I am a consumer. And this is indeed a topic that can leave one feeling unsettled after having spent two weeks reflecting on their own consumer habits. My family consists of myself, my husband and my two young boys ages 5 and 8. We do many things “right” and consider the environment and our environmental impact most days without consciously thinking about it. We compost all year long and recycle everything we can including the toilet paper rolls. We have chosen to live in a neighbourhood of older smaller homes and our home is close to both the school I work at and the school my children attend. We run one car and my husband takes a lengthy bus ride to and from work each day or cycles when the weather is cooperative. We don’t water our lawn and we donate our used items where we can. We make our coffee at home every morning and we pack lunches. We have installed energy star appliances and dual flush toilets and we use energy efficient light bulbs including a bathroom light that runs on a timer. We don’t eat red meat very often as my husband long ago abandoned most meat from his diet. I think I feel compelled to begin with the list of positives as I know that despite our efforts, we still could do so much more. Though I love it, we own a hot tub which is not at all environmentally friendly and certainly not a “need”. Our home is nicely furnished and we do spend money from time to time on non-essentials – unsettling to admit but from a journaling perspective, I’m being honest. We are not part of the “voluntary simplicity movement” described by Etzioni but we do strive to consider our impact during our day to day practices. Rather than journaling our habits each day, I focused on some key areas where I wanted to learn more and to try to make some changes that might be manageable. As much as I can admire the “strong simplifiers” and their chosen life outside of the city and off the grid, that is not my reality.

 

I began by examining a simple Carbon Footprint image (you can view the image using the link below) that I was given at a workshop I attended where the Manitoba Eco-network had a booth set up. The image very simply provides 3 possible answers for most of the categories related to our own carbon footprint. I decided to focus on several key parts of the footprint as I reflected over three weeks.

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Climate Change Connection

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Food - The questions:

Eat meat all the time     

Eat meat sometimes (We are here)     

I’m a vegetarian

And…

I do not consider where my food comes from

I check labels and try to buy local foods (We are here)

Eat only the food I grow

 

Every week, my family and I make a trip to Superstore to check the needed grocery items off our list. This is a frustrating process and my first reflection begins at our local “Real Canadian Superstore”.

 

Superstore: Creating overconsumption in every aisle

Journaling a week of consumption for both myself and my family would not be complete without a full description of our weekly shopping excursion to Superstore.

 Our shopping trip often begins with a weekly meal plan and a quick check of the weekly flyer. Sales like “Stock up and Save” or the “Truckload Event” mean that already, consumers are encouraged to purchase in large quantities before setting foot in the store.

When you arrive at Superstore there is little to no parking above ground, meaning you are likely forced to the underground parkade which makes grocery shopping a true event and never a quick in/out. I suppose I should be thankful for the additional exercise as I push my shopping cart up the ramp into the store.

Upon arrival, most shoppers are filtered all over the store and through a number of superfluous areas that have very little to do with grocery shopping. For example, if I need toothpaste, I must first circle around the clothing area and then after picking up my toothpaste, I will need to pass the home décor section, to reach the food aisles. Should I choose to make a stop in the clothing section, anything purchased will increase my carbon footprint as it has likely been shipped from a foreign market where cheap labour was used to create the garment in unhealthy working conditions.

When I do finally arrive at the food aisles, I will immediately be stopped by someone trying to have me sign up for a PC MasterCard and in return, that individual will provide me with a free bag of cookies or perhaps some PC points. I will circle around several advertisements touting the “home grown” nature of the Real Canadian Superstore where my meat was “locally” grown by real farmers just for me, and the meat is often sold as “free from” to appeal to the growing number the conscientious consumers who care where their food was produced and how their meat was raised.

As I select the items, I will be encouraged to stock up in order to receive the sale price. In other words, if I buy multiples of items, I will save money.

When I finally arrive at the check-out, I will be asked if I collect points keeping me loyal to the brand. I will then have my items checked through and be asked if I would like the “deal of the week” to add to my already stuffed cart. If I hit a total dollar value of $250 or higher, I will be offered for free another item which I likely do not need. For example, Tupperware, batteries, lawn chairs or bath products.

