Turtles-Paradise

One of the things that often bothers me about ‘Eco-Living’ is the saturation of the market with products labelled as green, eco-friendly etc. and that as a result come at a premium price. It seems like a triumph of marketing more than anything else.

It also has the problem of penalising people on low incomes, who frequently cannot afford organic-cotton fairly-traded independent designer premium cardigans. Whilst I do believe that we need to put our money where our principles are, it should be recognised that a great many people struggle to make ends meet and often cannot even afford enough to eat. This is true both in the developed world, and in the developing world. The different access to resources between a large corporation and a small independent business needs to be recognised. The difference between someone on a professional income raised with a good understanding of ‘how money works’ and someone on a part-time minimum wage job who generally runs out of money before they run out of month also needs to be recognised.

‘Eco-friendly’ products frequently act as a way of assuaging guilt. They are a way of us continuing a pattern of consumption and convenience but paying a little more in order to feel like we’re still doing the right thing. Buying new clothes every season is not sustainable, regardless of how organic the cotton is.

I see the two types of sustainability presented as follows:

Eco-living

• Paying a premium on eco-friendly versions of the same consumer products we already purchase. Think cleaning agents, clothing, meat, carbon offsetting for holiday flying, and so on.
• Utilising being ‘green’ as part of your identity, branding yourself as thoughtful consumer, talking a lot about the ethics of sweat-shop clothing and giving yourself credit for driving a smart-car.
• Owning the latest gadgets and justifying the purchase as they are more energy effecient.
• Exclusive, and to a certain extent expensive.

Minimalist Living

• Choosing not to do something in preference to buying the premium product. Exploring your backyard rather than taking package holidays. Cleaning with baking soda and water. Making clothes last longer, and owning less of them. Choosing to go vegetarian and growing your own vegetables.
• Basing your identity on things that you do, rather than what you buy. Stepping away from being a consumer altogether. Focusing on your own choices rather than judging others on theirs. Not driving a car at all.
• Using old gadgets, or not using gadgets at all. Doing things in an old-school, more time-consuming way, but doing less things and focusing on only doing the important ones.
• Inclusive, and works along with frugality and money-saving ideas.

I should be clear that I’m not knocking the importance of green products, and thinking about the ethical implications of what you buy. I do buy eco-friendly washing up liquid, for example. Buying an energy-effecient car is better than buying an SUV, and if you desperately want to fly around the world it’s not going to hurt to plant some trees.

However, I think we need to move toward a radical re-imagining of what a sustainable society looks like, and I think we need to recognise the trickiness of justifying out-of-control consumption of anything, even if it is labelled as eco-friendly. We need to question the validity of flying overseas twice a year just to sit on a beach and get a suntan, and the tendency to want to fill our homes with brand-new stuff. We need to recognise that sustainable living should really be a move away from rampant capitalism, which in order to survive creates ‘needs’ that previously did not exist. We need to stop reinventing the wheel every five minutes.

There is a very human desire to tear everything down and start over from scratch. To build a dream home from the foundations up. To take a white piece of paper and fill it with something perfect. Empty space is inspiring, it makes us want to fill it.

I think, however, we need to move away from filling up empty space with new and shinier things, and instead maintain and evolve what we already have.

Here are some suggestions:

• Insulate old buildings. Maintain and improve energy effeciency.
• Add alternative sources of energy generation. Get a solar panel, a heat pump, a wind turbine.
• When appliances break down, don’t replace them. Rinse your clothes each evening in the shower, and then wash them infrequently at a laundromat if they get really dirty. See if you can survive without a television or a computer. Look for shared alternatives – internet cafes, libraries, rent infrequently used items, join (or start) a community allotment.
• Grow your own herbs and window-box vegetables. Spinach and other ‘cut and come again’ salad leaves are a good place to start.
• Redecorate. An old house can look very modern with some basic improvements and some well-chosen paint. It will be cheaper than moving.
• Give away as much stuff as you can. Cultivate the empty space, and try not to fill it back up.
• Stop buying stuff.

Stop buying stuff

This is really the heart of the movement. We are incredibly dependent on the flowing of money from one person to another. We need money to buy food, to pay our rent or mortgage, to pay our electricity bills. Because of our dependence on money, we need to work long hours and conform to other people’s expectations. Because we work long hours, we don’t have time to mend, bake, or make. We lose basic skills, and end up more dependent on money as we need to pay people to do the things we no longer can.

Community based work and exchanges can exist alongside money, and make our lives simpler and easier. There is no real reason why we need to work a 40 hour standard week, and only get a few days off a year. There’s also no reason why we need to return to a feudal system, or a hand-to-mouth existance. We can evolve our society – not return to a nostalgic and non-existant past, or remain stuck in an over-worked, frantically consuming, large and lonely specialised present. We can build a new future, by improving what we have now.