I've spent much of my life living in a far more sustainable fashion than most, but besides a personal reduction of guilt it didn't really have any broader impact. I think we need both: folks like yourself leading by example, as well as broad regulatory changes to compel systematic behavioral change (both individual and corporate).

Just having the former is necessary yet insufficient. As stated elsewhere: there's just too many people that are otherwise unwilling to make personal changes. The upside is that when everyone else has accepted or embraced these changes, there's strong social pressure for those dissenters to join. And you can help inspire the early adopters.

But fundamentally we really do need strong political and governmental action here.