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Buying food with lower environmental impact.
So much of our groceries have unknown origins (factory farms, major carbon impact from transport) and the ones that we know more about the origins of are too expensive in this economy (farmer's markets, organic, fair trade).
This is particularly difficult in Canada due to our limited growing season and also our geographically large country, there will always be an environmental impact from transportation of goods from other countries in the winter and also from Eastern Canada at all times of year.
Ironically, going over the border and buying American can ***in some cases*** have a lower carbon footprint than buying Canadian, if we’re buying products local to the Pacific Northwest instead of goods trucked in from Ontario or the east coast. Tillamook cheese, for example, as opposed to Ontario-made cheese.
Yes! And the unnecessary and/or non-recyclable or non-compostabke packaging ! And sadly, I've noticed that the organics companies are often the worst offenders: labels that don't come off easily, composite materials, and/or extra plastic seals.
I’d agree with this. Too much plastic! I really think we need to ban vegetable and fruit stickers and wrapping. There is zero reason why a cucumber needs to be wrapped in plastic, for example. For bell peppers they could just laser etch the info into the stem. Bundles of green onions, spinach etc could be held together with a thin steel twist wire which will eventually rust away to nothing in time.
Right? And it's made worse by the fact the packaged stuff is often a better deal than the loose veggies. I used to not care and only buy unpackaged, but prices are so high that my budget sometimes demands it.
> factory farms, major carbon impact from transport
Can get two birds stoned at once by reducing animal foods since then you're not getting factory farmed ones either, and [because even plant foods transported farther distances can still have lower overall emissions](https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local).
How lucky you are to have a one bedroom apartment! With that space, you'll have room to hang-dry your laundry on a drying rack like this one: [https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/p/frost-drying-rack-indoor-outdoor-white-40244831/](https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/p/frost-drying-rack-indoor-outdoor-white-40244831/)
Sheets can hang over a door.
Thank you for not owning a car. I do not own one either.
Having a kid. Kids are fucking wasteful, AND zap the energy I used to put towards a more sustainable actions.
While different lifestyles will have different biggest contributors (we don’t drive much,but others might have to), for our particular lifestyle it’s things like diapers (while reusable are a thing, last time I looked, you needed to use them for 4+ kids for them to equal out with resource consumption) then fucking baby food (my kid is the pickiest eater in the world + has issues putting on weight, so we cater to her tastes to get calories in). Crafts can be an issue- I try to choose materials with the environment in mind (my kid has coloured and drawn on a LOT of envelopes and bills) but she’ll go to daycare and come back with plastic google eyes or she’ll go to a bday party and come home with balloons and shitty loot bag toys. Then there’s the toys in general- sooo much plastic, but that ones a little bit easier to choose used toys to be more sustainable, and pass them on to other kids once we’re done so they continue to have a long, useful life. Ditto on clothes, plus I sew so I can do repairs or make my own (loving deadstock fabric for that bonus).
Fully accept that having kids is a selfish choice overall, but it’s a choice I made so I’m just gonna keep trying to do my best, and keep making the decisions that do help (things like living right by transit, teaching her about things that are bad for the environment, eating mostly plant based and why).
Well, I'm far too busy working full time and raising two kids to care about it. In Canada we produce less than 1% of the world's pollution. The trees in our country clean more carbon from the air than we produce as a nation. Nothing we do in Canada will have an effect on the world, with the exception of the pollution in the oil sands..
We have one 4cyl car that we put a small amount of kms on a year, I walk to work, kids walk to school, and my wife walks to work. I hunt and fish, filling my freezer every fall with meat to last the year. And my wife grows lots of vegetables every summer..
Oh, I pay thousands of dollars every year in a phony carbon tax, thats my contribution..
>The trees in our country clean more carbon from the air than we produce as a nation.
This was widely reported for a bit, but actually turned out to be [quite misleading](https://www.nrdc.org/bio/julee-boan/canadas-forest-carbon-loophole#:~:text=However%2C%20a%20closer%20look%20shows%20that%20forestry%20is%20not%20carbon%20neutral%20as%20the%20reporting%20would%20suggest%20%E2%80%93%20rather%20the%20opposite.%20Forestry%20appears%20to%20be%20carbon%20neutral%20in%20the%20national%20inventory%20due%20to%20conceptually%20problematic%20and%20inconsistent%20reporting%20practices.%C2%A0). In fact, our [forests are now releasing more carbon then they are storing](https://natural-resources.canada.ca/climate-change/climate-change-impacts-forests/forest-carbon/13085), let alone compensating for anything else we release.
>We have one 4cyl car that we put a small amount of kms on a year, I walk to work, kids walk to school, and my wife walks to work. I hunt and fish, filling my freezer every fall with meat to last the year. And my wife grows lots of vegetables every summer.
