One of the four goals of FairShareInternational is:
10: tread lightly
Reducing my use of water, energy and minerals by at least 10%, based on the national average per capita consumption. [this is 10% per year until you can go no further]
Now, I’ve been plugging along at this for a few years, and recent results from the conclusion of the 90% Reduction Challenge indicate that we did reduce our consumption by (at least) an additional 10& in the past 12 months.
One of the things about this particular goal is that has built in to it the notion of permanent change. The reason for the 10% figure is to make changes that are do-able long term. While the 90% reduction thing obviously exceeded this target, it did something that was incredibly valuable.
It kept me counting.
By keeping track of our consumption, we were able to respond (or not, as the case often was) to keep us more or less on target. It didn’t matter if the target was 90% above or 90% below. Just as my professional roles in corporate governance rely upon data to make future decisions based on past results, so too do I believe that data are – in many ways – the key to maintaining momentum.
Kyle, over at Green With a Gun, agrees. He also has a better grasp of spreadsheets than I, and a greater interest in creating reliable personal data management tools based on credible international data. Aligned with this has been his creation of a new unit of currency: the carbon. This unit forms the basis of his 1tonne carbon lifestyle concept, about which he has written in some detail. To assist with this, Kyle has put together a spreadsheet to help track carbon expenditure.
I had a look at it. I spoke with my wife about it.
It is getting a little too close; a little too personal. For some reason, keeping records for this spreadsheet is a bit more confronting than working with percentages. Hard data that might lead not just to hard questions about our actions, but about our values … about how much we really care about not just our fair share, but the right (?) potential (?) of others to have their fair share.
In terms of MyFairShare, this tool looks like it will enable my family to track our carbon consumption such that we can see just how much more than our fair share we are using. [Note that I did not presume that we were using just, or less than, our fair share. Our ecological footprint makes it clear that we use more than our fair share of natural resources.]
As of July 1, we will use this tool to discover our own excess. To discover not just by how much we need to reduce, but by how much we have exceeded our fair share. How we respond to this information I do not know.
But, dear reader, I will be sure to share both our figures and our thoughts with you.
Note: I had this sitting in drafts, ready to post on July 1. I now see that Kyle has offered a single post to actually launch this idea, a challenge that he calls the Carbon Account Challenge – Can You Balance the Books? He’s even gone and made his own little picture thing – you will notice it included above.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Kiashu // Jun 29, 2008 at 10:51 am
Welcome! You gave me the inspiration, it’s only fair that I give you some tools to put it into practice. The “fair share” approach gave me a lot to think about.
I just wish I knew java or something so I could make a fancy webpage which would make all this easier…
Treating it as a currency came about because I was thinking how many people me and my woman know who earn twice or even three times what we do, but who often feel financially stressed, or at least have no savings – while we’ve got three years’ income saved up. I thought, what’s the difference?
Well, we keep careful accounts of what we spend. And they don’t even know how much they spend on groceries. You can’t control your spending if you’ve no idea how much you’re spending. If you just say, “I will try to reduce my spending” then not much will be achieved… But if you keep careful accounts of it then you’ve a much better chance, you can see where you can cut back without pain…
Then I thought, hey, that’s just like when people talk about climate change and stuff. People are always saying, “well, I try to drive the minimum… we try to eat less meat…” but when you ask them, they have no idea of the actual numbers, the miles they drive or the weight of meat they eat. So how can they possibly know if they’re reducing or not?
Then it all gelled together in this crazy idea
Like you, I’m scared of the results we’ll get. Because I was scared, that made me determined to do it. It’s like if you have to tell your wife something and you’re scared to do it – that tells you it’s the right thing to do, to tell her
I’m still scared, though!
2 admin // Jun 29, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Thank you for the kind introduction to your comment – you flatter me.
Perhaps the cameraderie (shared suffering) that comes from in the fear will motivate us to not conceal our excess, but reveal it to the extent that we each may see how perhaps we can compensate for each other. .. I use too many carbons for this; you use too many for that. Just like if I am better at growing tomatoes than mowing lawns, then it makes sense for someone else to mow my lawn in exchange for tomatoes. (Of course, we will have to argue over who gets to keep the grass clippings!).
Thanks for stopping by. I shall look forward to observing the numbers of all involved; especially those from the 90% Challenge – I’d like to see the different permutations of carbon consumption that can result in similar percentage reductions.
Bryan
3 Kiashu // Jun 30, 2008 at 5:23 pm
I’ve already started accounting, as you can see here.
ยข60 just for a set of electronic scales, crikey. At this rate I’ll have to turn the Simpson desert into a jungle to stay in the black.
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