Sunday, January 12, 2020

Six Months Later

A Shopping Moratorium


Regular readers will remember that a little over six months ago, I wrote a post declaring that I was going to embark on a six month moratorium on buying any clothing, shoes, or jewellery for myself.

The reason I am concerned about shopping is that our North American materialistic lifestyle is not sustainable for the Earth. Every item of consumer goods that we purchase has a high carbon cost, which comes from obtaining the raw materials for the item (mining, logging, growing cotton, etc.), deforestation that ensues from activities like mining, logging, or growing cotton, the manufacturing process which uses energy and often environmentally toxic chemicals, the non-reusable packaging of the goods (often in plastic), and the transportation of the item to the end user, often from the far side of the world (burning fossil fuels).

When people buy things, they're often replacing items that are still serviceable (if no longer fashionable), or repairable (but who knows how to darn socks anymore? And what about the built-in obsolescence of iPhone batteries which can't be replaced?). The unwanted items typically end up in landfills. The carbon footprint from unnecessary consumption contributes to climate change.

So how did I do in these past six months?

Well, I'm not a really big shopper in general. But I do have a lot of clothes, which are mostly office wear left over from my work life before I retired. So I thought I wouldn't have much difficulty cutting myself off from shopping for clothes, shoes, and jewellery.

I announced my shopping moratorium on June 28, which meant it would be in effect until the end of December, 2019. In fact, I posted the blog article in the airport, as my daughter and I were waiting to board a flight to Crete. We were heading off together to a yoga retreat!

And wouldn't you know it -- the airline lost our luggage. We were going to spend a week-long retreat at a remote location on the edge of the Libyan Sea and we had nothing to wear but what we wore on the plane. So, only two days after stating my intention to not shop for six months, I was running around Heraklion buying clothes. You can read about it here

 It was a truly wonderful holiday. More pictures here.

And so, I thought I would just shift the end date of my moratorium from December 29 to December 31 to complete six months of no shopping. (Note: I still allowed myself to buy clothes for others -- e.g., souvenir T-shirts for the grandkids).

But on the second-last day of our Cretan holiday, after we finished the yoga retreat, the whole group did a shopping trip to Rethymno. Then, my daughter and I spent one more day in the city of Heraklion on our own. Sad to say, in Rethymno, my will power wavered, and I bought myself a slender handmade silver bracelet as a memento of the trip.

Exploring Rethymno With My Daughter
Tempting Wares


Street Art in Rethymno
All the Retreat Group (Except Theo)
Restaurant Where We had our Last Dinner Together
So, you guessed it, I shifted the starting and end dates of the shopping ban again. It started on July 7, 2019 and ended on January 8, 2020. I am happy to report that I did not buy any clothing, shoes, or jewellery during those six months (in fact, I haven't gone shopping even yet). I wore out three pairs of shoes, and several clothing items. And, next time before I impose a shopping ban on myself, I will make sure that I have a good supply of non-ragged underwear before I start.

Carbon Offsets

All my life, I have wanted to travel to see other parts of the world. Yet, throughout most of my adulthood, my travel has been quite limited. Although I did travel for work, it was rarely to places that I would have chosen as a destination, and my time in each place was mostly spent working, not sight-seeing. Finances, parenting, and the time demands of full-time work limited my opportunities to travel.

So one of the top goals I had for retirement was to travel.

But, since I have begun learning more about the climate crisis, I have realized that flying causes a lot of CO2 to be released into the air.

It is important to reduce material consumption, shift from a high meat diet to a more plant-based diet, avoid wasting food, divest one's portfolio of petroleum stocks, burn less fossil fuel (in cars and in home heating/cooling), waste less water, garden organically, use less toxic household products, vote for environmentally focused political parties, speak out about climate concerns, and refuse plastic packaging. These are all lifestyle changes that I am trying hard to incorporate into my life.

But I undermine my own efforts to be a good climate steward when I do a lot of air travel. One solution is to fly less.

As much as I can,  I have eliminated taking domestic flights. For example, I live on an island. There are two main ways to get off the island -- by air, or by ferry. So I have been choosing the ferry. I was excited to read that a local small airline hopes to put an electric airplane into service within the next two years for short trips from the Island to the mainland.

This summer, Rob and I vacationed close to home, camping nearby on Vancouver Island. That way, we didn't have to fly anywhere, or burn a lot of gas on a long road trip.

But I haven't yet eliminated all air travel from my life. Although I feel guilty about flying, I also am not ready to give up my lifelong goal of travelling to other parts of the world.

So along with flying less, my solution is to purchase carbon offsets for every flight that I do take. Although there are a number of organizations one can use to do this, I use Gold Standard. A video from their website explains the concept of joint action on climate change, and how purchasing carbon offsets makes a difference.