That's awesome. Honestly, I wish more people had the time/resources to do that, but regardless of the environment, that's a great way to live. Eating fish you caught is exceptionally rewarding.
>I pay thousands of dollars every year in a phony carbon tax, thats my contribution.
I don't know your income level, but thousands sounds like a lot. [The average Canadian family pays $377 - $911 annually](https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/federal-government-should-acknowledge-impact-of-carbon-tax-hike#:~:text=Indeed%2C%20according%20to%20the%20PBO,the%20financial%20burden%20will%20intensify). This is often after rebates, so it could definitely be a very unwelcome financial burden, especially right now. But it is worth noting that it [appears to be effective in reducing emissions within the province](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421515300550#:~:text=Empirical%20and%20simulation%20models%20suggest%20that%20the%20tax%20has%20reduced%20emissions%20in%20the%20province%20by%20between%205%25%20and%2015%25%20since%20being%20implemented).
I just don't have the time to go around to special stores to refill my laundry detergent containers or separate compost from my trash. I also know that 100 companies are responsible for 71% of all greenhouse gas emissions since 1988.
The vast majority of my household’s emissions are out of region travel. We moved to a district energy heat pump condo from a 70s rancher and our energy use dropped like a rock and switched from gas to near 100% electric.
So yeah, I don’t worry about it.
Having a kid and consequently, limited funds and time to invest in more sustainable stuff.
Before having the baby, we didn't have a car for a few years. We took transit and used Evo or Modo 3 or 4 times a month.
We don't have the funds to buy more eco-friendly ethical products. I know a Patagonia fleece jacket is better than an Eddie Bauer one, but we can only afford the Eddie Bauer and that's when it's heavily discounted.
We buy a lot of used stuff for the baby (I recommend Once Upon A Child in Coquitlam and Langley). We get stuff from a Buy Nothing group on Facebook and we give away clothes and toys that baby outgrows. So we are going more toward re-using and recycling rather than buying new, green products.
The greatest challenge is that I can completely give up all modern comfort and wonder off into the wilderness and live off the land like tarzan, and just one celebrity in a single year flying around for leisure/filming/concert will undo all my effort several thousands times over.
Lack of soft plastic and styrofoam recycling dropoff locations.
I've gotten very good at recycling or composting most of the materials that enter my house, so these days my garbage is almost exclusively plastic wrap. This is exacerbated by the fact that plastic bags full of vegetables are often cheaper than individual vegetables pulled from the bin. With grocery prices soaring I often am forced to purchase the more wastefully packaged produce simply because my budget demands it.
London Drugs accepts both, but they have limited space, especially the main one downtown. Buy a single piece of furniture from Ikea or Structube and try finding a bin big enough for all that styrofoam and plastic.
Transportation is a big one for me. I would love to take transit more places (I hate driving in the lower mainland) but the time it takes to go from one part of the city to another during non peak times on the bus can be ridiculous.
The car-dependent culture is a challenge for many. Public transit in Vancouver is not that great or efficient, especially if you live further out towards the Fraser Valley. For this reason, I ride my bike or scooter to work. Saves time and money, plus it's much friendlier on the environment. Plus it's fun and gets me outdoors. When the weather is miserable, I will bite the bullet and take transit, but our transit isn't squeaky clean either. But still better than being another fume-belching car on the road.
Livestock farming pollutes a too. I started eating less meat and started consuming more plant-based proteins, especially lentils. They are tasty, versatile, and packed with protein and fiber. We're not exactly in a drought, but it helps to conserve water so I take 5-minute showers, which I set a timer for.
But I think the greatest bad habit that I broke was going to Starbucks everyday and buying coffee that comes in a disposable and leaky cup. When I do go to Starbucks, I bring my refillable coffee thermos. Much nicer experience, I don't burn my hands and my coffee stays hot.
Some argue that living green is super expensive, but I found that to be the reverse.
I’m a single mom of two we are a transit/pedestrian family (always have been) we hang dry our clothing and use minimal power in the house. My biggest challenge has been trying to go zero waste/ less packaging… I love the refill shops and wish we had one close by as transiting to and from them from another city not only takes a long time however also the weight of carrying it all back can be to much for us unfortunately.
Welcome to /r/AskVan and thank you for the post, /u/words-are-flowing! Please make sure you read our [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/askvan/about/rules) before participating here. As a quick summary: * We encourage users to be positive and respect one another. Don't engage in spats or insult others - *please* use the report button. * Respect others' differences, be they race, religion, home, job, gender identity, ability or sexuality. Dehumanizing language, advocating for violence, or promoting hate based on identity or vulnerability (even implied or joking) **will** lead to a permanent ban. * Complaints or discussion about bans or removals should be done in modmail only. * News and media can be shared on our main subreddit, /r/Vancouver *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/askvan) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Buying food with lower environmental impact. So much of our groceries have unknown origins (factory farms, major carbon impact from transport) and the ones that we know more about the origins of are too expensive in this economy (farmer's markets, organic, fair trade).
