Lighter Living: Better Everyday Lives for People and Planet

Around the world, people are figuring out how to live better lives that don't cost the earth, are just, and improve the quality of our lives. Transforming our everyday lives is essential, as over 70% of global emissions are induced by household consumption of electricity, fuels, products and services.

This event provided an opportunity to learn about living lighter and better, and to identify solutions that shift our everyday lives towards greater environmental sustainability. We discovered who is leading on sustainable living globally and in our region – from individuals to governments to companies – and shared our own actions and experiences on this global challenge.

We began the event by highlighting how to:

• Join the growing movement on Lighter Living supported by Vancity and One Earth,
• Work together to make the City of Vancouver the Greenest City highlighted by Brad Badelt, Assistant Director, Sustainability Planning, Urban Design & Sustainability, City of Vancouver, and
• Advance social and environmental justice and community partnerships with SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement.

Watch the video recording of the full event (1 hour, 45 minutes) above.

Ryu Koide, from the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (Japan), was in discussion with One Earth Executive Director Vanessa Timmer. This 14 minute conversation was entitled 1.5 Degree Lifestyles Report: Targets and Actions for Reducing Lifestyle Carbon Footprints. They discussed a new report on 1.5-Degree Lifestyles which sets targets for sustainable lifestyles carbon footprints for 2030, 2040 and 2050. It was released in February 2019 by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Aalto University and D-Mat, financed by the KR Foundation and SITRA.

Following Ryu Koide's talk, UBC Professor Emeritus, co-founder of the ecological footprint analysis, and One Earth co-founder and Director, Dr. William Rees, provided his insights on the scale of change in daily lives necessary to achieve One-Planet Living. Dr. Rees gave a talk entitled Storm Approaching! Overshoot, the Energy Conundrum and Climate Change. 

Following this, Dr. Vanessa Timmer, co-founder and Executive Director, One Earth and Senior Research Fellow, Utrecht University invited us to imagine lighter living futures and identified concrete opportunities for action on her Lighter Living Solutions Safari. She also spoke about the Beacon for Sustainable Living project which develops and reveals transformative communications materials on sustainable living that equip us to shift our discourse and mindsets.