It’s 2015, time to change the world!

It’s a New Year! The festive gluttony is over and we are now returning to reality with renewed vigour or trepidation. Some of us will be working to lose the little bit of the extra weight we gained during the holiday period while others will be getting ready to face the credit card bill they racked up. With this new beginning come the traditional resolutions. We will join a gym, eat more healthily, drink less, live a more frugal life etc. You have all heard these promises before and you will all be aware that by the 15th of January we are either so proud of our new lifestyle or so depressed that we have been unable to achieve it that we revert to our old ways!

However, 2015 could be the year to change this. This could be the year where we eat what we need, consume less meat, throw away less rubbish, create less food waste, and look to shop more locally. Lets face it, most people can’t do it all and the last thing we want to do is overload you with more promises which will be broken. It is far better for you to choose one.

So here are our three top resolutions…well, lifestyle changes. If you can pick one and stick to it, you will be part of the growing machine which is trying to make the world a better place.

Reduce Food Waste

Before Christmas, we spoke of the two million turkeys and 74 million mince pies which were going to be thrown out during the festive period. It may be the period of peak gluttony but even by our western food waste standards, that is a lot of food to throw away. 2015 could be the year we change that.

Planning your meals is the easiest way to avoid food waste and the other benefit — it also saves you money and keeps food shopping interesting. By coming up with a weekly shopping list, you will be able to do targeted shopping in the supermarket or local shop, avoiding over buying and impulse buying.

If you are not the weekly shopping kind of person, then you could buy staples in bulk — like rice and pasta — which can be used in a number of different dishes. If you top this up with vegetables then you should be able to eat a different meal each day without too much planning and too much effort.

In his book ‘Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal‘, Tristram Stuart points to the amount of food we waste in our food chain. We may not stop all this waste on our own, but we can stop wasting our own food. Good for the environment, good for the system and good for your pocket!

Eat Less Meat

Meat has become a burden on our planet. There is meat which is better for the planet and there is meat which is better for animal welfare. It may have become a complex subject, however, ultimately we cannot get away from the fact that we cannot keep consuming meat in the way that we currently do without having a negative impact on the planet.

If you stop eating meat, you will be helping to protect the planet from greenhouse gas emissions. As the world becomes richer, more meat is consumed. However, the West is still by far the greatest consumer of meat. By stopping eating meat or even eating less meat, you will be able to reduce you greenhouse gas footprint.

There are other benefits as well. Meat has many negative health implications and has been related to a variety of different diseases such as heart disease. Then there are the animal welfare implications. Grass fed animals may having a better quality of life but much of our meat is not reared in the green pastured idyll which we like to imagine.

If you love meat, simply cut down. Having a meat free Monday or not eating meat for lunch will have a bigger impact that you might think!

Buy Locally

The local food movement in the UK is in its infancy and still small. Because of this, it is probably the hardest of the resolutions to carry out. There are also problems with buying locally, for example, you can’t get the variety of foods you are used to and sometimes local as a term is used to incorporate too much.

However, there are also very good reasons to buy locally. Firstly, the local food movement is trying to provide farmers with a fair deal for their products — something which they rarely get from a supermarket. Secondly, the supply chain should be much reduced and thirdly, you will be putting money directly back into your local economy.

If you decide to buy locally, you will also be contributing to a less tangible ideal — a reduction in the high street homogenisation. You will be contributing to the resurgence of the cultural and visual diversity which was lost in the second half of the twentieth century and first decade of the twenty first.

Buying local can mean more than simply having a positive impact on the environment, it can have an impact on all aspects of our society.

So now its time to choose one and follow it through. These resolutions are different from the diet and gym membership, the healthy eating and the promises to stop drinking. These are changes which will affect you and society at large.

Don’t make resolutions for 2015, make lifestyle changes where you make a real positive impact on the world we live in.

Thanks for reading!

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Originally published at shrinkthesupplychain.com on January 5, 2015.