This is particularly difficult in Canada due to our limited growing season and also our geographically large country, there will always be an environmental impact from transportation of goods from other countries in the winter and also from Eastern Canada at all times of year. Ironically, going over the border and buying American can ***in some cases*** have a lower carbon footprint than buying Canadian, if we’re buying products local to the Pacific Northwest instead of goods trucked in from Ontario or the east coast. Tillamook cheese, for example, as opposed to Ontario-made cheese.
Yes! And the unnecessary and/or non-recyclable or non-compostabke packaging ! And sadly, I've noticed that the organics companies are often the worst offenders: labels that don't come off easily, composite materials, and/or extra plastic seals.
I’d agree with this. Too much plastic! I really think we need to ban vegetable and fruit stickers and wrapping. There is zero reason why a cucumber needs to be wrapped in plastic, for example. For bell peppers they could just laser etch the info into the stem. Bundles of green onions, spinach etc could be held together with a thin steel twist wire which will eventually rust away to nothing in time.
Right? And it's made worse by the fact the packaged stuff is often a better deal than the loose veggies. I used to not care and only buy unpackaged, but prices are so high that my budget sometimes demands it.
> factory farms, major carbon impact from transport Can get two birds stoned at once by reducing animal foods since then you're not getting factory farmed ones either, and [because even plant foods transported farther distances can still have lower overall emissions](https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local).
Crazy Canadian salmon farms just got hit hard by the liberals as well
Housing cost. Sustainability budget is eaten by rent/mortgage.
[удалено]
How lucky you are to have a one bedroom apartment! With that space, you'll have room to hang-dry your laundry on a drying rack like this one: [https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/p/frost-drying-rack-indoor-outdoor-white-40244831/](https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/p/frost-drying-rack-indoor-outdoor-white-40244831/) Sheets can hang over a door. Thank you for not owning a car. I do not own one either.
Good news: by being poor *you are* being environmentally sustainable! 🌈🌳
I really hate paper straws.
LOL
Having a kid. Kids are fucking wasteful, AND zap the energy I used to put towards a more sustainable actions. While different lifestyles will have different biggest contributors (we don’t drive much,but others might have to), for our particular lifestyle it’s things like diapers (while reusable are a thing, last time I looked, you needed to use them for 4+ kids for them to equal out with resource consumption) then fucking baby food (my kid is the pickiest eater in the world + has issues putting on weight, so we cater to her tastes to get calories in). Crafts can be an issue- I try to choose materials with the environment in mind (my kid has coloured and drawn on a LOT of envelopes and bills) but she’ll go to daycare and come back with plastic google eyes or she’ll go to a bday party and come home with balloons and shitty loot bag toys. Then there’s the toys in general- sooo much plastic, but that ones a little bit easier to choose used toys to be more sustainable, and pass them on to other kids once we’re done so they continue to have a long, useful life. Ditto on clothes, plus I sew so I can do repairs or make my own (loving deadstock fabric for that bonus). Fully accept that having kids is a selfish choice overall, but it’s a choice I made so I’m just gonna keep trying to do my best, and keep making the decisions that do help (things like living right by transit, teaching her about things that are bad for the environment, eating mostly plant based and why).
Yup we aren't having kids and don't own a car so I think we've done a lot already
Well, I'm far too busy working full time and raising two kids to care about it. In Canada we produce less than 1% of the world's pollution. The trees in our country clean more carbon from the air than we produce as a nation. Nothing we do in Canada will have an effect on the world, with the exception of the pollution in the oil sands.. We have one 4cyl car that we put a small amount of kms on a year, I walk to work, kids walk to school, and my wife walks to work. I hunt and fish, filling my freezer every fall with meat to last the year. And my wife grows lots of vegetables every summer.. Oh, I pay thousands of dollars every year in a phony carbon tax, thats my contribution..
