2024 represented a huge year of growth for greenLantana, our organization’s special interest group that focuses on the close relationship between personal green choices, larger ecological issues, and public health.

One of our members, Lindsey Dunham-Maher, captured the theme of our personal goals in 2024—small changes add up. Lindsey said, “I was really overwhelmed trying to figure out how to make my life greener overall, and there were so many things that seemed intimidating. So, I just tried doing one thing at a time.” Here are the small steps that Lindsey took this year:

• Started composting
• Switched to more sustainable and eco-friendly paper products and cat litter
• Started using plastic free cleaning products like dishwasher/laundry/toilet cleaning tablets and refillable cleaning sprays
• Planned my first garden and got supplies to grow seeds
• Started using my local library to get access to books instead of buying
• Bought meal buckets/bulk food and first aid supplies for emergency preparedness
• Started buying groceries regularly from local vendors at my farmer’s market
• Consumed less meat

Lindsey captured the most important ideas that greenLantana wants to share: Every day presents an opportunity to change one small household item for something more sustainable, to take one action to improve our local communities, or to better educate ourselves on global issues. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. In that spirit, here are a few of our favorite things that greenLantana did to try to make a difference.

Green Choice Challenge—The first quarter of 2024 marked the end of a year-long challenge for Lantana staff to try out a wide variety of new green habits. Some of the ideas adopted included composting, replacing single use paper and plastic items, and learning about energy vampires (electricity-sucking appliances and devices).

B Corp Involvement—In 2022, Lantana became a certified B Corp, which is an official indicator of our commitment to adhere to ethical business practices, including becoming a greener, more environmentally friendly company. greenLantana has worked closely with our B Corp steering committee to ensure that we meet requirements and aim for future milestones of sustainability and ethical business practices.

National Public Health Week Participation—This year for National Public Health Week campaign greenLantana tweeted about the Farm Bill and how it affects public health and wrote a blog about the importance of emergency preparedness, which eventually led to the creation of Lantana’s customizable Employee Emergency Preparedness plan.

Emergency Preparedness Plan—Because Lantana has a unique distributed environment that allows our staff members to work from anywhere, we have several employees who live in regions that have specific emergency events to prepare for. A one-size-fits-all emergency plan didn’t make sense for us. Instead, we created a customizable emergency preparedness plan worksheet that allowed staff members to research specific emergencies likely to take place in their local communities.

Friends of PACC Give Back Opportunity—Each year, Lantana staff members get together for our annual Company Meeting where we plan, collaborate, and bond. This year, we incorporated a Give Back Opportunity which allowed our staff members to donate money and supplies to the Friends of PACC, an animal rescue in Tucson, AZ, where this year’s Company Meeting took place. Together, we raised $1,165 worth of much needed cash and supplies to give back to the community that hosted us.

Sometimes it’s challenging to see the impact of our actions as we’re doing them, but reflecting on the year shows us how we can continue to improve in the next year, one thing at a time.