Small Changes, Huge Impact: How to Start Your Sustainability Journey

For me, sustainability has always been a family affair. My role as the Director of Sustainability at Microsoft and my passion for sustainable living were directly influenced by my dad, Tom Sellars. And I’m not alone in that feeling. My two brothers, Mac and John, have their own eco-friendly ventures as well.

Our dad paved the way, instilling into us at an early age the importance of our planet and its future. Reduce, reuse recycle was a way of life at the Sellars household. Dad invested heavily in sustainable technologies at the family business, Sellars Absorbent Materials, 40 years ago, before sustainability was a hot topic.

While we grew up living sustainably, many find the idea daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. When it comes to sustainable change, it’s best to start sooner with small changes and perfect later.

After decades of research and practice, I’ve found many tangible ways to participate in greener living. Here are just a few small changes that can have a big impact and further support a cleaner, greener earth.

How Everyday People Can Be More Sustainable

No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. Small, consistent change adds up. And even the  smallest change in mindset can make people more eco-conscious. People have been taught to “reduce, reuse, recycle”, however, many practice only the latter—recycle. Recycling is important, but recycling alone is not enough because most of an item's carbon footprint and resource use come from the production process. Finding ways to repurpose old items into something new or simply opting for used items with more life left in them can make a huge difference.

Reusing is a good strategy for clothing, furniture and other everyday household items, but this is not always possible for purchases, toiletries, consumables, etc. In those cases, it’s important to use what you have and try to waste as little as possible. By choosing to support brands that are taking a more sustainable approach to business and manufacturing, you can ignite further change. When money talks, change listens. 

How Businesses Can Ignite Change

Not every company can be a sustainability company, but every job can have a sustainability mindset added to it. After all, small changes at the business level can have a great impact on the world. Things like sourcing sustainable materials for packaging and ensuring fair labor standards are applied in different layers of the business supply chain. These are great places to start. Even the items businesses provide to customers can create change. When a person switches from single-use straws to a reusable straw, they divert a few straws per month. When a business switches to recycled coffee cup lids that won’t require a straw, they divert hundreds of straws per day from landfills. In short, personal lives afford us the most control but that impact can be maximized on a business level. That’s why it’s important to support sustainably minded brands – companies like Sellars who are reimagining how green practices can help produce products to keep waste out of landfills.

How Sellars Absorbent Products Started It All

From the start, my dad knew one thing was for certain, the world will never run out of post-consumer waste. From empty cardboard boxes to sheets of paper, reformulating consumer waste into something usable again prevents unnecessary landfill-bound waste and reduces deforestation, supporting a circular economy. Sellars is 1 of 2 manufacturers in the world to use double re-creped (DRC) technology to not only utilize recycled materials but to create a stronger, higher-performance product.

And by consumers choosing brands that support sustainable practices, their purchasing power can make a big impact. While many Sellars products utilize recycled material, many of those products are also durable enough to be reused more than once. Imagine the impact of using paper towels or wipers for more than one use. That could cut disposable paper towel consumption in half! Sellars manufactures products for exactly that purpose. Offering sustainable, durable wipers that stand up to more than one clean.

But it goes beyond just the products—it’s the people at Sellars too. Whether working the factory lines or managing inventory, working for a sustainable company like Sellars multiplies the sphere of influence and the level of change possible. Sellars employees may not realize it, but by making products that are more sustainable and higher performance than virgin products, they are changing the world one wiper at a time. Sustainability is a mindset, not just an action.

A Vision for the Future

After 5 years in the sustainability space, I sought to make a big change by promoting smaller ones. Promoting progress not perfection, not just shorter showers and reusable bags. My book What We Can Do takes a more optimistic angle on change. It delivers more of “what if we did” and less of “we’re doomed if we don’t”. Because we can never go back and start sooner, but we can start today.

Sustainability runs in the family. And it’s certainly an ongoing effort. I’m grateful to be part of something so important and have the means to encourage others to do the same. Small changes add up, and the more we look for ways to be more eco-conscious, the more ways we’ll discover. Businesses don’t need to choose between successful and sustainable—they can be both.