Let's take a small step

[UPDATED 17.04.15: This story has been updated to mention a local brand of reusable coffee cup]

We all know what it’s like to try and do the right thing, only to feel as if our contribution is a drop in the ocean. Why ride your bike or compost your food scraps if most people are driving cars and throwing their food waste into a bin destined for landfill? Small acts can feel insignificant.

But there is a different way to think about the importance of what you do. It is important because it is an expression of your values, of who you want to be. It’s about living as consistently as possible with your vision of the world you want to live in. And if enough people live that way… well, that’s when the big changes happen.

Joining the Green Ideas small steps team is about taking a simple action for two weeks and taking note of your experience. This month’s challenge is to use the same water bottle and coffee cup for a fortnight. So that means no buying water, and carrying around a reusable coffee cup if you like coffee on-the-go.

We’d love to hear about your experience. Let us know if it was easy or hard. Did you ever cheat, and why? What did you learn about how our public spaces are organised (are there enough water fountains? were the café people kind?), and did it change the way you do things once the two weeks were up?

Some of you will already be converted to reusable drink bottles and coffee cups. Please tell us about your experiences and how you’ve turned ideas into habits.

In the next issue we’ll publish some of your responses with a summary of the results – and hear from a Green Ideas staffer who took the challenge too. So even though many of you will be doing this by yourself, you won’t be alone. Together we’ll work out how many coffee cups and water bottles you saved, and what those numbers would be like if your whole family – or the whole country – had taken a small step too.

Take a Green Ideas small step

Step 1: Use the same water bottle and coffee cup for a fortnight.

Step 2: Work out how many cups and bottles you think you saved.

Step 3: Tell us about your experience by emailing [email protected] – we'll print a selection of your letters in the next magazine.

Handy links

Buy an IdealCup at www.idealcup.co.nz

Niki Harré is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Auckland. Her book, Psychology for a Better World is for people who believe it’s worth trying to make a world where humans and ecological systems can flourish together. Packed with action strategies it is based on the latest research in psychology. The paperback edition is $15 or a PDF copy can be downloaded free at www.psych.auckland.ac.nz/psychologyforabetterworld.

For a 15-minute film of the book with animations, go to www.youtube.com/user/betterworldpsych.