point, the key here is to make sure you don’t get overwhelmed so if this is your first audit, focus on your top 3 most-used single use items.

Once you’ve compiled your list, identify 1-2 things you want to focus on swapping to an eco friendlier alternative, or focus on using that thing less.

Some examples we’ve done at home in the past:
👉🏼Swapped canned & bottled seltzer for SodaStream (we use this one with glass bottles, and you can even take them on the go!
👉🏼Traded paper towels and napkins for cloth (we have a whole separate post about this here)
👉🏼Traded zip top bags for Stasher Bags (I’ve tried a lot of these reusable zip top bags and these are by far my favorite!)
👉🏼Swap liquid hand soap for bar soaps (I like to buy pretty bars from our local store @shopkanibal, but my favorite option online are these Swedish Dreams Soaps and honestly bar soaps last quite a while, so you realy get a lot of bang for your buck!)
👉🏼Trade liquid laundry detergent for laundry sheets (this is so easy, I don’t know why I waited! We use Earth Breeze Laundry Sheets, and they use all sustainable packaging that I shred and add to our compost, so it’s really a win win!

Two goals I have for this year:
☝🏼seek out more bulk food/unpackaged items to save on single use packaging.
✌🏼be more consistent with my homemade broth so we don’t have to purchase packaged options.

Remember, the key is to take steps in the right direction, not be perfect. If you aim to do too much too quickly, it can become overwhelming and cause you to halt your progress altogether. So, take baby steps and give yourself grace 💛

Want to learn more? Stick around as we dive further in and share more of our sustainable tricks for both our work and our lifestyle. (And follow on IG for more frequent updates 😉)