Economics of Sustainability students share climate resolutions for 2026

Emeline Auriol: “My Climate New Year resolution would be to reduce my consumption by making more conscious choices about what I buy; specifically choosing fewer single use packaged products and being more intentional about the lifecycle impacts of the things I use. This resolution is grounded in what I learned: that sustainability challenges are not only environmental, they are the direct results of economic incentives, cultural values, and the way we assign meaning and worth to resources. We often underestimate how much of our everyday decisions, especially around consumption, contribute to externalities like carbon emissions, waste, and resource depletion. By reducing consumption and choosing products with lower lifecycle impacts, I am aligning my personal behavior with a broader shift that economics shows is necessary: moving from a model of constant growth and material through put toward one that respects ecological limits. This resolution reflects the idea that sustainability begins with values and that individual decisions can collectively influence markets norms and expectations. It’s a way to act on the understanding that every purchase is a signal of demand and demand shapes production. Ultimately my resolution is about practicing the same conscious decision making that we discussed throughout the course: being a rational agent not just in economic sense but in the moral and ecological sense as well.”

Kaavya Baliga: “For the New Year, I am pledging and encouraging others also to reevaluate and lessen the extent of their current economic habits to better align the economy towards sustainability, (i.e., buying less clothes, making my coffee at home, and using Amazon less). Though this reevaluation involves being a smaller player in the economy, it also means being a larger player in climate activism and is therefore significant in its impact the more and more it is reproduced.”

Sikarn Chamnanratanakul: “My New Year’s climate resolution is to meaningfully reduce my single-use plastic consumption by switching to reusable containers and bags in my daily routine for 90%-100% of my routine. One of the biggest sources of waste in my life comes from eating outside, not from wasting food since I often bring leftovers home, but restaurants almost always use plastic boxes or even foam boxes. To change that, I plan to carry a small reusable container in my bag so I can avoid taking new plastic each time. I also want to change how my family shops in Thailand. Local markets usually give multiple layers of individual plastic bags for fruits, vegetables, meat, and snacks. Instead of accepting all of that packaging, I will encourage my family members to bring their own tote bag, a couple of reusable boxes, and lightweight mesh produce bags. This action might not be possible from just saying, therefore, I will start from myself and prepare all the boxes or expectations that I want them to do first for them, and make this a habit for all of us. In doing so, these simple substitutions can significantly cut down the amount of plastic I use without making my daily life less convenient. This resolution matters to me because plastic pollution contributes to long-term environmental damage from landfill overflow to microplastics in oceans, which also comes back to me. Reducing the amount I generate is one of the most direct, realistic climate actions I can take as an individual. Even small habit changes, when done consistently, can add up to a meaningful impact.”

Ella Chen: “I am committing to a New Year’s resolution to buy 50% of clothing and household items across the next year from secondhand sources. If properly incorporated into the larger public consumption decisions, this resolution would decrease the purchase of new items which has a ripple effect of reducing corporations’ profit and incentives to continue overproducing their products. This change to production drastically reduces the amount of virgin resources used in good creation, thereby decreasing the habitat destruction, resource and water use, greenhouse gas emissions, and pollution that extraction and production contribute to. Fast fashion is a considerable contributor to these environmental impacts as it ensures market prices for clothes remain low by externalizing the cost of labor malpractice and makes it a cultural norm to continually buy new clothes. Committing to buying from secondhand sources will also dramatically reduce the number of items that are sent to landfills, where they slowly degrade and release microplastics, or to be incinerated in a process that emits greenhouse gasses. This resolution also reduces packaging waste and shipping costs while directly bringing the economy closer to a circular framework that reuses items. I believe this resolution is vital to incorporate in the new year by shifting economic incentives from prioritizing growth to making it a cultural norm to buy items secondhand.”

Xi Chen: “From my personal point of view, the most important and long-term resolution for climate change is education. For me, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) really influenced my thinking and decision-making. I think it is a useful tool for accessing the sustainability of my choices. As a result, an LCA assessment before a choice is made can be useful for climate change. So, I believe with education, more people can understand and thereby apply LCA; especially for those who want to address climate change, an LCA can provide them with a new way of understanding their choices—to be more sustainable.”