>The trees in our country clean more carbon from the air than we produce as a nation. This was widely reported for a bit, but actually turned out to be [quite misleading](https://www.nrdc.org/bio/julee-boan/canadas-forest-carbon-loophole#:~:text=However%2C%20a%20closer%20look%20shows%20that%20forestry%20is%20not%20carbon%20neutral%20as%20the%20reporting%20would%20suggest%20%E2%80%93%20rather%20the%20opposite.%20Forestry%20appears%20to%20be%20carbon%20neutral%20in%20the%20national%20inventory%20due%20to%20conceptually%20problematic%20and%20inconsistent%20reporting%20practices.%C2%A0). In fact, our [forests are now releasing more carbon then they are storing](https://natural-resources.canada.ca/climate-change/climate-change-impacts-forests/forest-carbon/13085), let alone compensating for anything else we release. >We have one 4cyl car that we put a small amount of kms on a year, I walk to work, kids walk to school, and my wife walks to work. I hunt and fish, filling my freezer every fall with meat to last the year. And my wife grows lots of vegetables every summer. That's awesome. Honestly, I wish more people had the time/resources to do that, but regardless of the environment, that's a great way to live. Eating fish you caught is exceptionally rewarding. >I pay thousands of dollars every year in a phony carbon tax, thats my contribution. I don't know your income level, but thousands sounds like a lot. [The average Canadian family pays $377 - $911 annually](https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/federal-government-should-acknowledge-impact-of-carbon-tax-hike#:~:text=Indeed%2C%20according%20to%20the%20PBO,the%20financial%20burden%20will%20intensify). This is often after rebates, so it could definitely be a very unwelcome financial burden, especially right now. But it is worth noting that it [appears to be effective in reducing emissions within the province](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421515300550#:~:text=Empirical%20and%20simulation%20models%20suggest%20that%20the%20tax%20has%20reduced%20emissions%20in%20the%20province%20by%20between%205%25%20and%2015%25%20since%20being%20implemented).
I just don't have the time to go around to special stores to refill my laundry detergent containers or separate compost from my trash. I also know that 100 companies are responsible for 71% of all greenhouse gas emissions since 1988.
The vast majority of my household’s emissions are out of region travel. We moved to a district energy heat pump condo from a 70s rancher and our energy use dropped like a rock and switched from gas to near 100% electric. So yeah, I don’t worry about it.
Having a kid and consequently, limited funds and time to invest in more sustainable stuff. Before having the baby, we didn't have a car for a few years. We took transit and used Evo or Modo 3 or 4 times a month. We don't have the funds to buy more eco-friendly ethical products. I know a Patagonia fleece jacket is better than an Eddie Bauer one, but we can only afford the Eddie Bauer and that's when it's heavily discounted. We buy a lot of used stuff for the baby (I recommend Once Upon A Child in Coquitlam and Langley). We get stuff from a Buy Nothing group on Facebook and we give away clothes and toys that baby outgrows. So we are going more toward re-using and recycling rather than buying new, green products.
The greatest challenge is that I can completely give up all modern comfort and wonder off into the wilderness and live off the land like tarzan, and just one celebrity in a single year flying around for leisure/filming/concert will undo all my effort several thousands times over.
Monetary cost.
Lack of soft plastic and styrofoam recycling dropoff locations. I've gotten very good at recycling or composting most of the materials that enter my house, so these days my garbage is almost exclusively plastic wrap. This is exacerbated by the fact that plastic bags full of vegetables are often cheaper than individual vegetables pulled from the bin. With grocery prices soaring I often am forced to purchase the more wastefully packaged produce simply because my budget demands it. London Drugs accepts both, but they have limited space, especially the main one downtown. Buy a single piece of furniture from Ikea or Structube and try finding a bin big enough for all that styrofoam and plastic.
Transportation is a big one for me. I would love to take transit more places (I hate driving in the lower mainland) but the time it takes to go from one part of the city to another during non peak times on the bus can be ridiculous.
The car-dependent culture is a challenge for many. Public transit in Vancouver is not that great or efficient, especially if you live further out towards the Fraser Valley. For this reason, I ride my bike or scooter to work. Saves time and money, plus it's much friendlier on the environment. Plus it's fun and gets me outdoors. When the weather is miserable, I will bite the bullet and take transit, but our transit isn't squeaky clean either. But still better than being another fume-belching car on the road. Livestock farming pollutes a too. I started eating less meat and started consuming more plant-based proteins, especially lentils. They are tasty, versatile, and packed with protein and fiber. We're not exactly in a drought, but it helps to conserve water so I take 5-minute showers, which I set a timer for. But I think the greatest bad habit that I broke was going to Starbucks everyday and buying coffee that comes in a disposable and leaky cup. When I do go to Starbucks, I bring my refillable coffee thermos. Much nicer experience, I don't burn my hands and my coffee stays hot. Some argue that living green is super expensive, but I found that to be the reverse.
I like eating meat.
Haha. Fair.
I’m a single mom of two we are a transit/pedestrian family (always have been) we hang dry our clothing and use minimal power in the house. My biggest challenge has been trying to go zero waste/ less packaging… I love the refill shops and wish we had one close by as transiting to and from them from another city not only takes a long time however also the weight of carrying it all back can be to much for us unfortunately.