Instantly Influence your Product Footprint
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The ancient Indian BUD principle
Environmental activist Satish Kumar tells us of an ancient Indian saying; “Everything you own should be beautiful, useful and durable.” How does this relate to quality of life and your carbon footprint?
Our dream products
To raise our quality of life, what do we want from our products? Will they be beautiful? The most user-friendly and effective? Should they be long lasting items? And would we want them at minimum cost? Purchasing high quality, long lasting products usually achieves all of these aims.
A rule of thumb for shopping
How can we reduce the carbon footprints of products manufactured by factories a long way away and out of our control? Quality, long lasting products have an immediate influence, because if a product lasts five times as long, it has one fifth of the carbon footprint of purchasing five low quality products over the same period of time.
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Key Savings
- Money - Over time the long-lasting product costs less per year.
- Time - Less time spent shopping and researching new products.
- Hassle - Well made products have usually had more design time so make your life easier.
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My favourite belongings
I have a 32 year old electric drill and an 18 year old toaster, both of which have paid for themselves many times over and also been the most user-friendly and good looking. Using them gives me so much satisfaction. If my toaster had only lasted three years, I would have bought another 5 toasters in that time frame. If I can replicate this across all my household items, that saves a lot of shopping time, saves CO2, and over my life I will spend half the amount of money. You can even get products with lifetime guarantees - like Stanley flasks and Tilley hats.
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Financial savings
We looked at the cost and carbon savings for a range of household products, including washing machines, curtains and carpets. On average those which lasted 3-5 years cost £100 per year to own, and had a carbon footprint of 45 kg. Their durable counterparts lasted 15 years, cost an average of £60 per year to own and had a carbon footprint of under 20 kg. See the exact figures for six different products on our blog post. Shopping For Satisfaction
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Giving away his inheritance
Satish Kumar, former Jain monk and earth pilgrim, talks about how he gave away all his inheritance in the form of gold rings at the age of nine, and our relationship with the material world, in next week's Carbon Ambassadors Course on Shopping (Friday 11th June) .
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With best wishes from
Mukti Mitchell and the Carbon Savvy team
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