At the beginning of the year, I promised myself to go slower. 

That promise relates to clothes, shoes and accessories as well - either through 'slow fashion' or simply making a lot more conscious decisions about the things that I buy to wear for myself or my family (if at all). 

Why am I making this decision? Because 'make, waste, dispose' is the premise of fast fashion and it doesn't fit with my sustainability beliefs and zero-waste efforts.

Fast fashion has become so big and we're all guilty of it. We buy pretty clothes and fashion accessories or shoes that are the latest trends, we use them, then simply dispose of them and certainly, not everyone reuses them or recycles them.

Fast fashion is basically “an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers.” It's fueling your desire for “new" and FOMO.

Thanks to COVID-19,

This is not going to be one of the typical posts on this blog. I'm not going to cover PR, marketing, customer success or project management. Instead, I'm going to talk about something far more personal - decisions and choices I've made to live a little bit of a greener and less wasteful life. 

I've always been interested in sustainability but more from the business side of things. I even wrote my second dissertation on the topic. 

Businesses indeed are those that can make the biggest impact on our planet, however, each individual can do little things as well to live greener and create less waste. That's what I'll share with you today - some greener changes that I've made to our household over the last few months. 

But how did I decide to go greener? 

Well, as much as I care about the environment and our planet, it all started when I got pregnant. 

Pregnancy brings lots of excitement but also lots of worries. You want to do things right. So I was reading about all the things I can do and I cannot do while pregnant.

I cover Edelman's Trust Barometer every year. 

This year's results came out last week and they did surprise me. Positively.

Trust has changed profoundly in the past year. People have been losing faith in traditional authority figures and institutions to help them navigate a turbulent world and more recently, they are losing confidence in the social platforms that fostered peer-to-peer trust because of fake news or false information being used as a weapon. 

We have shifted our trust to the relationships within our control and most notably our employers. 

People are now bringing their call for change to the workplace where they have a trusted relationship.

Employees are ready and willing to trust their employers, but the trust must be earned through more than “business as usual" and not simply operational excellence or decisions that would impact jobs. An organisation’s contributions to society, its values and its vision for the future all outweigh operational decisions in terms of earning trust.

Today we have a different post, a guest one by Giles Hutchins to open our eyes for the future and rethink our values as we approach the new year. 

Aware thinkers and leaders know what’s at stake. The global issues are too prominent to ignore. Whether it’s mass migration, political extremism, governmental incompetence, violence towards minorities, banking collapses, or evidence of stress and mental illness in epidemic proportions, we cannot ignore the fact that we are living in a time of upheaval, volatility and uncertainty.

The very planet itself is changing in character – with global water shortages, rapid soil erosion, marine species on the verge of collapse, Arctic sea ice at record lows, and a warming atmosphere which threatens the biosphere on which we all depend.

In today’s global conditions, ignoring the global issues facing humanity is ultimately a self-destructive existential choice.

Those opting to pretend that the status quo can be preserved as it is – or was – are blind to the facts of huge shifts globally, already occurring and set to increase. They also overlook the extraordinary human challenge afforded this generation. The ancient Greeks called such a time Kairos, a supreme moment of history, an incredible opportunity to step forward which if not adequately acted upon will pass us by.

This supreme moment asks us – demands us – to get radical and deal with root causes.

You see me write about sustainability lately a lot. So by now, you should know that we need to do something, companies need to step up and take action, we as individuals need to do so too.

But there’s so much to do! So many issues to fix… The majority of organisations cannot tackle each and every one of them on their own. What we and they need is focus – start with one initiative, complete it successfully, tackle that one issue to make an impact and then move onto the next one.

You can’t run into every possible direction as you won’t go anywhere – it’s that simple. So today we are going to talk about one issue that needs to be solved – the growing global water footprint.

When it comes to water consumption, everyone has a responsibility to conserve more and use less. The average American lifestyle requires about 2,000 gallons per day – twice the global average – and shows no signs of stopping. CustomMade has created a really cool infographic, outlining our water usage (domestic, industrial and agricultural) and simple ways we can lessen our water consumption.