No Impact November
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In 2010 we had a whole month of fun. As part of our annual
Household Action Challenge, a group of nine households took on 'No
Impact November'.
No Impact November was a collaborative community experiment
to explore alternatives way of living with an emphasis on consuming less,
sharing more and moving to a life with less oil dependency. Our goal was
to reduce our impact and reconnect with ourselves, our families and friends,
our communities and the land. |
The specific week of the challenge was from Thursday 11th to Thursday 18th
November, however the whole month was one where an individual or household can
take on different degrees and different aspects of challenge throughout the
month.
Individuals or households took on one or more components to make up the
week challenge. Find out how we went by following the links below. See more about the 'No Impact Man' doco, the screening of which initially prompted our ideas, at www.noimpactproject.org/experiment
Key Principles / Key Dates / Initial Meeting / Choose Your Challenge/s / People's challenges / Daily blog
Key principles (of the Household Action Challenge)
- A Trial - It is an experiment for 1 week, so its not going
to kill anyone if we don't make it or do fall short in some way, yet at the
same time given that it is only a week, we should 'go hard' and see what we
can achieve.
- Doing it together – Many people have tried this
as an individual or household. It is quite a bit of hard work but all becomes
easier when treated as a community exercise where we share discoveries together,
work together, and are challenged together. We are supporting one another
in learning good ways of living.
- Preparation – Necessary if we are going to know
our present impact is and not get unexpected suprises. This will include a
pre-challenge audit, and systematic seeking of alternatives.
- Sharing - In passing on our discoveries in a useful way,
we decided to be ruthlessly transparent about our successes and struggles,
and document these where possible.
The Process broadly involves:
- deciding what area you'll focus on
- a self-audit or inventory - asking what you presently do
- setting your goals for the challenge
- exploring together possible means of reduction/alternatives/change
- preparation leading up to the trial week
- reflection and comment on the experience after and/or during the week
Key Principles / Key Dates / Initial Meeting / Choose Your Challenge/s / People's challenges / Daily blog
Initial meeting - Thursday October 14th
We had a great turn up for the initial meeting. Neesh, Shaun, Kate, Jason,
Elizabeth, Edwina, Nikki, Rachel, Mara, Jonathon, Jo & her friend, came
along. Some great tucker including hommus, homemade Fennel Soup, Spicy Pumpkin
soup, and fried cheesy balls kicked the evening off. Lively discussion complimented
our munching as we threw around ideas as to what we'd take on as our challenges
for the No impact November week. Ideas included:
- Not shopping at the big two supermarkets. Some people choosing local independants.
For others, the Queen Victoria market, but choosing to have a converssation
with sellers of produce to find out more about the produce.
- Buying in bulk. Sourcing large 25kg bags of flours, rice, etc.
- Alternatives to hair care. Looking for commercial items that avoid animal
testing or petro chemicals, or going the next step and making your own. Rachel
and Jonathon both raved about 'soap nuts', a great natural alternative to soap
and detergent.
- .... and for the slightly more die-hard amongst us - investigating composting
toilet options, and alternatives to disposables (including toilet paper).
I've put up what some people are thinking about taking on here, and below outlined the challenge that my household has
decided to take on for the week, as an example of the process (and in case you're
interested).
If you would like to join in on the week's challenge, and come along to the
Preparatory meeting on the 4th, you'll need to have thought about:
- what is the focus area of the challenge you're interested
in (example: reduce waste; avoiding supermarkets, reducing car use)
- what are you present actions, patterns, behaviours. What
do you presently do in this area? (example:. inventory rubbish, where do you
shop now; when do you use the car and for what)
- what are your some specific goals (example: have no non-recylable
waste; shop at independent supermarkets; not use the car for trips less than
3kms).
And possibly..
- brainstorm some strategies that you'll put in to place
in the week of the challenge. We'll help to brainstorm these during the meeting
on the 4th too.
