I was glad to see that some of the toys our five-year-old foster child unwrapped this Christmas were tied down with small biodegradable paper ties rather than the wire ones that have been the standard for many years. Unfortunately, there was still a lot of other packaging (lots of plastic). However, even there, quite a lot of it is recyclable and the county where we live has recently started providing separate 240-litre wheelie bins just for recyclables, so all this packaging is going to go for recycling. Much better than previous years.
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One of my favourite green living initiatives currently is the Lammas eco-hamlet in Wales. Here is a schematic map of one of the plots. I'm confident the plotholder has a much healthier ecological footprint than I have. I don't know the exact size of the plot, but I'd venture that it's probably well within the amount of average global hectares per global citizen (one planet living is about 2 global hectares per person).
The above charts, which I think are self-explanatory, are from the report "Why are resource limits undermining economic performance?" from the Global Footprint Network.
When I rerun the Global Footprint Network's ecological footprint calculator with all the most sustainable choices as answers, the result becomes 1.4 times the sustainable level supportable by the planet and 3 global hectares required to support me. The website explains that in many countries it's not possible currently to live within 1 planet of resource because of the choices outside our control as individuals (presumably, choices made by our governments and industry sectors / companies on our behalf). That means that, in order to live within my average share of one planet's resource, I should not only make all the sustainable choices I can, but also I should try to
influence government and industry to make changes in the UK's 'structural unsustainability'. I did a very quick run through the Global Footprint Network online ecological footprint calculator. The tool doesn't have a country-specific calculator for the UK yet, so I've used Switzerland as the nearest equivalent Western European country for which there is one. The result is shown below. It tells me something that I already suspected - I'm living at a resource consumption of 1.9 times the rate at which the planet can support me (as an average global citizen) and I use up about 4 global hectares of land to support me. I can see that the main reason for this is my choice of foods (high in meat content) and where I source it from (much of it not local food). In that respect, I think I'm fairly typical of many Western Europeans. One of the things I'm looking to achieve is to use more effectively (and sustainably) the 1 acre of land I possess (less than one hectare) to produce more food for myself, my family and community, to reduce this imbalance. Other aspects are already better balanced on my smallholding - eg energy from PV already in place. By trying out alternative scenarios in the calculator (or using a straightforward ratio on the results above), it seems that the average global footprint for 1-planet-living is equivalent to about 2 global hectares of land per person.
Air food miles for food consumed in the UK rose dramatically in the nineties but (thankfully) has flattened since then. This chart doesn't show the total emissions or emissions per kilogram-kilometer or in aggregate for each mode of transport. However, undoubtedly air travel and air freight still remain a significant contributor to global warming. Roll on the day when air travel (and freight) is included within emissions limit measures such as carbon taxation.
The UK has a trade gap in fruit and veg - we import much more than we export. By supporting locally-grown, sustainably farmed fruit and veg (ideally, organic), we can both reduce the food miles of the food we consume and also help improve the trade gap. This would keep the economists happy as well as environmentalists. To give an indication of the scale of the food-miles problem, consider the pie-chart below, which shows the countries of origin of food consumed in the UK. |
About the BloggerI'm David Calver - an Accountant with a passion for sustainability. Categories
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