One Week Journal

 Dear Journal,

Having a BSc. in Environmental Science doesn't automatically make you a tree hugger or a hippie or make you live a super sustainable lifestyle. It does, however, make you realize the impact each individual can have on the environment and make you feel slightly guilty about your everyday choices. Guilty enough to change? In some ways, but not always.

Before starting my one-week reflective journal about my consumption habits (which I know are not great), I used an Ecological Footprint Calculator to give me an idea of just how much damage my lifestyle is causing. 

After a series of questions, here are my results:

    The calculator stated that my personal overshoot day is April 2nd. This means I use up a years worth of resources in just over three months. It also means that if everyone on the planet lived the way I do, we would need four planets to sustain the population. Rough!

    I question the accuracy of this website, not because I am afraid to admit that I consume too much, but because of some of the specific areas of concern. For example, my family of 3 lives in a small two-bedroom home that is less than 900 square feet, but the calculator said my biggest consumption category is shelter. Otherwise, it seems fairly accurate. I don’t buy as much local food as I’d like to, there is no public transportation where I live and I try to just avoid going to stores except for necessities like groceries, so I don’t buy things I don’t need such as new clothes. 

Let’s see what the week brings…

Day 1: Friday October 21st

I start every day with a shower. In my own defense, I used to get extremely long showers as a teenager and young adult that lasted 30-40 minutes. My daily shower is now about 10 mins (or so); mostly because I’d rather the extra half hour sleep now. My shower head says it uses 6.6L/minutes, so that’s 66L (or 17.5 Gallons) of water every morning. Not a great start!!!

For breakfast I usually have something simple like a banana and yogurt or a bagel. We don’t compost; I’m not sure why to be honest. Because we rent and I’ve never asked if we could have compost here?? That’s kind of an excuse, I know. Yogurt containers can be recycled. Yay! 

Nine times out of ten, my lunch for work is leftovers in a reusable container.  

We have two vehicles - a car and a truck. I use the car to commute to work daily. Work is only an 11km drive and I can get 27 workdays out of a tank. On my drive to work, I took extra notice of the ads on the radio and the signs and billboards throughout town. Someone is always trying to sell you something.

We usually have takeout on Fridays because we’re tired and no one wants to cook or clean. Supper cost us $60. Chinese takeout still comes in plastic bags and foam containers. Gross! However, plastic bags are rare these days, so I kept them to reuse. 

I checked my bank account out of curiosity to see what money I’ve spent without even knowing or remembering. My Netflix subscription came out at $24. Remember the good old days when Netflix was $7.99? *Sigh*

I also paid the power bill, the truck payment and the monthly deposit into my son’s RESP. 

Day 2: Saturday October 22nd

I am from the east coast of Newfoundland, but I favor the west coast. I lived there for four years, but left about 10 years ago. I always said I’d move back eventually and here I am. We currently live just outside of Stephenville, which is about an hour drive to Corner Brook. Although Stephenville has all the basic things you need (gas, groceries, Walmart etc.), we make the trip into Corner Brook fairly often, like we did today. We also always take the truck instead of the car because it’s a more comfortable drive and, let’s be honest, because it’s newer and nicer. 

While we were in Corner Brook I bought a new fall coat that cost $240. I would definitely consider it a need instead of a want since I don’t have one. I spent the last 3 winters in Northern Labrador and my -40℃ parka is a bit much for right now. We also went out for lunch, visited the candy store and bought bottled water because I forgot my reusable water bottle. These were definitely wants, not needs. I also noted the endless sale signs throughout the mall trying to lure me into the stores. I eyed some winter boots, but didn’t buy them.

Day 3: Sunday October 23rd

Spent the day at home with the fam-jam. My partner and I stared at the computer for hours because we are currently house hunting. To be honest, it can be pretty overwhelming - mortgage options, down payments, real estate fees, the time it takes to see houses. Thanks to cookies, my Facebook ads are not focused on a variety of banks and mortgage options. 

Day 4: Monday October 24th

Back to work. Breakfast, commute, packed lunch, drive home, have supper. We are big meat eaters in this house. We have meat with virtually all of our suppers; probably most of our meals. Chicken is the most common, but we also have beef and pork fairly regularly. We have fish probably twice a month. We avoid farmed salmon like the plague; that stuff is nasty. Otherwise we don’t think twice about having meat frequently. For a while we ate tofu regularly, but that faded out. 

After supper I went back into town to go to Zumba. It costs $25 for 6 classes and is about 10 km away. It is twice a week, but I barely make it both nights, so a pass for 6 classes lasts me a month. This is the only membership fee I have. 

