Here are some ideas for a more sustainable 2022.
Do you do some of these? If you have any additional tips to add to the list, please add them below.
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Regarding using âgreenâ energy I am still unclear about how it is verified.
The linked article says:
about a quarter of Australians have considered switching their energy provider to a more environmentally friendly one â though a much smaller number of people, less than one in ten, have actually done it.
This may be because people donât know how much of a difference switching providers will actually make, or because we suspect energy retailers may be âgreenwashingâ us by making inflated environmental claims.
The thread on this forum brought up similar concerns. Another way of putting it is to ask:
- Since I am not buying green power directly how do I know that my participation in this scheme actually changes behaviour, that the growth of green power is not something the producers would have done anyway due to changing economics of power generation?
Drilling down to the report that is the source of the ratings it says:
The final criteria for 2018 are:
- Emissions intensity of generation assets
- Support for energy sector decarbonisation
- Carbon offsets
- Support for local and renewable energy
- Fossil fuels policy positions and investments
- Energy efficiency and demand response/demand management*
- Corporate sustainability, transparency and responsibility.
I see no explanation of how the scoring of these criteria answers the key question.
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A simple one which didnât make the list but can have a significant impact isâŠ
Avoid using energy/electricity. This can be from little things such as turning off things when not in use, through to walking/cycling/public transport instead of driving where possible. Every time one plans to use energy, all one has to do is ask do I really need to use it and is there a way to reduce its use.
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I think itâs fair to say that this advice could do with a comprehensive update to help clarify things. Iâve raised it recently, thanks for the comment Iâll pass it on too.
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Looking a little away from the home,
Iâm with @phb on the benefits of foregoing the personal ICE vehicle more often for public transport etc. It might help to sell the benefits by providing a ranged estimate in kgs of CO2 emissions (from nn to mm) we can potentially save for every 10km less use we make of the family car. It might need an âup toâ prefix, because walking and cycling saves more than catching a bus.
Actions such as shifting to home deliveries of groceries and reducing shopping trips, or buying as we do from local businesses with a large proportion of locally produced products have potential to save on food miles.
We live in a recycled house. We are still amazed at the lack of quality in many products and the ongoing churn as marketing keeps reinventing new trends, to justify endless production. How do you capture consumers minds to buy a product in quality and lifetime service potential?
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I think youâve pin-pointed one of the big mindset shifts that is either happening in some areas or perhaps needs to happen. The grocery issue is an important one, and Iâve noticed a few more options in my area popping up that allow you to bring refillable containers for things like cereal or nuts. Just recently, I noticed a new refillable shaving oil option, which I picked up. Still a long way to go though.
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- Avoid single use - doing a lot of this.
- Efficient heating and cooling, including insulation. Long time believer in insulation and heat-pumps and fans and windows
- green energy retailer - the retailers for my area all source their energy from the same single energy provider, so no thanks.
- Save water. What is meant by âsave water when handwashingâ? as it used to mean put the plug in the basin and wash and rinse in water at the bottom of the basin, and obviously with awareness of hand hygiene since 2020 that is no longer recommended?
(yes we do have efficient showerheads etc). - Run full loads in washing machine. Our high efficiency (HE) Fisher&Paykel machine is great (a top loader that saves water like a front loader but doesnât have the door seal issues of front loader (I am very allergc to mould - cannot have a front loader)) but hard to find another high efficiency machine to replace it.
- Plan meals, organise food shopping - yes.
- Compost bin and worm farms (we have multiple worm farms).
- More energy efficient kitchen appliances. Have replaced refigerator & freezer. Still looking a replacement dishwasher that has cold inlet as well as hot inlet like our old one used to (as recommended by Choice)
- Use non-toxic cleaning, use refillable cleaning. But do observe Choiceâs comments about âthis non-toxic cleaner is only about as good as using plain waterâ
- More meat-free days. Been doing this since 1980s.
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The article states âAccording to our calculations, if you were to switch from washing a half load every day on a warm wash, to washing a full load every day on a cold wash, you could save yourself $135.85 a year.â
To do so you would be washing twice the amount of items. Does this means you also have to change your clothes, bedding etc. twice as often to make the saving?
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Sounds like you are putting in a very conscientious effort @vombatis, nice work. The handwashing comment is referring to the taps themselves (i.e. low-flow taps), although the washing process is important of course. I think using running water but switching off the tap during the cleaning process is the current best practice.