Chloe Cordeiro: “After taking Economics of Sustainability, I am shocked by the amount of plastic still being created, used once, and thrown into landfills every day. My climate resolution for the New Year is to ban plastic to go cups on Northeastern campus. There are plenty of other solutions rather than plastic cups that can be used. For example, bringing your own cup to campus cafes is an idea. Another could be having a circulating number of reusable cups or mason jars that can be used at Dunkin, Starbucks, or Saxby’s on campus and returned to any of the cafes or to return locations. I believe that students would have the incentives not to steal these cups because then they would not be able to get coffee on campus anymore. Personally, my climate resolution for the New Year is to avoid purchasing any drinks that are sold in to go cups.”

Ryan Daly: “The year is now 2026, and we see that many companies’ goal is to ‘Go Green by 2030,’ yet in this past decade, many are far from that goal. A New Year’s resolution I would like to propose to the government is to provide an incentive that helps companies reduce waste. After taking this course, I’ve realized the negative externalities of waste and how it ends up in developing countries, ruining the lives of many citizens in low-income areas that have the hardest time getting out. My proposal for these companies is to stop producing so much waste, and the government will offer an incentive that is far more beneficial than producing goods that end up in landfills. This will allow corporations to stop wasting so many products, but it doesn’t require a crazy change, since they will still be getting money from the government, and it also makes the lives of people in these developing countries much better.”

Viraj Dewan: “My Climate Change New Year’s resolution would be to reduce my overall consumption, not just my waste. We often focus on recycling or switching materials, but the biggest impact comes from buying less. Every product has an invisible footprint -the water, energy and emissions used long before it reaches me. My resolution is to be more intentional about what I buy, choose reusable options and avoid single use items unless its absolutely necessary. It’s realistic and it directly reduces the upstream environmental damage we don’t usually see. I feel like my resolution has a great significance, as it is very realistic, it’s about shifting from convenience to awareness and making choices that genuinely lower my impact, hence this resolution would be ideal and perfect.”

Nathan Donohue: “Companies who produce aluminum cans and glass/plastic bottles must provide a certain number of recycling receptacles in areas where they sell or face fines. Combine this with tax benefits for reaching recycled aluminum/glass/plastic goal in production (setting recyclable goals at least double current rates) as a policy measure.”

Agustina Ferro: “In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, I became increasingly aware of the surge in single-use plastics, especially plastic straws, being discarded in my neighborhood, back home in Argentina. Even though cafés had closed their seating areas, the volume of takeaway waste grew noticeably, and I could see plastic accumulating everywhere. At the same time, many small local businesses were selling reusable metal straws to stay afloat during shutdowns. That overlap made something clear to me, there was both an environmental need and a behavioral opportunity. I started small, speaking with managers at my local Starbucks about replacing plastic straws with paper or biodegradable options and encouraging the use of reusable ones. After we launched a pilot program there, I expanded the effort to nearby McDonald’s branches, and soon the initiative gained momentum across my city. Through collaboration with business owners, environmental groups, and municipal officials, the movement scaled nationally. By showing that accessible alternatives existed and by creating public pressure, the campaign contributed to Argentina’s eventual ban on single-use plastic straws, a policy change that remains in place today. It stands as one of my proudest accomplishments. As I prepare to graduate this December and think about returning home, I’ve been reflecting on how to continue that work. My New Year’s climate change resolution is to address the next major source of fossil-fuel-based waste, single-use plastic packaging in food service businesses. Drawing on what I learned in this course, especially about how incentives shape decisions, and how plastics remain deeply tied to environmental harm, I want to develop a small-scale but scalable, incentive-driven program that encourages cafés, restaurants, and fast-food chains to transition to certified biodegradable packaging. My plan is to partner with local municipalities to design a program where businesses receive modest tax reductions, lower waste-management fees, or preferential public recognition when they adopt compostable packaging. By internalizing the environmental cost of plastic waste, and by rewarding greener decisions, the program makes sustainable behavior not only morally preferable but economically rational, as long-term environmental change occurs when incentives align private benefits with social well-being, especially given the system that we live in. This resolution matters because food-service packaging is now one of the fastest-growing sources of urban waste. While the goal is ambitious, I learned through experience that meaningful change always starts with one concrete action and one community willing to try. The alternatives already exist, and the model can begin locally, just as my straw campaign did. My hope is to help spark another practical, incentive-driven shift, one that reduces plastic pollution, lowers dependence on fossil-fuel-derived materials, and contributes to a more sustainable future for my community and country.”