I recognize that Superstore is far from the only one. Walmart and Costco will provide the shopper with a similar experience. So, one might ask why my family chooses to go. While I would love to frequent some of the local bakeries and delis, the weekend seems to be the only time to get out and do the shopping and a one stop shop is simply more convenient. In the summer, we have many local farmer markets but in the winter, most of us simply do our best to get through. In addition, our family is always thinking about the budget and Superstore tends to be the cheapest. There is little competition in Winnipeg as Sobeys bought Safeway and Loblaw owns Superstore, Shoppers and No Frills. We do have a Co-op grocery store but no where near where we live. The lack of competition, even within the aisles of superstore connects with the Idea of illusions of choice in the Mulligan text. You may see a sale price at Shoppers for the same item you could buy at Superstore for even less, but both stores are owned by Loblaw. Even on the shelves, it is amazing to look at the different “brands” that one company like Nestle for example, might own. Nestle owns L'Oréal, Gerber, Drumstick, Alpo, Fancy Feast, Delissio and the list goes on and on.

Despite my frustration, I decided to do some research on Loblaw companies limited, as I am unlikely to find an alternative grocery store. Loblaw is Canadian owned by the Weston family and includes, grocery stores, a pharmacy (Shopper’s Drug Mart) Joe Fresh and PC Financial. I spent quite some time visiting their site and in particular, focused on the Responsibility link. Most Canadians are aware of the controversy surrounding the Joe Fresh Loblaw’s brand of clothing which faced intense scrutiny when the factory where workers produced the low price point clothing collapsed killing thousands. It would appear based on their website that they are trying to consider their responsibility to both the earth and the consumer. I tried to find recent research questioning their practices but had difficulty. As a middle-class consumer, I will hope, for the moment, that they truly are doing what they can to reduce their impact and consider their sourcing but I must say that just taking the time to learn a bit more made me feel slightly less guilty the next time I walked in.

I have included the link to their website below and in particular, their impact page. Below is a quote found on the Loblaw website regarding ethical sourcing.

Ethical Sourcing

“Loblaw is committed to the highest ethical sourcing standards as a key component of the Way We Do Business (www.loblaw-reports.ca). We expect the suppliers of products we sell to our customers to uphold the same values and principles of business conduct we do. This means adherence by suppliers to strong social and safety standards in all aspects of their operations.  Our Supplier Code of Conduct (Supplier Code) sets out minimum standards which suppliers must meet. We expect suppliers at all times to diligently work towards compliance with the Supplier Code or local law, whichever provides the greater level of protection for their workers.”  http://www.loblaw.ca/en/responsibility/Ethical-Sourcing.html

http://www.loblaw.ca/en/responsibility.html

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I have noted over the two week period of reflection that one problem my family has regarding waste, is our weekly overbuying of produce and sometimes other food. Every week I find several items in the bottom of the produce drawer in the fridge that have gone off and can’t be eaten. In addition, we end up with several containers of leftovers that have gone untouched. I have been frustrated before, depending on the week, about the food that I compost or throw out depending on the item. I really started to focus on this even more when I heard this week on CBC that 31 billion dollars worth of food is wasted by Canadians each year and 14 million of that is thrown out at home. This quote was part of a CBC Marketplace investigation on food being wasted by grocery stores and families. Here is the link to the episode: (Watch to the end to see what the average family wastes)

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http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/episodes/2015-2016/food-waste

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As part of my challenge to make some sort of change, I will hope to consume and not waste the food in my fridge over the next week. I have also been thinking of signing up for a local organic food delivery program. We used to be members several years ago. Fresh Option Organic Delivery is an option that has been around in Winnipeg since 2003. My husband and I would receive a Fresh Box each week and enjoyed the produce that came. Prior to having children, it seemed to work well, but then we found ourselves wasting some of the items that were coming and stopped receiving the box. This would encourage our family to eat more local and organic foods, to become more aware of where our food is coming from and to include healthy diverse foods in our menu.  

Website below:

http://www.freshoption.ca/about-us/

As an update, we have decided to sign up for organic delivery again and I look forward to seeing what produce I receive and the excitement for my kids opening the box each week. In addition, FOOD has lots of other locally sourced products that I can take advantage of.

In addition, we did a far better job of consuming what was in the fridge. I still have half a cabbage to get through and some broccoli and cauliflower to bake tomorrow, but only one container of leftovers needs to be consumed and I think we can manage it. I also plan to make bread crumbs using the heels of the bread. Will see just how many weeks that lasts for. I can guess.

