How green is my household?

Sartorial elegance

Hi, Hilary here, with more on the saga of my wardrobe. Since my decision at the start of this year to only buy second-hand items, I've managed to get some clothes from op-shops and Canberra's few second-hand clothes shops. However, the selection was a bit limited. Then a couple of weeks ago I realised that the solution was to search for clothes on eBay.

I started out looking for trousers and found plenty available in my size, supposedly in good condition - it's useful being a small size - it seems lots of women buy size 10 clothes and then put on weight or get pregnant and never wear them! Tempted by the low prices I got a bit carried away, bidding on several items at once. I'm not particularly experienced at using eBay, and at one point found I'd bid three times on the same item, even though no one was bidding against me (I was most embarrassed when the seller emailed to ask if I needed help).

The upshot of all this is that I've managed to not only expand my wardrobe, but also improve its quality. Among the four new pairs of black pants I bought (I did say I got carried away) is a pair that apparently would have cost about $550 new! I couldn't imagine paying that kind of money for a pair of trousers, even if they are Italian made, designer label and pure wool, but I got them for about 1/20th that price, and they're definitely a much better class of garment than I'd normally own. I'm sure my mother will be relieved to hear that my refusal to buy new things is not going to mean that I start to look like a bag lady, and in response to Julie's recent comment - pictures of the new me will appear soon - watch this space. 

Food, glorious food!

Hi, Bruce and Hilary here for a change. Food has received a passing mention in previous posts, but we thought it was time to get serious about it, particularly as we’re both currently immersed in books about this topic — Hilary is grappling with Not on the label: What Really Goes into the Food on Your Plate and Bruce is wading through The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter. Since we both read in bed, this has made for some interesting bedtime conversations as we swap details about the horrors of battery-reared chickens or the madness of flying a green bean from the UK to Kenya and back again (the beans apparently get hand-tied with a chive during their brief sojourn in the African continent).

In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, there’s a lot to think of with food, including how it’s produced, processed, packaged, transported, stored, shopped for, cooked and disposed of! We thought we’d start at the beginning, with food production. Where possible, we buy organic produce, which is much more planet-friendly because it’s grown without artificial chemicals. This is nicely explained in the article Eating fossil fuels, which calculates that about 1500 litres of oil are needed each year to feed a single American, about a third of which is used to produce inorganic fertilisers.

When there’s a choice between buying local produce that’s not organic and imported produce that is organic, we’re going for the local produce. Our thinking is that the advantages of the organic production are probably wiped out by the food miles if the food is imported. Buying at the farmers’ market we can often get the best of both worlds, with lots of locally produced organic food on offer. There’s an added benefit from the food being sold directly from the farmer to us in an unheated shed, which is that it doesn’t carry those additional greenhouse gas emissions associated with the heating, cooling and lighting of a supermarket. And of course, there is the unquantifiable benefit that comes from being served by a nice friendly person, who is delighted to be selling their produce directly to the customer.

Why are we doing this?

Hi, Hilary here again. Now we're about half-way through this 'experiment', it seems a good time to stop and think about why we're doing it. Bruce was the one who came up with the idea of a 'carbon-neutral year' and, as a good partner, I was keen to support it (of course, it helped that the idea fitted with things I'd previously been trying to do). I think we both feel that what we're doing won't make any difference in the long term, but that at least when the planet fries we'll be able to say that we tried! That's enough for us, but we haven't managed to convince our kids of the benefits of what we're doing.

When we started our carbon-neutral year we explained the idea to our offspring and pointed out that it was for their benefit — our attempt to save the planet for our descendants. As you might expect, we didn't get a very enthusiastic response; instead we're looked on as slightly quaint and eccentric. At a recent family occasion one of Bruce's sons suggested that this blog is our 'hobby', but the dictionary tells me that a hobby is an activity pursued for pleasure or recreation, whereas I feel that what we're doing is an attempt to overcome our feelings of despair and frustration.

My daughter Becky, who lives with us all the time, is the child who has been most strongly cajoled into taking up the challenge of being carbon neutral (we can't see the lights the boys leave on, or hear the constant humming of their computers). Leaving lights on has become the main issue, probably because it's so visible and so seemingly simple to fix. In keeping with our different parenting styles, one of us has berated her for not turning off the lights, the other goes round after her turning them off on her behalf; however, neither of us is able to convince her to WANT to turn off the lights. Suggestions welcome!

Old clothes, new look

Hi, Hilary here. At the start of this year I decided to try buying nothing new for 3 months, apart from food, drink and toiletries. Since I've pretty much been able to stick to that without finding too onerous, I've decided to continue for the rest of the year. I find I'm in good company - the latest issue of G magazine had a piece about a group of friends in the US who decided to do something similar and have now been joined by thousands of others.

Last weekend my focus was on clothes, because I have to be reasonably smartly dressed at work and my wardrobe is looking pretty threadbare. I decided I needed something more up-market than the op-shop, so I tried a second-hand designer clothes shop and the second-hand clothes stalls in Gorman House markets. My shopping expedition was successful and I ended up with a new shirt, T-shirt, jumper and trousers. A couple of these items are green - a whole new colour for me!