Day 5: Tuesday October 25th

Big day! We were approved for a mortgage. I think this is one area in which I am making a sustainable choice. I have no interest in a big house. We currently live in a two bedroom home, but are looking for a three bedroom home. We are not planning on having anymore children, so the third room will double as an office and guest room. 

The houses we’ve looked at are about 1500 sq ft with the living space on one floor. We want to reduce our heating costs, which is much easier in an efficient smaller home. Older homes tend to have oil heating which is unfortunate and expensive, but depending on the cost of the house, an update to electric heat is definitely an option. We make sure to check the windows, doors, basements and attics for areas of major heat loss. Closed-in porches are also a bonus when winter comes. 

Also, we had take out for supper…It cost $40 for three of us at A&W. Fast food is not cheap anymore! However, while I was there I noticed a few things. Like the placemat that claims their beef is hormone, steroid, preservative and additive free (see below). Also, much of the packaging is compostable or recyclable. The only thing I had to throw in the garbage was the ketchup packet and the lid for the cup. Had I gone with the glass mug option, then it would have been reusable of course. 

When I got home I checked out the A&W website out of curiosity. Under the Our Values page there is a section called Our Planet where they state “We’re committed to reducing our environmental impact through conscious use of packaging, waste, energy and water. We’re all about serving up great taste with minimal waste.”

Day 6: Wednesday October 26th

Shower. Breakfast. Work. Packed lunch. Spaghetti for supper. Back to town for Zumba. No excessive consumption today…Oh wait! I went to the Dollarama to get a few things for my classroom. I’ll admit, having the dollar store literally right next to my school is a bit of a downfall for me. After three years teaching up north and not being able to just run to the store when you need something I tend to visit there quite regularly. Oops!

Day 7: Thursday October 27th

It's been an interesting week keeping track of my consumption habits and patterns. I’ve checked my bank account more times this week than I usually do all month. Maybe that’s a good thing because it kept me aware of all the small purchases adding up. 

However, I do think I did pretty well. I’m not much of an impulse buyer and I tend to only go to the store when I need to, not for something to do. I think it will be a struggle for me to improve next week. Here goes nothing! Or something…like our planet…eeek! No pressure!

 

Honestly, if my grade for this assignment came from improving my consumption habits, I probably wouldn’t give myself a great mark.

We made another trip to Corner Brook and ate out twice again this week. I never did any extra driving myself, but we did spend a few evenings going to look at houses, so that was some extra driving. It kind of balanced out though since my son was sick this week, so that meant twice this week my partner didn’t have to drive to town to take him to the pool. 

I did make one trip to Dollarama and spent $15 on things for my classroom. Other than that, I only purchased food and gas. I bought my eggs and veggies at a local farm this week. The farm is literally less than a 5 minute drive from my house, so I am going to try and buy from there more often. 

We have made the decision to sell our snowmobile. As much as we enjoy it, there are a lot of carrying costs associated with it such as insurance, the current price of fuel and any maintenance costs that may occur. When we lived up north, our snowmobile was our only vehicle since you could use it almost six months of the year and were permitted to drive it on the roads. However, now that we are back on the island we have the car and truck. Also, we plan on buying season passes for Marble Mountain which will include driving back and forth to Corner Brook most weekends. 

There are things that I am just not willing to sacrifice. I can admit to that. Maybe that makes me lazy or greedy or selfish. I do try to do my part when it comes to the basic reduce, reuse, recycle and I’m not a bigger (or newer) is better type of person. I don’t update my phone every time there is a new version. We only have one tv in our house. I wear my clothes until it is worn out or pass it onto someone else who could use it.  

Over the last few years, I have consciously tried not to fall victim to advertising and consumerism. There was a time when money would burn a hole in my pocket and I couldn’t wait to spend it. I would buy clothes just because it was on sale, not because I actually needed it. I used to think bigger (or newer) meant better. I like to think I’ve grown up a bit since then and maybe the reason I couldn’t improve greatly this past week is because I am not doing that bad at all.  

I leave you with something to think about. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon who has a net worth of  $115 Billion (yes, billion) is quoted as saying “What consumerism really is, at its worst, is getting people to buy things that don't actually improve their lives.” In reality, as consumers, we have so much power to change the world just with the choices we make we purchase (or don’t purchase) a product.

“Consumerism has become our new ideology, the paradigm of postmodernity, the commodity and the brand our new idolatry (Norris, 2011).”

References:

Ecological Footprint Calculator. (2022). Retrieved October 21, 2022, from https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en  

Norris, T. (2011). Consuming schools: Commercialism and the end of politics. University of Toronto Press. 

Our Planet. A&W Canada. (2022). Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://web.aw.ca/en/our-values/our-planet