Esther Harari: “For the New Year 2026, I commit to refilling and carrying my reusable water bottle wherever I go. By doing this, I can significantly reduce my reliance on single-use plastic bottles, which are often used for only a few minutes but remain in landfills for decades. This small, consistent change lowers my personal environmental footprint and aligns with the broader goal of reducing unnecessary waste.”

Claire Hill: “My climate change resolution is to patch or sew my older clothes, rather than throwing them out to purchase new ones. This will reduce my consumption and my environmental footprint within the textile industries.”

William Kennedy: “My climate change resolution is for the general public to reach a state of caring about one another. I believe that change can only come if we put weight to our relationships, so any kind of sustainable action is impossible if we continue to act on the assumption that we owe nothing to each other. This can be as simple as checking in with your friends and family, opening up more to classmates and coworkers, or a basic level of politeness while in public. I could work on this myself, especially since I am surrounded by people who are mutually on their own in a new place for the first time. If enough people believe they are indebted to those around them in some way, then they may start to think more about their consumption habits and impact on the environment around them.”

Ryan Ko: “My climate change resolution for the New Year is to abandon my consumption of unnecessary single-use plastics. This includes the consumption of products like bottled water and drinks, single-use beverages from companies like Starbucks or Dunkin, and a pursuit of alternatives for other products whenever I can. In order to achieve sustainability, it requires an effort to be made by every member of society. While it is impossible to remove single-use plastics entirely due to their prevalence in almost every product, if I can reduce my impact in any way, I will choose to do so.”

Parth Lakhotiya: “My climate New Year’s resolution would be to help reduce the information asymmetry around the true environmental and social impacts of the products we consume. Throughout this course, I realized that one of the biggest barriers to sustainable behavior is not a lack of willingness, but a lack of clear, accessible information. Most consumers only see the price tag, not the hidden environmental costs, externalities, or resource footprints embedded in everyday goods. When those impacts are invisible; it becomes easy for unsustainable products to appear affordable and convenient. What changed my own perspective on sustainability was not being told to ‘act greener,’ but finally understanding the real consequences behind the things I buy and use. Once that information gap closed even slightly, my behavior shifted naturally. Knowledge created motivation and it made sustainability feel logical rather than moralistic. My resolution, therefore, is to support and advocate for systems that make environmental impacts transparent such as clearer labeling, improved life-cycle information, digital tools that reveal material footprints, and stronger reporting requirements for firms. If people had access to accurate information about resource use, pollution, and waste, rather than relying on assumptions or marketing, more sustainable choices would follow organically. Reducing information asymmetry empowers individuals, pressures companies to redesign products, and ultimately align markets closer to true sustainability. It is the kind of change that influences both personal decisions and systemic outcomes, which is why I believe it is the most meaningful climate resolution I can make.”

Cameron Lee: “My sustainability New Years Resolution for people looking to decrease their environmental impact would be for them to stop using ammonia-based fertilizers and switch to natural alternatives. This would help decrease human reliability on one of the four pillars, ammonia, and hopefully prepare society for a more long-term switch to sustainability.”

