You are not alone. In every community, there are individuals just like you who are committed to making a positive difference for a more sustainable future by preserving Earth’s bounty for future generations.

But how do you prioritize the most effective actions that fit your family’s or organization’s goals?

Sometimes, deciding how to act on your best intentions for sustainability can be overwhelming. What will make the most significant impact with your limited time and resources? Does what you do as an individual even matter in the total scheme? Here’s a guide for taking meaningful steps along pathways to sustainability based on science. You can wisely decide your next steps no matter where you are along your journey or where you believe our world is headed. Many of your decisions will reverberate community-wide and have positive effects on sustainability.

For individuals:

1. Start by assessing your use of fossil fuel. If you can understand your most significant impact areas, typically transportation, home energy, food and goods consumption, you can choose an area on which to focus. Each individual’s or family’s situation varies, but looking at activities in these four categories will guide you through the areas with the highest fuel consumption to decide your actions.

2. Focus on the high-impact changes first. What do you spend the most money on? Those practices will likely have the most significant environmental benefit relative to the effort expended to change them.

3. Form good habits. You’ll have more success gradually building sustainable habits rather than attempting radical lifestyle overhauls.

4. Prioritize social influence. Community-based approaches that leverage social networks will motivate you, your friends, your family and your community.

For organizations:

1. Identify which environmental impacts are most significant to your operations.

2. Using science-based targets, align reduction goals with scientific consensus on planetary boundaries.

3. Involve employees, customers, members and communities in sustainability planning.

4. Address root causes rather than symptoms of unsustainability.

Many people feel that individual actions are meaningless against massive global challenges. However, the “social contagion” of sustainable behaviors is evident when our actions spread through social networks. Individual good examples have a ripple effect. Research shows the significance of individual actions and strategies that inspire meaningful change in these ways:

• Observable behaviors spread fastest: Rooftop solar installations show a “contagion effect” where each installation increases the probability of new adoptions within a half-mile radius.

• One-to-many influence is real: A single individual typically influences four to seven others in their immediate network, with effects extending to second-degree connections.

• Neighborhood diffusion spreads practices: Visible sustainability practices like composting, EV ownership or lawn alternatives spread through neighborhoods via “behavioral spillover.”

• The 25% rule works: When 25% of a population adopts a new norm, it creates a tipping point for widespread adoption.

• Early adopters drive change: The most crucial phase of any transition is early adoption by motivated individuals who demonstrate viability.

• Public recognition reinforces commitment: Community recognition programs for sustainable actions increase participation by 35% and create social proof.

• Success stories provide motivation: Narratives of successful collective impact, especially those featuring relatable people, are more motivating than statistics alone.

• 1% shifts matter: If just 1% of Americans adopted one plant-based food day weekly, it would save emissions equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the road.

• The aggregate impact is significant: The collective carbon footprint of household consumption is 72% of global emissions.

• Systems leverage drives change: Individual actions create market signals that drive industry change — for example, the rise in plant-based foods was initially driven by consumer choices before institutional adoption.

• Behavior-attitude consistency matters: People who take environmental actions become more vigorous advocates for policy change.

• Policy support results from individual actions: Individuals engaged in sustainable practices show 37% higher support for related environmental policies.

• Civic spillover comes from individual actions: Environmental behaviors correlate with increased civic participation, voting and advocacy. As we consider whether our actions make a difference, the data assure us that what we commit to can have wide-ranging effects on our community, environment, climate and public policy.

Tangible, individual, local actions can scale to have a much broader impact. When considering your priorities, know that your choices matter. Take the positive steps you can in your household or organization, and honor the legacy you are leaving for future generations.

Peggy Siegle and Fred Horch are principals of Sustainable Practice. To receive expert action guides to help your household and organizations become superbly sustainable, visit SustainablePractice.Life and subscribe for free to One Step This Week.