Simple. Smart. Sustainable.

We spend a large chunk of time at work so taking personal action to bring sustainability into the office is a great way to show leadership. Here are some simple actions that most offices and employees can easily implement:  1) Set up a recycling system. This is the most basic and effective way to redirect waste from landfills. Your office should have at least four bins for recycling waste. Paper. Plastic. Aluminum. Glass. A bin for compost could be great too as long as it's allowed by your states health and safety regulations and your companies policies. 2) Check you paper habits. A few very simple but often overlooked actions: Print double-sided. Change your printer default settings to print double-sided,  or reuse the second side of old paper for internal documents. Buy FSC Certified Paper. This paper protects old growth forests, waterways, Indigenous groups, and animal habitats. When sourcing suppliers or printers, try to use sustainability orient...

Our surroundings — our environment — impact us more than we may realize. Everything that we see, hear, smell, taste and feel around us, affects us consciously or unconsciously. Take for example our homes. Home is not simply a place where we store our stuff and sleep, but a place that’s peaceful, relaxing and fulfilling after a demanding day – our Safe Haven. Or is it? When our minds become cluttered, our environment starts to mirror this chaos. Just think of how many times after a stressful day at work you left your dishes in the sink? Or stepped over a pile of paperwork you meant to clean up yesterday? Or yelled at your kids for no real reason? I have to admit, I’ve done many of it and I am not proud of it. But there is always room for improvement! So, I started to incorporate design psychology into my everyday surroundings. Design psychology is about discovering your personal values and style,...

As introverts, we tend to hide our dreams and desires deep in our shells. So deep, that we forget about them. Do you remember a time when you had big dreams? For many people the answer is “Yes, sometime when I was a little kid…” As kids we had lots of dreams. We could fantasize all day long and tell everyone about them. We truly believed that they would all come true. And then, we grew up. What happened to our dreams? Where did they all disappear? When you have a new dream, that dream becomes your life. It fills your heart and mind with joy and excitement. You can’t wait to share it with all the people around you. However, well meaning people start doing everything they can to talk you out of it. They insist that your dream is difficult to achieve, useless or just plain silly. You start doubting your dream yourself, “Maybe they are right”, especially if they are your teachers, parents or friends. You start to look for things that are approved by the “knowledgeable” adu...