The first step is to calculate your emissions. Gold Standard provides a way to calculate your annual emissions.  However, for calculating flight emissions, I prefer to use the calculator provided by myclimate.

As an example, I calculated that my return flight to Crete created 3.4 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions, and an upcoming trip will create 1.6 tonnes of emissions, so 5 tonnes in total for the two trips. I purchased carbon credits equivalent to my flight emissions, and chose to apply those credits to a project that provides clean water to Cambodian communities. It cost me $81 CAD.

Maybe some day I will go that extra step and stop all air travel. But, not yet. 


18 comments:

  1. No shopping for six months is a very ambitious goal, so good for you for doing it; even with a couple of stops and starts. If it were easy, it would already be a way of life.

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    1. Suzanne, that is a really good point. Shopping has become a core element of our North American way of life (the constant bombardment of advertisements plays a big part in this), and it is hard to change ingrained habits. I have an advantage in that I grew up in a small northern community where there was little opportunity to shop and consumerism did not play a big part in my early life. So I can still remember a lifestyle which did not include (much) shopping.

      Jude

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  2. Hi Jude,

    Your goals are very similar to mine. I have enacted a shoe moratorium in the past and I should think about a total personal shopping ban as well, in keeping with my WOTY 2020 - Alignment - however I think there should be a exemption provided for vacations. ;-)
    The carbon offset is a great idea. I have solar panels on my roof and am apparently creating carbon offsets every month already. So I feel less guilty about air travel now, thanks!

    Loved this post!

    Deb

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    1. Deb, thanks so much. We presently have four sources of heating in our home: electric heat, heat pump, natural gas fireplace, and high efficiency wood stove. The heat pump and electric heat have the lowest carbon footprint because in B.C., almost all electricity is generated hydroelectrically. But on the Island, electric heat is also very expensive (whereas natural gas is very inexpensive). In my opinion, there should be policies and incentives in place to to make the more green option, electric heat, less expensive than burning fossil fuels. In fact, the marketplace alone would make electric heat less expensive than gas and oil if petrochemical companies paid the true cost of obtaining and shipping gas and oil. But in order for that to happen, people have to work together to demand change, for example through political processes.

      Oops, I think I’m ranting. I love the fact that you have a solar panel on your roof. I’m going to have to look into getting one, and what the process is in B.C. for linking solar panels into the grid. I’ve read that it has become much more affordable in the last few years.

      Jude

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  3. Hi, Jude - Congratulations on your successful shopping moratorium. You are a true inspiration for aligning beliefs and actions. I look forward to catching up later today!

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    1. Hi Donna. Sorry we missed you last night. The wind, the power outage, and the snow all made for quite an exciting night. Talk to you soon.

      Jude

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  4. I have long since been a fashion-free zone so don’t care much about new clothes as long as I have something clean and serviceable and look presentable. I was congratulating myself on not having bought anything last year, then I remembered 3 pairs of trousers/pants - all exactly the same but in navy, black and grey. Colours which go with anything, so I have been able to revive some old tops that haven’t seen the light of day for a while. I call that a win.

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    1. Hi Anabel. My wardrobe doesn’t reflect current fashion trends much either. I’ve always been a mostly jeans and T-shirt type person, although because of my last two jobs as an administrator, I had to go buy things like dress pants, blazers, and heels. I’m not finding much opportunity to wear those kinds of clothes anymore. Most daysI alternate between two or three pairs of shabby jeans while the dress pants go untouched.

      Jude

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  5. Now that I'm retired, I buy many fewer clothes and many of my prior purchases have been donated to my favorite charity shop. My husband and I often joke that, now that we have money and can afford to spoil ourselves, we don't want anything. Travel is a dilemma though since I do want to see (some of) the world. Buying Carbon off-sets is an interesting idea to help mitigate our impact.

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    1. Janis, I’ve donated some of my work clothes too, although I also keep some for the occasional academic conference or meeting that I still attend. That’s so true (and funny) that at this time of life we don’t seem to want much anymore, whereas earlier in life most people seem to want a lot but often can’t afford much.

      Travel is a huge issue for me, and when I finally figured out the carbon costs of flying, I felt really depressed about it for months. How can I be environmentally conscious in my choices but still get on an airplane to go somewhere for my own pleasure? It is hypocritical. Buying carbon offsets isn’t as good as refusing to fly, but it’s better than not buying carbon offsets for my flights, is my reasoning.