Key Principles / Key Dates / Initial Meeting / Choose Your Challenge/s / People's challenges / Daily blog
Key dates
- Thursday October 14th – Initial meeting. See discussion points and minutes.
- Thursday November 4th – Preparation meeting.
Inventory and goals (and shared meal). We will discuss:
- What do we normally eat/buy/consume/travel, etc?
- What are our specific personal or household goals for the challenge?
- How will we prepare? What resources do we already have? What do we
need to discover?
- Preparation for Communal meal on 11th.
- Thursday November 11th – No Impact week
Communal dinner to mark the start of No Impact week. At Jo's home, Kingsville. This
is also our regular Meal & Movie night - screening a selection of short
exerts relating to the challenge.
- Wednesday 17th (or Thursday 18th) – End
of No Impact week Celebration meal. At Mara's home, Altona.
- We will discuss outcomes and learnings.
Additional:
- Saturday November 27th – International
Buy Nothing Day - Throughout the day we intend to do some cool and
fun 'anti-consumerism' stunts and of course share yet another meal together.
See website
for ideas. Come along ... if you dare!
RSVP to above dates: Nick
nick@ethical.org.au Key Principles / Key Dates / Initial Meeting / Choose Your Challenge/s / People's challenges / Daily blog
Choose your challenge/s
Living beyond:
- Car - no car use for a week
- Power - no electricity for a week
- Fridge - no refrigerator for a week
- Food miles - no food beyond 100 mile food radius for a week
- Spending - no purchasing for a week
- Waste - no rubbish for a week
- Technology - no screen time, gadgets, electronic communication for a week
- Inequality - no water from the tap (or limit to global average) for a week
- Processed foods - no processed products - avoiding Cargill, agribusiness,
the whole machinery, for a week
This list is just our brainstorm. You may have other ideas you'd like to explore.
See what people have decided on
here.
Key Principles / Key Dates / Initial Meeting / Choose Your Challenge/s / People's challenges / Daily blog
People's Challenges
Key Principles / Key Dates / Initial Meeting / Choose Your Challenge/s / People's challenges / Daily blog
Neesh & Shaun's Burns St Goals
Here is a list of things I would love to attempt - depends on support for some!
Food
- Make soy milk
- Make damper bread
- Australia only dry goods
- Victorian only fresh produce
- No packaging to enter house! (except mail envelopes…)
House
- Wash clothes for #1’s
- Borrow electric fry pan/wok (solar versus gas)
- Wash with bucket of hot water - water heated from kettle (solar versus gas)
Other
- Ride everywhere (no sneaky car trips for shaun)
- Emergency only purchases
- More games and discussion, less internet time
- Slow down
Water?
...back
Kimberly
I've had a think about the stuff I do in my household. Most of my
household activities center around food and most of my rubbish is
packaging and takeaway containers. For the next week, I thought of the
following things:
- no shopping at supermarkets: greengrocers and markets only
- no shopping for the week
- no takeaway food
- no processed food
- reduce my meat intake to one meal a day, and only have chicken or fish
- consume only Victorian produce
- use herbs from my garden as much as possible
- no tv and only use public transport
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Rachel
Here's what I'm planning on taking on (after finally reading the book, I've decided to take on a challenge in each of the areas he looked at)
- Reduce waste - I'm going to try wee wipes. I currently utilise more conventional materials, but I've got a spare old towel and some plastic containers all ready to dry pail so it's just a case of cutting up the wipes and being brave enough to use them!
- Transport - My current rule is if the trip one way is 10km or less I have to ride it instead of taking other transport options. I'm going to try upping the rule to 15km for the duration for the challenge...which means I'm riding to Footscray next time you see me ;)
- Food - I'm going to learn a bit more about the edible weeds in my area and try to incorporate them into my meals as much as I can over the challenge week. This means I need to do a bit more research on the weeds and what can be done with them, as well as source said weeds.
- Consumption - this is an ongoing challenge to not buy anything new and keep decluttering what I have through freecycle and op shops etc.