Evan Lewellyn: “My climate change resolution for the New Year is to think less economically about well-being. Sustainable solutions are too often ignored because they lack ‘sufficient’ economic justification, but I’ve learned that this also applies to social, academic, and personal affairs. Given economics’ origin as an arbitrary tool to justify political action, the discipline sometimes leads to an over-quantification of actions that should rather be shaped by fundamental value systems.”

Megan Long: “Change will only happen if this change comes from the people. And the small voices in the government are the ones who can make that change, and that comes from the community. In the Divide in Concord video, it showed that a water bottle ban didn’t just magically appear from thin air, it only happened because one woman was passionate about it and people stood behind her in that cause. She knocked on hundreds of doors in Cape Cod, even when some were hostile and came with resistance; nothing stopped her. Without enforcement and education, there is no influence, and her years of work with this cause was able to raise enough awareness in the local governments to enact change. This is why I believe the best resolution is to go straight to policy makers. If every person (or at least I do and people within my inner circle), write to policy makers to their local governments at least once a year about what they believe should change, at least once a voice will be heard. The Divide in Concord video showed me that even one person can make a change, and that can start with even students, if you want that change to happen.”

Pearl Luc: “A climate change resolution I would like to adopt in the new year is to begin making eco-bricks with my personal trash. I’ve always been curious about them, and I think it would be a really meaningful experiment. Recently a source of guilt I’ve been wrestling with has been the amount of trash I feel I produce with the packaging from the products I buy, or the tissues I use, et cetera. But I don’t necessarily take significant strides toward reducing that waste because I feel so unburdened every week when it magically gets taken away by a truck. I think making an eco-brick out of my non-compostable waste is a way for me to really track how much trash I produce, so I can attempt to reduce it.”

Parth Makhija: “My resolution is to move beyond surface-level price: a $3 coffee, a cheap t-shirt, a can of soda. My resolution is to force myself to ask: What’s the real cost? Who pays it? Where is the incentive pointing me? I want to create a personal ‘externality ledger.’ Anytime I buy something whether that be clothes, single-use packaging, or even food I want to make it a habit to write down the hidden cost that isn’t included in the price or at least make a mental note so I can consciously improve my consumption decisions and pattern.”

Nadeen Makhzomi: “A climate change resolution for the New Year is to decrease individual consumption of clothing by taking time to experiment with clothing already owned and finding new combinations of items that can be worn together. This will increase the number of outfits that can be worn throughout the year using owned items, decrease the boredom that comes from outfit repetition, and increase creativity and self-expression in individual fashion. This will overall lead to less consumption of clothing as greater satisfaction is obtained through already owned pieces.”

Eleanor Meltzer: “While I could sit here and discuss all the extreme ways people could contribute to limiting climate change, most people would probably roll their eyes and not listen. To really encourage the masses to get excited about taking care of our planet, takes education and baby steps. There is a huge lack of widespread information being publicized, and as we have discussed in this course, most people aren’t educating themselves on these topics or can’t afford to be sustainable. I truly believe widespread education and willingness to learn is the easiest and most effective way for communities to see the impact they are having and how they need to change. In terms of physical resolutions, start small. Whether this means no plastic cutlery or straws for food service and take out, eliminating plastic bags, or minimizing single-use water bottles, the only way to really get these movements to stick is for people to know how severe this (our) problem is. 2026 is the year of self and community education on sustainability and what it actually means to be sustainable!”

Lilah Miles: “This year we have a resolution to instill a new type of sustainable literacy in children as we understand that genuine change starts at the source, through inspiring informed and critical thinkers. We want to shape a mindset which is cognizant that each action, product, and purchase leads to a huge chain of effects that impact our social, ecological, and economic systems. In tandem with reducing carbon footprints, we want to educate children to see sustainability as deeply interconnected at all levels of every supply chain. We will inspire the youth to become independent thinkers who can see negative costs that are hidden to most and allow them to be equipped to question consumption patterns and insist on corporate accountability. Even further, young thinkers will not just imagine a more sustainable future, but gain a sustainable literacy to create it themselves.”