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My posts have focused on food but clearly consumption of clothing and household non-essentials is another area to consider and an area that would be easier to avoid.

Returning to the footprint:

Consumption – the questions:

I buy anything I want or need and love to shop

I am not a big shopper but buy whatever I need (We are here)

I am an informed eco-shopper

I shop as little as possible and am considerate of the environment

 

There are many things that have taken place over the last two weeks that had me feeling guilty about my non-essential consumption habits. To begin, I used another resource provided to me by the Manitoba Eco-Network entitled “You are what you wear”. Below is the image of my worksheet and a journal entry I will call:

 

My closet: Airing my dirty laundry

 

I like clothes. I don’t shop very often and I do not have a walk-in closet with 40 pairs of shoes, but I do enjoy the occasional trip to the mall for Bay Days or a browse around Anthropologie or H&M. (Once again, I’m squirming with guilt but trying to be honest) The worksheet asks you to select an item of clothing from your closet and then check the tag where it was made. You then use the kilometers travelled to Manitoba chart on the back to determine how many points you get. The idea is to have as few points as possible for your closet. You can receive a “discount” by dividing your points by 2 if the article of clothing is older than 5 years, purchased from a second hand store, or handed down. I did poorly but found the results in terms of where items were made fascinating. I must admit I don’t check labels often enough and I plan to take a closer look in the future. Climate Change Connection Activity Sheets 

 

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Following this activity, I tried to find a website or tool to help me become more ethically responsible in what I buy. I know where to source locally made goods in the city or where to find items that are fair trade, but in terms of an affordably priced made in Canada clothing line, it was difficult. Below is some information I was able to find. The last article is quite interesting and gives a well laid out list of clothing manufactured in Canada.

The first website is Canadian with a focus on Fair Trade products.

http://cftn.ca/about-us

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The website below looks great and will offer some help on purchasing ethically responsible products but you need to sign-up and they are based in the UK. I’m interested but the thought of receiving more emails has me hesitant.

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/buyersguides.aspx

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The last two links are about the real difficulty in finding made in Canada clothing and some suggestions about where to look. Despite a substantial price tag, I think the consumer who has the money should try to buy local, particularly if it is of good quality. Let’s face it, a hand made or specialty item at a higher price point is more likely to endure than a mass produced H&M sweater.

 

The following excerpt is from the National Post article about trying to locate where garments have come from or to source Canadian made clothing.

“And before you ask — no, the Internet doesn’t help. It’s a time-consuming, one-by-one process. The larger the retailer or brand is, the more likely they’re diversified with a mix of domestic and offshore production, and vague about specifics — which, admittedly, change from season to season.

Other than on content tags sewn into the garment (by law, each must state country of manufacture), it’s tricky. You have to ask companies specific, direct questions, case by case, or else go into the stores and check the content label firsthand.
To be clear, our industrial textile industry is long gone. Made in Canada usually means produced with imported fabric, although sewn by hands at sewing machines, or in the case of things like hosiery and shoelaces, knitted at top speed by mechanical looms, under supervision by Canadian humans.

http://news.nationalpost.com/life/style/they-make-it-here-or-do-they-the-confusing-and-opaque-search-for-clothing-thats-truly-made-in-canada

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https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/4bkiwa/madeincanada_clothing_a_list/

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Chapters

 

I love to read. We do frequent the library but I am also a collector of books. On a recent trip to Chapters to pick up a book for my Nephew’s birthday, I found myself desperately wanting to buy things I didn’t need. Perhaps it is the vibe in the store or the way items are laid out but it had me thinking again about needs and wants and Amitai Etzioni’s mention of the need versus the want for plastic blow up lawn ornaments. I don’t need the scarf from Chapters but seeing it there beautifully displayed made it so enticing. It got me thinking about brand names and the ambiance of stores which I’m sure are designed to encourage sales. The lighting, ability to pick up a Starbucks and the layout of these Chapters Indigo giant stores all lead the shopper to want to buy. Clearly marketing goes far beyond the creation and advertising of a product. On this same trip my children picked up Chapters’ magazines on the way out which included stickers that they could place on items in the magazine and then give to us to use as a wish list of what to buy them for Christmas. Really! What an amazing marketing strategy.

