I was really excited to check out the book, A Year of Nothing New, when the author, Kristin Skarie, sent me a copy recently. I interviewed her recently for The Student Affairs Collective podcast and we talked about the book and sustainability in higher education.

The book, as the title implies, follows Kristin's journey as she ventured on a year of nothing new. This took different shapes throughout the year, such as minimizing plastic, electricity usage, buying local goods and food, and trying to grow her own food. She shares the ups and downs of this endeavor, which was really refreshing that she was so candid about it. She acknowledged her privilege and authentically shared her failures.

I got some great insights from this book and even got some tips for things to buy to be more sustainable (like this set of "To-Go Ware" reusable utensils). The insights that were especially useful were how it is okay to not be perfect, how important it is to live your values, as well as that we can all have an impact on ourselves and the world around us.

With sustainability stuff, many people don't see the point since they themselves won't make much of a difference. The thing is, if we all did our part to waste and use less, we'd save money, be healthier, and save the planet all at the same time. While some of the things we all should be doing are a little less convenient, it's worth it in the end to do the right thing.

I'm a big fan of this book and I definitely think everyone should read it. You can check out more of Kristin continuing efforts as well as everything as she does at her blog and her site respectively.

Thanks for stopping by!