      Jude

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  6. Hi Jude, A great post! I used to darn socks up until recent years since I could not warrant throwing out socks with a small hole. Very funny on the non-ragged underwear. I was not aware about the electric airplane. Also, interesting about the Carbon Credits. I have two daughters with young children and everyone is really into thrift store shopping for gifts and especially children’s clothes. We also do a lot of ‘shop in each other’s closets’ between daughters and girlfriends. A form of recycling and finding treasures. I think you have mentioned before, Jude, the concept of awareness. A good thing.

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    1. Thanks Erica. I never learned to darn socks, although my mom tried to teach me. I’m hopeless at anything that involves sewing or any of the feminine fabric arts. I draw the line at sewing on buttons, and take all my hemming jobs and alterations to a seamstress in town.

      Apparently it’s Harbour Air in partnership with MagniX that is developing the electric commercial airplane. Rob researches all of those kinds of things and keeps me up to date on them. They had their first successful flight in Richmond in December.

      Jude

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  7. Well done! I remember your luggage not making it to the yoga retreat, which was very ironic! But, luckily, you could flex the dates for your challenge a bit. I can’t believe you actually wore out shoes and clothes during those six months... Maybe they were old already? Also, I often wonder why people have to buy so much jewelry, since that never wears out. I understand having some choice, but, then again, I’m not much of a girly girl. I have a few beautiful pieces that I rarely wear. :-)

    Mark and I wear our same shoes (hiking shoes) for at least three years and my clothes usually last “forever” as well. We don’t like shopping, so we only toss clothes when they’re totally “done” - too ragged to donate. All that being said, I am surprised at our clothing expense in 2019. I’ll post that blog soon.

    Thanks for telling me about the concept of purchasing carbon offsets. I had no idea. It’s been over a year since I flew and not going to Belgium once a year anymore cuts flying out of my life. Now, with Maya, I have no idea if and when we will ever venture across oceans in a plane again.

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    1. Liesbet, the interesting thing about clothes is that the more you have, the longer it takes for each item to wear out. I donate clothing that no longer fits or is not to my taste, but I have second thoughts about doing that ever since I read that a lot of donated clothes end up either in landfills or are dumped in developing countries. Every time I feel tempted to buy something new, I ask myself: do I like it enough to live with that item of clothing for 20 years? And, yes, the things that I wore out during this recent six month period were quite old. One was a T-shirt that I was given at my 25th high school reunion more than 20 years ago, and it had a huge hole in the armpit. I cut it up and it’s now in my rag bag.

      Jude

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  8. Congrats, Jude, on completing your shopping moratorium! I've rarely shopped for new clothes since leaving the workforce. I don't feel too guilty about air travel because I've been walking and living car-free, plus practicing 3Rs for about three decades.

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    1. Hi Natalie. I know that you think a lot about the environment when you make your lifestyle choices, and that is wonderful. I do too, but for me the carbon cost of air travel has become a big stumbling block. So buying carbon offsets when I fly helps me feel better about it.

      Jude

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  9. Hi Jude! I am a bit late getting around to comment on this post but I agree with most all the other commenters--"good job!" I am also not a shopper so that is pretty easy for me. I've also found that when I buy something of better quality--it last longer. And a real key for me is buying what I like, not what is in fashion, because then it fits who I am for as long as it lasts. I'm also NOT a jewelry buyer or wearer so that would be easiest of all. So yes, for me it often comes down to my travel "footprint". But I maintain that it is far easier to cut in places that feel right to you so that you do the change easily and effortlessly. We all have to "pick our battles." For example we have solar on our house, extremely low water usage making our utilities about as low as possible. I also believe in this day and age that the BIGGEST thing any of us can do is to VOTE for the right representatives for our country (no matter where you live) because their power and influence can be tremendous (in both positive and negative ways.) That's why I'll be at my 4th Women's March this Saturday. We must continue to work together to "be the change we want to see in the world. " ~Kathy

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    1. Kathy, good for you to have a solar panel and to have cut your water usage. In the hot, dry area where you live, that is so important. I also agree with you about starting making changes first in ways that are easiest or most comfortable. Some of the things I started doing first were composting (when I was a teenager, I got my family to start composting kitchen scraps as a science project), gardening organically, and voting for parties with strong environmental platforms. Many of those things I have been doing for decades.

      I keep challenging myself to do more. Some of the more recent things definitely haven’t been easy. For example, reducing food wastage. I like to have lots of choices of fresh food in the fridge, but if there’s too much, we end up wasting some. But recently I’ve been doing quite a good job of making soups to use up limp veggies, freezing leftovers, and also being careful to not buy too much in the first place. Eating fewer meals with meat has been a tough one, although we’ve cut way back on red meat overall and the quantity of meat in each meal. This year, I increased my political activism by volunteering with the federal Green Party during the recent election. And, as I wrote in this post, flying remains a big dilemma for me.

      Jude

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