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Leaving the store, I couldn’t help but think about all of the things that stores can do from advertising, to pricing, to ambiance within their stores, to visual merchandising, all to convince their clientele to make a purchase that they likely don’t need. This made me think of the CBC radio program “Under the Influence” and a past episode that I loved about colour making us want to purchase an item to fulfill a particular emotional need. These kinds of subliminal messages can make consumers feel like they are indeed “under the influence”.

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Under the Influence

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http://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence/colour-schemes-how-colours-make-us-buy-1.2801830

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Fundraising: A note

I was asked by my child’s school to support fundraising efforts this week. They were selling discounted magazine subscriptions but in the past fundraising has included purchasing cookie dough, other food items, greeting cards or some other completely unnecessary item. I also received in the mail an unwanted zippered bag, and set of greeting cards recently with a request to donate to a very worthy cause. I am more than willing to donate to my child’s school or to Heart and Stroke but clearly they have found that giving people more “stuff” works better to increase donations. Just a thought as I journal.

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Water, Waste and Kids

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Water- the questions

I do not conserve water

I conserve but still need to shower everyday (We are here)

I conserve every chance I get

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Waste

I throw all waste in the garbage

I recycle everything I can

I compost and recycle (We are here)

 

I spent some time looking at our own household water and waste. Water is an issue for us. We do try to conserve but I lost track of the number of times I had to tell my kids to turn the water off as they were brushing teeth this week. My husband also went outside at one point to find the hose running. We spent time talking about wasting water and as a family we have been improving but reducing our water consumption will be an ongoing challenge and one that I am willing to take on.

Recently, we have begun to run the dishwasher once which takes care of all of the days' dishes. Our old habit was to run it every few days alternating with hand washing. I believed that this was the more environmentally sound practice until someone told me otherwise. I took that person’s statement as fact but decided to do my own research this week and discovered it is more complicated and depends on a number of factors. Have a look at the link below. I think we are still better off, based on the cycle we use and the number of dishes we accumulate but you can decide for yourself.

 

http://www.treehugger.com/kitchen-design/built-in-dishwashers-vs-hand-washing-which-is-greener.html

 

Thankfully, we all work hard to reduce waste by recycling and composting. In Winnipeg, we have curbside pickup of large rolling garbage and recycling carts. Our recycling cart is always filled while our garbage is not. I did, however, have a challenging week related to waste and consumption at my son’s birthday party. As I stated in my post, we have, for the past three years, stated “no gifts” on the birthday invites. This year my son had a joint birthday party with a friend at our local community club where about 12 kids came to play indoor sports. The idea of putting “no gifts” on the invite was declined by his friend and so, Tristan was very fortunate to receive a number of really thoughtful birthday gifts. He was incredibly excited. It was very nice of his friends, but in reality, these are not toys that our boys "needed" considering the already large number of toys seldom played with. Every year over the summer months I spend time reducing and organizing the house for another school year. It feels great to simplify what we have and the house always seems so tidy and easy to live in. It frees up mental space as well. By January, we have inevitably accumulated close to what we got rid of partly owing to the holidays and partly due to the fact that we are cooped up inside for longer periods. I can assure you that next year we are back to no gifts or donations to a local charity and I’m thinking about a simpler birthday all together. I’m hoping I can get Tristan back on board.

 

Mindful of the present, thinking of the future:

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I must admit that the exploration into how much my family consumes leaves me feeling overwhelmed and rather hopeless. It is unrealistic for me to think that I will be able to make drastic lifestyle changes in a short period of time, considering the volume of advertising and money spent by large companies telling me to consume more and more each day, and the fact that my kids certainly play a role in our consumption habits. They have changed the way my husband and I consume and not for the better. I think I need to begin by making small changes and to encourage others to do the same. Having just mentioned my boys, they will be my first priority. We need to continue the conversation about the importance of relationships over owning the latest toy and the impact of too much stuff on our lives, the lives of others and the impact on the planet. Mathison talks about experiences having greater value than material items when considering enjoyment of the recipients. We have set short term and long term goals, have already made some small changes and will do our best to consider what really makes us happy as we move towards the shopping extravaganza known as Christmas.

 

I also found some time this week to watch “Before the Flood”, the documentary on climate change which features Canadian locations and research. It is a great motivator and powerful reinforcement in a week spent reflecting on my own habits. Despite the challenge, any small step I can take to reduce my carbon footprint and slow my rate of consumption will benefit the planet and if everyone chose to make the same small changes – just imagine!

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