@Glenn61 to my understanding, most washing machines these days are pretty good at sensing the size of the laundry load and adjusting automatically. Still, when running our lab tests, the message is pretty clear that âfull loads / cold washâ is the most efficient way to go about things (the cold wash is a big factor). Itâs not advised to wash things more than needed to make up the load, if you can plan it with sheets/towels to make up the laundry to full then that might help, but being in a two-person household myself, I know thatâs not always possible. Still, we do the best we can.
If you want to take a closer look at the costs/efficiency of laundry loads, thereâs a more detailed article here.
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Thanks Brendan,
The article you referenced includes a lot of great tips. It also clarifies the confusing wording that I highlighted in my earlier post. Both articles should say that the saving of $135.85 comes from washing a full load, using cold water, every second day.
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Regarding refills, most of these are also in plastic bottles, so until refill stations are common (with all the necessary safety for infection control) you are really only choosing less plastic. For soaps, you can choose boxed cakes or individual ones from markets and wholesalers. We saw a travel tip, recommending that a cake of soap be cut into thin or small pieces that you can wrap in baking paper and take an individual one for each shower. All is used and thereâs only the paper to discard. We decided to find small containers we had (mouthguard, travel soap, lollie tins, etc) and store the slices in them, ready for shower pick-up, dispensing with the paper.
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Depends how you cook. I hardly have anything that I can compost. All gets used up in cooking
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My understanding, and it may not be right, is that when you buy âgreenâ power, the retailer will only pay renewable generators for the power that you use.
Of course, you actually get the same electrons as anyone else, because we all use the same grid. But by ensuring that only renewable generators receive payment for your share of consumption, it tends to increase the competitiveness of renewable generation vs fossil fuel generation.
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Did you know that if you eat a CEO you will save more greenhouse gasses than an entire lifetime of being vegan? 
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Even if the retailer can verify that they bought the same amount of green energy as the subscribers paid for that does not show that the scheme is driving the production of more renewables which, as far as I am concerned, is the goal.
If the producers are building more renewable plants because building new FF plants is not economic why should we pay extra while they do as they would have done anyway?
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Green/renewable energy is supposed to cost less than fossil fuel energy. Why is it that green energy costs more?
Retailers do not pool energy. They need to purchase capacity and pay for the energy their customers are using based on the time of day it is used.
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Mostly because fossil fuels receive massive taxpayer subsidies. Many of them are hidden. For instance, not paying for the impact of global warming - directly caused by burning fossil fuel - is an enormous subsidy. We all pay for that through the ever worsening disasters which are occurring throughout the world as well as the environmental impacts generally.
Regarding time of day, because renewable energy includes solar, wind, hydro and storage, there wouldnât be many occasions where it is not possible to source energy at the retail level from renewables.
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Iâm not sure exactly what, but something does not seem quite right here. In mark_mâs post, and in the "10 Ways to be More Sustainableâ list, there seems an implicit expectation that everybody ought - intellectually, emotionally, financially, and in the place they live - to be able to keep up with the Green Jones. Everybody should - morally, ethically, and of course for simple commonsense reasons - buy only the best quality, even on the many occasions when nobody agrees on what it is, and even if they cannot afford it, and even if they donât actually need it.
The first item on the â10 waysâ list illustrates my disquiet. It begins with an exhortation to âDitch single-use in favour of reusablesâ. By implication, choosing reusables is always better than choosing single-use. But is this always so? Exactly how is a reusable steel fire poker superior to a single-use twig when it comes to stirring the fire under my bush billy? The very notion is silly - as the text below the headline promply confirms, with links to a list of pros and cons, and discussions of what the user has to do (such as to take up composting) in order to give reusable even a ghostâs chance of being better than single use.
My point here is not to deride reusable; personally, I am all in favour of reusable when it makes sense. Rather, I worry about the facile assumptions that everybody will benefit from reusuable, high quality, or indeed any particular solution to any of lifeâs more difficult problems. Australia is a highly urbanised country - but at least 25% of us live outside cities, so will not necessarily benefit from schemes that seem workable to the majority. Likewise, a big proportion of people are aged, infirm, with this or that disability, that make even the most popular of solutions either unavailable or unattractive. The rule that should apply, I think, is: give information not recommendations. As doctors sometimes say, prescription without personal diagnosis equals malpractice. I think that this is a moral that perhaps Choice writers should consider before they write their headlines.
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One of the best ways to live more sustainably is to just consume less.
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