It’s time for personal impact projects! Working on a design thinking project without a team is slightly overwhelming but also exciting. We started to think about impact projects about 3 months ago. At that time, I had no idea what I wanted to do. There is so much I am interested in and there are so many issues that need to be addressed. Would I focus on a community, social justice, food equity, storytelling? Trying to narrow a focus was an exercise in futility, so I took a different angle. Rather than focusing on an issue, what if I focused on my personal impact? What issue could I have the most personal impact on? Then it came to me so easily: sustainability! Perfect, I now had an issue. I would look at sustainability through a three lens perspective: environment, social, and economic/governance. After identifying an issue and lens, I needed to identify a need. Are Detroiters thinking about social, environmental, and economic sustainability? If not, should they? This is where my project partner came in. I am working with the Downtown Detroit Partnership (DDP). DDP is a non-profit organization focused on facilitating collaboration with business owners, residents, and non-profits to support a thriving Downtown Detroit. DDP was already looking at environmental sustainability in Downtown Detroit and already identified needs; restaurants are interested in more sustainable waste disposal. Out of this idea grew the scope of my personal impact project. I will be developing a sustainability toolkit for restaurants in Downtown Detroit. This may sound terrible, but for the time I am excited to start empathy. I can’t wait to hear about sustainability from the perspective of restauranteurs, customers, and service staff. I hope these insights will result in an actionable toolkit that will bring a side of sustainable to your next lunch order.