I don't have time for that!

I promised to share a bit more insight on my first tip for engaging others in your sustainability programs and initiatives - Don't Make it Extra.

When you're trying to embed sustainability, or make any type of change for that matter, the first objection you often come up against is 'I don't have time for that!'.  Your team will probably feel like this is yet ANOTHER thing they have to add to their to-do list.  No-one wants to do more, especially if it's not something they are particularly interested in or passionate about.

My advice, create time and space for sustainability by considering all that you are currently doing.  Is there anything you can stop doing?  Something that you've been doing forever but doesn't bring much benefit or create value in your practice.  People always complain about having to do something that is a waste if time - that's a good place to start.

You can also consider what you have in place, and how you could tweak things to incorporate more sustainability.  A tweak is much easier for people to get their head around than a major change.  For example, instead of changing you whole nappy changing procedure and looking at modern cloth nappies, gloves, wipes and paper towel, etc; make a small change.  Perhaps wrap nappies in newspaper instead of plastic bags.  Take baby steps and do one small thing at a time.  Kathy and the team at Online Child Care did just that...

"We changed our nappy changing policy - using newspaper to wrap a nappy, rather than a plastic bag.  Everyone just rolled with the flow, I didn't mention it was sustainable." Kathy OLCC

You can also look at what sustainability is already happening in your service.  By demonstrating that the team is already doing some sustainability actions, it doesn't feel so overwhelming and you can build on the strengths of your team.  You may collecting recycled materials for craft and construction, and consider adding collection points for soft plastics, bottle tops and lids, bread tags, toothbrushes or other hard to recycle items not accepted in kerbside recycling.  

Check out TerraCycle Free Recycling Programs.

Image:  Online Child Care Centre Soft Plastic Recycling Collection

Leveraging existing actions is a great way to show your team that sustainability doesn't mean extra or more, it might just be different.

What sustainability actions can you leverage based on your current practice?  What can you tweak?  Share your stories on the Early Years Sustainability Facebook Page

Next time we'll look at how you can turn your most contentious objectors into allies and get your services influencers working with you to get others on board...

Until then...

Bron