Starting our family footprints journey
Small steps towards an eco-friendly lifestyle
Like many people, I imagine, my husband and I are becoming more and more concerned about the state of the environment.
Actually, I think it was always something that worried me as a young girl. I remember sponsoring a tree as a nine-year-old. But somewhere along the line I became complacent. Perhaps other worries jumped ahead of the queue. Perhaps life got busy with school exams, then university, then worrying about all the typical things that 20-something women worry about.
Photo credit: Eco Expo - Save the World
But one thing I know happened: I felt like it was too big a problem to deal with. How could I possibly make a difference? It's too scary and too awful and too inevitable. I can't possibly make a difference. I was overwhelmed.
My hubby has been a good challenger of my complacency. His zest for life and get up and go has been the perfect antidote to my "it's too hard" attitude. Whilst it may not look much like it from the outside, our life together has ever so slightly been changing.
We have been making baby steps towards a more sustainable style of living. And since having kids our desire to be responsible citizens of planet Earth has increased. We want them to still have somewhere habitable to live and grow old in. And more than that, to flourish in and to explore.
Our small steps have included going from a two-car to a one-car household. We're lucky to live in a well-connected area and can both commute by public transport (if and when we ever return to offices!). Over the course of having two babies, we've moved from disposable nappies to reusable ones. Personally, I couldn’t face the added job when I had my first; I just focussed on learning how to change a nappy! We try to buy British fruit and veg over imported. Recently we've been making a concerted effort to eat less meat. These probably don’t sound like anything that impressive.
The point I'm making is, we're NOT one of those radical families who have zero waste and grow all their own vegetables (though ask me again when we’re 65-year-olds and hopefully this will be a different story!). We still buy bananas from Puerto Rico. If I thought I had to be like that to make a difference, I'd never get off the sofa. It would be too overwhelming.
But our small steps are heading in the right direction and that I am glad of. And as this photo (credited to Eco Expo) reminds us all, we don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste (or any eco-initiative) perfectly, we need millions of people doing it imperfectly.
Don't be despondent at the state of the world. Don't let it paralyse you. Find one change you could make - today - and go for it!
I hope to be able to encourage you along the way, and whenever I discover anything which has helped us I'll share it with you. We’re all in this together!