Can We Lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Our Own Home? Introduction

Stephanie Miller on her book Zero Waste Living the 80/20 Way: The Busy Person’s Guide to a Lighter Footprint.

Interview by Faith Model

Part I: Introduction

Last fall, a friend and I were bemoaning the flood of single use plastic we were seeing as a result of the pandemic. We were simultaneously choking on smoke from the forest fires suffocating our small Wyoming town. Worried and frustrated, we felt powerless in the face of climate change in an increasingly divided and fractious world. I often threw around the idea of going vegan, buying an electric car, and living off the grid, but it’s a lot easier to talk about those things than to take action on them (especially with two young children who adore butter and cheese). The least I could do was reduce our plastic use, but everywhere I turned I saw plastic—it was inescapable! I felt stuck. When spring arrived I was introduced to Stephanie Miller’s book, Zero Waste Living the 80/20 Way: The Busy Person’s Guide to a Lighter Footprint. It’s a little green guide that revolutionized my perspective and approach to reducing my carbon and waste footprint. 

Stephanie Miller spent her career tackling big issues: climate change, poverty, and empowering women. When she left her job as director of the Climate Business Department—and then as Director of Western Europe—at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to spend more time with her son, her work in green building solutions was one of IFC’s greatest climate success stories. During her year off, however, she turned her focus inward and began asking different, more personal, questions:  “What can we—as individuals—do to reverse the current climate and waste crises? Could individual actions have a ripple effect that could lead to systemic change? If so, how could busy people make the necessary changes?” Instead of throwing her hands up in the air as I had done, her year off turned into an extensive research project that culminated in this powerful little manual. And thanks to Stephanie, my family is now starting to compost, we eat more plant-based meals, and I just started buying used clothes. I spoke with Stephanie earlier this summer. —Faith Model

Photo of Stephanie Miller Courtesy Ibrahim Ajaja/The World Bank

Faith Model: You had a successful 25-year career working for the International Finance Corporation (IFC), ten of which were working on implementing ambitious and achievable climate change mitigation strategies at the institutional level. What motivated your shift in focus from macro change to individual change?

Stephanie Miller: I was lucky in my career to hold positions that had a lot of meaning to me. I loved being able to shape the institution’s direction on climate change and I felt privileged to work with businesses and governments trying to do the right thing. But I didn’t love the contradiction I often felt when I would come home from work and realized I wasn’t doing much in my own life to ensure I was living sustainably.

I admit feeling paralyzed and overwhelmed by all the ways in which I was not doing enough. I knew, for example, that my transportation choices were very carbon intensive: Flying frequently for work didn’t feel like a choice, but driving every day to work—though time saving for me—always made me feel guilty. My thinking went something like this: “If I can’t do anything about the really big choices then why bother with the other stuff? How much difference would it make anyway?”

Then, two years ago, I left my career at the IFC and decided to take a “gap year” before heading into my next endeavor. I suddenly had time on my hands to figure out what I could do in my personal life that would make a difference in addressing the waste and climate crises. I did a lot of research, visited all the recycling facilities in my area, got my local dry cleaners to adopt a reusable bag program, began eating a more plant-based diet and started composting. And my research showed me that I could make a difference.

FM:  When I picked up your book I was very curious about the concept of an 80/20 approach to zero waste living. Can you explain what you mean by that?

SM: Yes, I love this concept. The 80/20 principle comes from economics: It simply refers to the idea that not all actions are equal and there’s often a rule of thumb that with just 20% effort on the right things, we can achieve 80% of the results we are seeking.  For example, at my workplace we used to say 80% of our business comes from just 20% of our clients. We put a lot of effort into nurturing those client relationships.

 There are thousands of actions we can take to try to get to a zero waste lifestyle. But they are not equally impactful. So, I set out to find the easiest, most impactful things I could do to live sustainably. In other words, I set out on a quest to find the 80/20 rule for zero waste living.

FM: You came up with three guiding objectives: Focus on food, purge plastic, recycle right. You call these “the magic three.” What makes these three initiatives so valuable?

SM: The 80/20 rule led me to these three themes. My goal in combing through the many sustainable actions we can each take is finding actions that lie at the intersection of ease and impact.

For example, it may be highly impactful to quit flying, but that’s not always a choice. Our job may require us to travel, and we want to visit our relatives and friends. So avoiding air travel does not make the 80/20 cut (I do always try to reduce my carbon footprint by booking direct flights).

On the other hand, I realized that actions related to food, plastics and recycling were relatively easy to implement, and highly impactful. That’s why these three themes became my guiding objectives.

Next up: Focus on Food