The ‘No Impact Experiment’
March 7th, 2010 by admin
Three members of Transition Newburyport joined in the world-wide No Impact Week. The goal was to raise awareness of our own ‘footprint’ on the planet by reducing our energy, water and material consumption. The Daily News wrote an article about the experiment, and some of us wrote about our experiences on the Transition Massachusetts ning site.
Here is just one entry by Niall Robinson, who participated with his wife and two children:
“Perhaps the biggest learnings for us were around the ‘multiplication effect’ of changing our behaviors.
I must admit I too was not fazed by the trash perspective until I thought about what I purchased at work and ended up throwing away. My family already composts our kitchen scraps, buys local and reuses all we can so I was feeling comfortable about our trash footprint at home. But at work, our cafeteria is a ‘healthy’ walk away from my cubicle so I bring everything back to my desk. Usually a cardboard box and grease proof paper for my sandwich plus in the morning there is another container for my oatmeal or bagel. Now granted my work colleagues already think I’m “interesting” in that I bring home the cardboard containers (they are a great weed blocker in my garden) but I thought there was an opportunity to improve and also have a bit of fun.
Not to digress too much but I was recently put on to Amory Lovins’ (actually a friend had been pestering me for awhile to watch it and I finally did — http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid231.php ) series of lectures at Stanford University where he talks about getting multiple benefits from single expenditures. Though Amory was talking about building smarter buildings the same applies to almost everything you do i.e. maximize the number of benefits you get from what you do.
So I decided to bring in my own lunch and breakfast. The benefits were multiple:
- I eliminated my trash by using reusable utensils etc.
- I saved money by not buying expensive food at the cafeteria.
- I controlled the food I ate.
- I reduced my carbon footprint by sourcing my work meals locally.
- I reduced our food waste at home (using up leftovers).
- And I felt better!
And so, not to get too philosophical, I think a big takeaway is that we have to ‘think out of the box.’ We have to think creatively to solve these problems, and yes, the solutions should be imaginative and ‘better’ than what we know today. As William McDonough talks about, up-cycling is the way — not re-cycling or down-cycling.”
If you are interested in trying it out for yourself a new nationwide No Impact Week is being launched on November 15.
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