Ella Regan: “As someone who’s into sustainable fashion and collecting vintage pieces from decades ago, a climate resolution for the New Year that I would propose is donating monthly to second-hand stores and shopping where you give. Once a month, bring a bag of gently used clothing to your local secondhand store that offers donor discounts (for example, Savers and Buffalo Exchange offer 20% off your purchase that day). Then, shop there using your discount, creating a circular fashion system where your old clothes directly fund your ‘new’ wardrobe. This is beneficial to the environment, since you’re actively removing items from the waste stream and keeping demand from going up for resource-intensive textile manufacturing. Additionally, it provides personal incentives because not only are you saving significant money buying clothes that were initially sold at higher prices, you are also able to find rare clothing pieces that are no longer in retail stores. I do this regularly and enjoy it very much. It’s not only a way to declutter my closet, but I can also find unique clothing gems that I can’t get anywhere else at such a low price. I have even been lucky and found genuine designer brands, like vintage Burberry and Prada, for a fraction of the price. Instead of viewing donation as losing something, you’re consciously trading items you no longer use for the opportunity to acquire pieces that you actually want while preventing further damage to the environment.”

Valeria Rizo Patron: “A meaningful climate change resolution for the New Year is to shift away from the habit of constantly buying new things and to focus instead on repairing, reusing, and sharing what we already have. This matters because overconsumption has become extremely normalized, especially in my generation with fast trends and online influence pushing people to replace things quickly rather than make them last. When entire communities commit to using items longer and reducing unnecessary waste, the impact on resource use and the environment is significant. This type of resolution challenges the idea that more consumption always means progress and encourages a more thoughtful and sustainable way of living.”

Alessandra Saba: “My climate change resolution for the New Year is to be more intentional about my food choices, especially my reliance on frozen vegetables and pre-made meals. I often choose frozen foods because they’re convenient and save time, especially on busy days. However, after completing the life cycle analysis (LCA) in our course, I realized how much energy goes into processing, packaging, and storing these items. The LCA helped me see the hidden environmental impact of habits I had taken for granted. Moving forward, I want to prioritize fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients whenever possible, while still keeping convenience in mind for days when it’s necessary. I consume Yasso bars every week because they are only 100 calories and are ‘healthy’, however, after this analysis I can tell I have been lied to, more than half of the calories come from highly processed foods with large amounts of sugar and require lots of energy consumption to make. This resolution matters because food choices are something I interact with every day, and small changes can make a meaningful difference. Choosing local and seasonal foods can reduce transportation and storage emissions, support local farmers, and help me waste less food. The LCA made me more aware that convenience often comes with a larger environmental cost, and that small, realistic adjustments can add up. By planning meals more intentionally and balancing convenience with sustainability, I hope to build habits that are both practical for my lifestyle and better for the environment. Even though this resolution feels small, I believe small habits create bigger patterns. By becoming more aware of my food choices, I’m taking a step toward a more sustainable routine that’s realistic for me and still environmentally meaningful.”

Anthony Saliba: “My climate change resolution for 2026 is regarding corporations and their ability to buy carbon-offset credits to mask the true cost at which their business comes to the environment. While I understand that carbon-offset credits have become an essential aspect to corporations existing within the parameters defined by the government as acceptable and they cannot be done away with altogether, I do not believe corporations should be able to advertise themselves to the public as ‘green’ or ‘carbon-neutral’ if they earned that status primarily through the use of offset credit; instead, they ought to disclose that their achievements in regard to sustainability are a product of offsets, not fundamental change. This may be a difficult idea to implement in practice, but I believe that this change could jeopardize the public perception of corporations that had previously masked their evil natures, incentivizing them to implement actual change, and not just cosmetic fixes.”

Maya Sarimsakci: “A climate change resolution I personally have for the New Year relates to the way that I buy berries. Although this feels utterly small, I’ve become exceedingly peeved about the manner in which the food at the grocery store is packaged. Every good is rendered single use because its plastic encasing is immediately discarded. I want to change this for myself wherever I can, and I felt that berries were the way to start. Normally, they are packaged within a single use, plastic container. I want to buy them in compostable cartons whenever I can.”

