The Alchemist’s Redemption: Turning My Carbon Footprint into Hearth Magic
I learned I’m a Climate Villian 🙁
As April is Earth Month, I thought a fun learning activity to do with my daughter would be to calculate our carbon footprint as a family.
Admittedly, I knew it wasn’t going to be great. Since having my second baby 18 months ago, I’ve definitely chosen the easier option for a lot of things (like individual snack packs). But I do general recycling, make my own cleaning products, and cook three meals a day most days. Surely it wasn’t going to be terrible?
After a quick search we found this calculator by Climate Hero, and after 5 minutes of answering questions, I was presented with this screen:
While I didn’t have an exact number in mind, it is so much higher than I expected. The average American’s footprint is around 17 tonnes, so I guess that was something. But as a Hearth Witch, I take responsibility for all the physical and spiritual energy that flows through my home, so my carbon footprint being so high still did not feel good.
Thankfully, Climate Hero gave a lot of suggestions on things I could improve, but I found some of the suggestions unfeasible for me
Things I can’t work on right now:
- Generating my own electricity – getting solar panels isn’t a financially an option right now
- Changing energy providers – not possible in the area where I live.
- Quit fossil fuels to heat my home – I imagine this would be expensive? It is definitely an area I need to research more.
- Avoiding flying long distances – my immediate family all live in another country. I only go home once every 2 years (we take it in turns to visit). It’s a luxury I can’t see myself giving up any time soon.
- Switching to an eco-friendly car – a new car would be lovely, but I’m going to use my 20 year old car for as long as possible.
I’m not aiming for a perfect score. I’m aiming for a home that honors the Earth as much as it honors my family’s needs.
The things on this list are not a ‘forever’ no (maybe with the exception of long distance flights), just big things I can’t work on right now, mostly due to the upfront cost of setting some of these things up.
Having said this, there are a lot of things I realized I can work on:
Things I’m going to work on changing
- Less domestic flights – we’ve agreed as a family to plan our vacations a little better, and look into coach/trains etc
- Rent eco-friendly cars when we do rent cars
- Eat less meat
- Eat more vegetarian meals
- Eat seasonally
- Prioritize local goods (we’ve signed up for a local CSA for local produce starting in May!)
- Start composting
- Reduce food waste
- Avoid palm oil products
- Reduce plastic consumption
- Prioritize products made of wood, hemp, and bamboo
- Shop less (I can do it, but it’s going to be a struggle)
- Shop second hand first
- Maximize recycling
Some of this stuff seems obvious to do. I can’t even argue ignorance, because a lot of this stuff I already knew.
I’m struggling to find a balance between doing what I know is the right thing for my family and the planet as a whole, and spending the extra time and effort to live an eco-friendly life while trying to balance a young family with limited help. I have definitely chosen convenience recently, and that is reflected in my score.
So usually, I would see a score like this, feel terrible, and then feel too paralysed to do anything.
But paralysis is a cold hearth. It doesn’t cook anything, and it doesn’t keep anyone warm. So I’m going to start where all good magic starts: in the kitchen
This month, my goal is going to be reduce food waste. We are currently doing baby-led weaning with the youngest, my eldest is a fussy eater, and we are also contending with food allergies. This leads to a lot of convenience foods, and sometimes wasted produce.
Will this dramatically lower my score? Probably not. But it’s a start, and that is all I can do for now.
At a Glance
An Invitation
Are you aware of your carbon footprint score? Check out your score here, and let me know what you learned about your eco footprint.
One thing I am doing well at is making my own cleaning products, which helps me cut down on those plastic ‘villain’ bottles.
Want to start your own redemption arc?
Sign up for my monthly newsletter here and get my DIY Cleaning Product Recipe Book for free!
Wishing you all the cozy magic,
