Good Enough? the Dilemmas!
When I first started out on my journey towards greater sustainability there seemed a huge expectation that to be successful, I would need to reach what I felt was an unattainable level of perfection. This involved reducing my plastic waste to fit within a small mason jar, to a need to declutter my possessions down to the absolute minimum, and I should cut out all meat and dairy from my diet. There seemed to be a resolute demand for perfection and everything I read, heard, or watched seemed to reinforce this notion.
However, as I broadened my knowledge and awareness, I found gaps, that many zero waste influencers or educators at that time (2016-7) often seemed to be looking at things from one viewpoint. So an influencer whose life was focused on sustainability had time to travel across London to visit a bulk store on one side of London, then travel to another part of London to purchase just one item, this was something that I would struggle to achieve while working long hours Monday to Friday when I had neither the time or energy to do likewise.
Then as I looked into this further, I struggled to reconcile how I should be plant-based, so I avoid meat and dairy, so more avocadoes and almonds (almond milk)? Great or may be not? Both of these plants need huge amounts of water and are not grown in the UK[1]. Then there was Quinoa, which is mostly grown in areas of South America where it is a staple food (although it is now grown in the UK[2]) and that due to high demand it was reported to have become unaffordable for local communities[3]. What about my car, I purchased it second-hand, I work from home so don’t commute, but I drive a diesel car and use it once or maybe twice a week, it was the best option when I was searching during COVID-19, it had a very low mileage and was in great condition for an older car. I cannot afford to replace it and live in a rural village without any shop. So, what can I do. I chose a car insurance that allows me to carbon off-set my milage, I try to combine my errands so that I don’t need to drive it, I plan for that in my shopping, and if I do need an ad hoc item, I ask my sister who commutes into the nearest town for work if she can pick up a bottle of milk or loaf of bread for me as she passes a shop on her route, rather make a special trip out. I will work with what I have and do my best.
So how do we resolve these dilemmas. This is in part why we were motivated to start this blog - share what we feel are more realistic options/alternatives that work for us and may work for you, to show that even small steps can make a difference and that it’s better to do what you can even if it seems imperfect - that good enough is ok. That it is better that more and more people are doing a little than a very small/few are achieving perfection. Surely that is what we should be looking for. So how does that translate into real life, for each of us that may look very different. I hope that you will join us on our journey to discover how it will look for us.
[1] “Approximately 70 litres of applied fresh ground or surface water are required to grow one avocado,” danwatch. https://danwatch.dk/en/undersoegelse/how-much-water-does-it-take-to-grow-an-avocado/#:~:text=Avocado%20production%20requires%20a%20lot,required%20to%20grow%20one%20avocado (accessed 27/04/24). “A single almond takes about 1.1 gallons of water to produce. Or close to 10 gallons for a handful. California dedicates about 8% of its total agricultural water supply to growing almonds…And progress is being made: California almond farmers have reduced the amount of water it takes to grow one pound of almonds by 33% over 20 years….And by 2025, the California almond community commits to reduce the amount of water to grow a pound of almonds by an additional 20%.” (accessed 27/04/24) https://foodrevolution.org/blog/almonds-sustainability/
[2] https://britishquinoa.co.uk/
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jan/25/quinoa-good-evil-complicated (accessed 27/04/24) Note, this is an old reference but reflect what I was hearing when I first started looking into sustainability.