Piya Sarkar: “A climate change resolution would be to reduce single-use plastics at Northeastern University. This could be done by banning the selling of plastic bottles and plastic containers. Despite this being relatively smaller-scale, I believe that sustainability efforts in a smaller community first can help create ripple effects and make realistic changes that can positively impact our community and the environment.”

Tanvi Saxena: “One of my favorite policies I have learned in this class is EPR, and I would love to see that more in action across companies and countries. A climate change resolution I would like to see is mandating producer responsibility for all packaging. Through numerous LCAs, I have seen how packaging is designed to be non-recyclable from the start. This means producers are making products knowing that it will end up in a landfill. EPR for more responsible packaging would push companies to redesign their packaging and make it more recyclable and sustainable, also lowering landfill waste.”

Raksha Sriraman: “My solution would be focused on reducing my academic carbon footprint by prioritizing repair over replacement or means to create lower impact when provided the means to do so. I’d also enjoy partaking in collaborative settings to have more systemic sustainability solutions rather than solely individual ones or where they tend to only be concentrated in sustainability focused classes. Climate change is both collective and personal and this resolution spawned from this specific course’s focus on not utilizing technology in our lectures. Discussing solutions encourages others to think beyond consumer-level fixes and reimagine broader economic transformation. Moreover, it aligns individual responsibility with structural awareness, an essential measure crucial towards meaningful and sustainable climate action.”

Tanvie Sud: “My climate resolution is to slow my consumption in a way that reflects the hidden environmental costs this course exposed. We learned how much damage is embedded in everyday goods long before they reach consumers, through extraction, energy use, and planned obsolescence. My resolution is to choose fewer, longer-lasting products and to support policies that shift responsibility upstream, such as Extended Producer Responsibility. This matters because sustainability cannot rely on individual virtue alone; it requires aligning personal habits with the system-level changes we want to see.”

Alexa Wahba: “My sustainable New Year’s resolution is to stop overconsuming products and be more aware of the harmful chemicals that are in clothing. I often find myself shopping for the same clothing item that are the same style as the ones I already have just because the company released a new color. What might have seem like a fun idea when I purchased them, the ‘fun’ choice stays in the back of my closet while I go back to wearing the same couple of outfits that I actually like. With a close personal connection to not wanting to shop on fast fashion cites because of the fear of child labor and ecological harm. The clothing I do buy still does have added microplastics and dyes that I fear seeps into my skin. Having sensitive skin already in 2026, I plan to buy clothing items that come from sustainable fabrics like cotton and linen, because they are healthy for myself and the planet.”

Dongfang Yang: “My climate change resolution for the new year is to shift from being a passive consumer to an active participant in reducing systemic environmental harm by prioritizing sustainability and lower-waste choices in my everyday life. This means choosing products designed to last, reducing single use plastics, and being intentional about the resources I consume. This resolution matters because it aligns personal behavior with the broader structural changes needed for sustainability. While individual action alone cannot solve climate change, it can reinforce cultural norms that counter disposability and overconsumption, which are two of the most significant factor of emissions and waste. Every time I choose something reusable over disposable, I participate in shifting demand toward practices that value longevity, resource efficiency, and lower environmental impact. More importantly, this resolution keeps climate change visible in daily decision making. It helps to educes my personal footprint, make me reflect on my everyday choices, and strengthen a collective ethic where sustainable habits become the default rather than the exception. In a world where the climate crisis often feels overwhelming, committing to solid and doable actions is a meaningful way to stay engaged and aligned with long-term planetary well-being.”

Emilia Zermeno: “A climate change solution for the New Year would be to take the pollution higher and prohibit cap and trade. This is because, due to cap and trade, big corporations are still very much polluting, so ending cap and trade and making corporations take full responsibility for their pollution will make emissions go way down. Furthermore, making them pay more will end their incentives to pollute and will end the practice of free riders who do not pay a price for what they actually pollute.”