What things did you enjoy the most about your experience this week?
A long walk in the countryside with friends, starting with a short bus journey to make sure we could venture further afield. We were exploring to see if you can reach a local attraction on foot without walking along a busy and dangerous road. The answer was that you can’t, or not the route that we tried, though we did get within spitting distance and have an enjoyable walk.
What were the main challenges you faced during the week?
This week I added some savings and accidentally made it look like that was the amount I was saving each month rather than a total accumulated over years. It smashed the budget to pieces – in the incorrect version I was burning through 40 times more carbon than the 1.5 degree lifestyle. Even input correctly, monthly savings used up well over a tenth of the daily budget. I’ve been meaning to move my current account to a more ethical bank for a long time and not quite getting round to it, this will be the push that I needed. According to the MakeMyMoneyMatter campaign (https://makemymoneymatter.co.uk/), moving the UK’s national
average pension wealth (roughly £30,000) to a sustainable fund is 21 times more effective than the combined annual carbon savings of switching to a renewable electricity provider, substituting all air travel with rail travel and adopting a vegetarian diet. Taking part in the 1Five study has really brought this analysis home – seeing the numbers for the amount of carbon embodied in my savings makes it feel more concrete.
What were your main lessons learned of the week?
How much carbon both saving money and going to a yoga class embodies. Though I guess going to a yoga class cuts down on your savings…I’d need to check which is more carbon-intensive!
What would have made it easier for you to achieve or surpass your target this week?
Saving no money! Also, home cooking instead of eating takeaway vegan pizza whilst watching Strictly Come Dancing with friends, which would probably have been healthier too, and asking the yoga centre if they use renewable energy to assess the embodied carbon in the class more accurately.