No Impact Week - Day 5: Energy

Thursday was no/lower energy day so we figured we should reduce the use of appliances and lights around the apartment. In addition, we turned the heat slightly down from chilly to what felt like none existent. (not completely off so the pipes wouldn't freeze but the heaters were cold so I'm not sure that made any difference.)

Oh yeah, and at some point, this happened...

This is pretty much what we did step-by-step:
1. Make a list of all appliances and lights and anything that uses electricity, whether re-chargeable batteries or plugs, etc.
2. Look at list.
3. Unplug everything possible. (including TVs, radios, stereos, whatever you have! We put these on a powerstrip and turned the whole thing off. Also, your wifi router - not on the power strip - can be unplugged when you leave the house.) We didn't have THAT much stuff but it was nice to try to make some new habits. For example, I always unplug the coffee machine and toaster but I'd never thought to unplug the microwave before.
4. Figure what we could cut down on...and then forget about list.

Basically, we didn't enforce anything super strictly, but we only used what we needed. Tried to open the fridge and freezer less (by putting everything in a pile beside the fridge before loading it in) though this didn't always work. The temperature outside wasn't quite low enough to empty the freezer but it might be later on.

One thing I found really challenging was not using kitchen appliances as much. Since we were relying on mostly unpackaged, unprepared foods, they needed quite a lot of cooking (ie. beans: 12 hours of soaking, 2 hours of boiling - who knew!?) This brought up interesting questions for whether these would just be easier to purchase packaged and pre-cooked so as to save the energy used cooking them since they're probably done more efficiently en masse. The guide recommended eating raw foods but since we'd planned the menu at the beginning of the week, we didn't really have this option. Though I'm wondering, what raw foods produced locally could have served as a meal? Any thoughts?

That evening we tried to keep the lights off as much as possible. Although it felt like we'd missed the point since we were sitting in the dark on our computers, we still played hide and seek! (oh yeah, I kid you not :) ) and some board games (though we had to turn the light on at some point because we couldn't see the board clearly by candlelight.)

Which brings me to my last and final point, candles. I had candles burning all day long pretty much, but not the good kind. From what I understand, only beeswax and soy candles are good, whereas all other candles have some kind of plastic content and are burning different toxins into your air. I was just trying to get rid of the candles I already have instead of chucking them, but honestly, I'm not sure that's a good idea even. Any thoughts on this?

No Impact Week - Day 4: Food

Wednesday was food day! The instructions asked us to note down where we'd be eating and to figure out whether the food was locally sourced or came from further away. Since we'd already bought most of the food for the week though, this information came a bit late (I'd read over the manual but it's 17 pages so some details slipped through the cracks.)

We decided that since sticking to none packaged, in-season foods, this was a worthy effort. Also, the within 200 miles rule would work great in places with lots of seasonal variety, like New York or the San Francisco Bay Area but much harder to stick to in Finland. What grows within 200 (320km) of here? That's why if we'd do it right next time, we'd probably decide that whatever comes from Europe (not necessarily the EU's definition but actual Europe, would be legit.)

Otherwise, it wasn't hard not to buy anything, not to create any waste, not to drive anywhere (since we don't have a car)...but it also felt like somehow I wasn't trying hard enough either. I've been doing a fair bit of reading about perceptions and social pressures for my thesis and it seems that once you put something out there (ie. I AM DOING NO IMPACT WEEK) you're more likely to stick to it since you blabbed to all your friends that that's what you're doing. So in a way you start to feel dishonest if you're not putting your best effort in. But as I said in my last video, the difference between taking and bus and riding my bike, didn't really feel like it'd make a difference in impact (since you save so much time by jumping on whatever bus comes by, but that bus is running because of demand and it is burning fuel... but it'd still be running anyway since that's better than all the people on it driving cars instead.)

SO - any thoughts on that? It took me awhile to bring this up because I don't feel great about it (and other shortcomings over the week) but didn't want to make it seem like I was doing everything perfectly and effortlessly.

No Impact Week - Day 2: waste (morning video)

On a sleepy Monday morning, I thought the way to get the day started was to try something a little different: a video blog to keep track of the progress so far.

No Impact Week - Day 1: Consumption

Today is the first day of No Impact Week in our house!

I thought it might be a great way to get back into blogging, but also to keep a record of the week's findings to have for learning and sharing purposes.

The No Impact Experiment is a week (8 days to be precise) during which you change your habits to live more sustainably and see what you can change on a long-term basis, what you can't and why. For more info about the week or how to participate in your own, check out noimpactproject.org The idea is that it just might make you happier.

Or click here:

Day 1: consumption

The first day focuses on consumption and is rather fitting for the time of year, especially with Black Friday having just passed.

Already, I have to make a confession. Juha and I have both been looking for winter coats for what seems to be an endless amount of time (about 3 visits to Stockmann over a couple of weeks). Due to a 20% off sale this weekend, we put a coat on layaway Friday and went back to pick it up today (we only later realized that it would be purchased on no-consumption day, go figure.) Since we tend to buy relatively little, and keep our coats for years (his old one was 8 years old, mine is about 6) we figured the purchase was justifiable and there was no point going back a week later and getting it at full price just for the sake of the experiment. It was in no way an impulse buy. For some of the other items on my list, such as a lighter backpack (mine seems to weight a ton when empty!) I'll be checking out some second-hand places around Helsinki to see if there are any viable options.

But before my ramble confession, this is what happened:

I started off the day by reading the newspaper online and catching up with what's going on in Canada. To my delight, thestar.com had an entire "hot topic" dedicated to Black Friday. Since the green community has spent the last week buzzing about Black Friday, and its counterpart "Buy Nothing Day", I expected the Star would have some thoughts on the topic, regardless of their opinions. But I was sorely disappointed when clicking on the topic, several articles opened up:

- Canadian retailers fight back against Black Friday deals
- Canada’s Black Friday: Internet provides hassle-free bargain hunting, if you know where to look
- Canada’s Black Friday: Holiday shopping levels off, as online takes off
- Photos: Cool holiday gift ideas
- Black Friday shopping? Only on impulse, thanks!
- Black Friday shopping: Personally, I prefer to do some homework

So with a bit of hesitation, I decide to give the last article a try. Maybe it has something on sensible consumption and how to find more stuff second-hand, buy less overall, etc. (You can read the article here, but no need to waste your time.) Basically the author is against impulse buying, and compares her friend's impulse buy of a Mercedes Bens, with the complexity she faced when buying a horse... is this journalism?

In any case, one thought-provoking item in the news was the appearance of Black-Friday in the headlines, alongside a very brief article about yet another garment factory fire in Bangladesh killing at least 112 people (these happen quite often and always seem to leave dozens of people dead).

The two do not directly relate; I will admit to that. Regardless, I do feel that we owe some thought to the victims who slave away to make us an endless assortment of clothing and were tragically killed in the process. I am not trying to guilt anyone about this, just to bring some thought about where our clothes come from.