Stuff, stuff and more stuff- Jenny Baker

What things did you enjoy the most about your experience this week?

Getting the numbers for many things. I am an engineer and have measured my carbon footprint for many years of the things that can easily be measured (gas, electricity, travel) and reduced these to less than 0.5 tonnes of carbon a year per person. Food and stuff are much more difficult to measure but are the place where I have the most environmental damage. I was quite ill this week so didn’t do much. However, I did have time to fix an ‘egg cooker’ which someone had thrown away because it didn’t work. It’s something that I have wanted for a while but couldn’t justify buying new.

What were the main challenges you faced during the week?

Buying my partner a birthday present, something he asked for but definitely didn’t need. He would probably buy himself if I didn’t and kids like to give him something. This put my average emissions up to over 40 tonnes if every day was like the first day. The other issue was I bought a new e-bike battery last week. I could manage a bit longer and/or get the old one refurbished but the range was only just getting me home after work so shopping detours were difficult. Being ill meant I couldn’t take my son to football and therefore a friend took him in a diesel car. I gave her some homegrown flowers as a thank you.

What were your main lessons learned of the week?

Nice to buy a new Galaxy S8 smartphone (for me) but built in 2018 and so it was amortized already – thank you back to the market who make it easier and more comfortable to buy second-hand electronics. However someone bought this and then decided they needed a new phone whilst this was perfectly good so is this a gain? That when we are rich it is the discretionary things that cause high emissions. For adults, it is easier to just do something else but it is hard to deny children who want to have new experiences and do what their friends are doing.

What would have made it easier for you to achieve or surpass your target this week?

Not buying my partner a birthday present 😉