In my last blog I started exploring how we could live in a way that is better for our environment. As our personal biggest contributor to carbon emissions, I thought about what Lois and I are doing in terms of travel and transport, the struggles we face, and what more we could potentially be doing.

It seems to me that, after travel and transport, the big areas in which I, personally, have an impact on our environment are (not necessarily in this order):

• Housing and energy
• Food
• Waste
• Consumer goods

 

So, as with travel and transport, I have to ask myself what am I doing about each of these? What could I be doing? And where is it that I am struggling?

 

Housing and energy

This is the area that I’m most tempted to give myself a pat on the back. When I calculated our carbon footprint, I worked out our energy use on the basis of zero kgCO2e/kWh. Was this a bit ingenuous? It certainly made a significant difference to our overall carbon footprint, but is it really true?

When we moved to Breathing Space, there was no active gas supply for heating or cooking. We decided to keep it that way and rely on electricity.

For several years now we have been purchasing our electricity from a company that only supplies renewable electricity (first Good Energy, more recently Bulb).

One of the first things we did when we moved in was to install solar panels.

So, although between us and Breathing Space, we consume 13.7MWh of energy per year, all of this does come from renewable sources, and we are putting 2.4MWh of energy back into the grid from our solar panels.

My slight reservation about all this is that we remain very high energy consumers. So far we’ve done what I think we can do to insulate our home, turn our heating down, use low energy bulbs and appliances, and turn things off when we’re not using them. But is this enough?

And what about our appliances? Our cooker, fridge/freezer, dishwasher and washing machine are all quite old and I’m sure not as energy-efficient as newer models. Should we replace them? Or run them firmly into the ground and then replace them? Or could we do without any?

And, much as I might like to congratulate myself for using green energy companies, the reality is that our energy comes from the national grid, so ultimately remains a mixture of renewable energy, coal, gas and nuclear.

The domestic sector accounts for 28% of all energy consumption in the UK. Over 2/3 of this energy comes from fossil fuels. (Source: Energy consumption in the UK. HM Government, 2018) 

 

Food

The other evening, Lois and I went out for a lovely vegan meal at Arabian Bites, a Middle Eastern restaurant run by recently arrived refugees from Syria and Iraq.

The food was great and the staff friendly and welcoming.

The following day, sticking with the vegan theme, Lois persuaded me to try my cereal with apple juice rather than milk. I don’t think I’ll be trying that one again.

Much as it may be better for our environment. I’m ready to go vegan yet. I confess – I am far too attached to milk on my cereal and in my coffee, a bread and cheese lunch, meat of fish for at least some of my evening meals.

 

So what can we do to reduce our food imprint?

• We have already cut down our meat intake, rarely eating red meat, and eating vegetarian several times a week;
• We now shop mostly at our local OneStop store,  buying only what we know we will consume and local, seasonal produce rather than air-freighted food from NZ or Morocco;  but how to avoid unnecessary packaging? where is our nearest greengrocer?
• We may not be particularly green-fingered, but we more and more grow our own vegetables, salad leaves, and fruit; and commit to preserving, freezing, or giving away any surplus
• We are avid composters – the three compost bins behind our greenhouse are one of my favourite parts of the garden. To see, smell and feel all that wonderful, rich humus is a pleasure few can beat! (Nah .. there are many others! but its good) (Lois added that last bit!)

 

Waste

Which brings us onto waste.

The UK statistics on waste make interesting reading. As a country, we generate over 200 million tonnes of waste each year, mostly from construction, demolition and excavation (61%), followed by commercial and industrial waste (19%) and household waste (12%). Nearly half of this is recovered or recycled, but nearly a quarter (52.3 million tonnes) goes into landfill.

While we have seen increases in the proportion of waste recovered, recycled, and used for energy production, and decreases in the proportion going to landfill, the overall volume of waste generated has gone up over the years. We clearly have a long way to go.

We are doing what we can here at Breathing Space, but it sometimes feels rather like a drop in the ocean – particularly as the third skip from our building work is now full and ready to be taken away, no doubt to go to landfill somewhere!

• We strive not to buy things we don’t need; to repair things that are broken and to reuse things for different purposes
• We are taking some steps towards upcycling – I enjoyed making a bench from an old pallet last year and recently used an old drawer to repair our wheelbarrow and made a sorrel composter out of an old dustbin
• We give unwanted clothes and other items to charity shops, or offer them on Freecycle
• We do our best to allocate our waste appropriately – composting what we can in the garden; putting other garden waste in the brown bin and recycling in the blue bin
• Should we be weighing our different types of waste so we can monitor and set our own targets for waste reduction? Does anyone know any sensible way of doing this?
• It seems to me there is some value in keeping things that we’re no longer using in case they come in handy somewhere else (e.g. old bits of wood, or hardware that could be upcycled), but that takes up space. How do you strike a balance between sensible reuse and pointless hoarding?
• How do we deal with all the senseless packaging – particularly from things ordered online?

 

Consumer goods

It sounds like a dirty word now. I don’t like it. But the reality is, I am a consumer.

The issues surrounding our consumer lifestyle go way beyond waste and the impact on the environment. They also affect my fellow human beings, the inequalities we see both within and between countries, and the exploitation of so many who work to produce the goods I consume.

So I will put that on one side for now and tackle it more deeply in another armchair activist blog.