- Power - I'm going to trial not turning lights on during the week in the effort to change my view point and habits with electricity (given the environmental impact I imagine will be minimal) Like you, I'll need to alter my routines and hopefully it'll open up my mind to different possibilities.
- Water - I'm going to go back to 4 minute showers, I've been slack on this one *blush*
- Giving back - I've been trying to build a sharehood in my area, and participate in the local Transition Town initiative. I've organised a neighbourhood picnic on the weekend the falls during the challenge in an effort to get to know my neighbours. I'll also keep helping out with the TT's food coop that is currently being trialled.
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Jonathan & Jane's No Impact November Plan
Section 1 - Transport
- There are times when it will be impossible to not use the car (i.e. driving kids to school) but these must be the only times when the car is used. This means riding to work on days kids are home.
- Keep movements localised where possible to avoid the need to drive
- Use public transport and bike where possible, or simply walk.
Section 2 - Food/Water
- No purchases or use of any processed foods
- No purchase or use of any packaged foods
- Ensure fruit/veg/meat/all other food items are as local as possible. Try to stay within 100 mile radius where possible and at least within Victoria. This means luxuries like bananas and tea/coffee are not available.
- Continue to produce as many items from raw ingredients as possible (bread, baked goods etc)
- Use collected rain water wherever possible. Pasta/rice cooking, anywhere water is boiled to ensure no illness arises as a result.
Section 3 - Energy Usage
- Especially with daylight savings in place, take advantage of natural daylight and reduce use of lighting.
- Spend less time watching tv or using electronic devices and more time reading, conversing or doing crafts.
- Use solar and other alternative energy sources while reducing dependence on "oil/gas" power. This includes windup torches, lamps and radios. Also using laptop computers on battery power as long as possible instead of being connected to mains power all the time.
- Use of solar cooking also to be undertaken to reduce usage of natural gas cooking
- Overall plan is to reduce usage of mains power by at least 1/3.
Section 4 - Consumption / Waste
- Reduce unusable waste to absolute minimum.
- Reduce already minimised consumption to as little as possible, trial new methods during the week to see if they can be implemented permanently in future.
- No buying from multinational/nationwide corporations. Any purchases that must be made to come from local shops, suppliers, markets or direct from growers/suppliers.
Desired Outcomes
- Better understanding of true mains power usage and developing means to continue to avoid usage. This may include weighing up the purchase of new major appliances that make a significant difference in power usage that outweighs the cost of upgrading.
- Continued development of food collection to reduce food miles and unnecessary packaging.
- Use this intensified week of trials/experiments to see what can be continued into the future.
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Jo & Hansby/Canny family commitment
We are a family of 5, 2 adults and 3 kids (5, 6 & 8). I wanted to include
everyone in what I was planning and get suggestions which was great and the
kids were so excited they wanted to start today!
And the kids were excited to come up with dinner ideas for Thursday and see
what it is I go to on a Thursday.
We are going to work on 3 things:
- reducing car driving; currently due to lack of planning I tend to drive
more than needed and setting a bad example for the kids. We are going to ride/walk
to and from school everyday for the week (I will need to drive on a Tuesday
avo to get from school to swimming on time)
- go vegetarian for the week
- reduce our waste in bread, yoghurt and milk/cheese - we will make our own
bread and only buy one commercial loaf/wraps for kids lunches for the week,
look at making our own yoghurt and speak to Shauns contact about milk/cheese.
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Kate & Jason
War on landfill! The easy things are already done, like composting food and
avoiding take-away and most processed food as well as excess packaging. Now
its the turn of harder things. The things its easy to find excuses for, like
the soft plastic packaging of tofu.
This week we won't buy anything wrapped in plastic that would end up in landfill.
The idea is not just to avoid buying those things for the week. It's to change
our buying habits for the long term by getting out and finding those retailers
who can supply what we need but without being wrapped in plastic.
For the week of the challenge, we won't consume anything whose packaging ends
up in landfill, with a few exceptions such as my medicine.
Here's a sample of the sort of things we need to change :
- Lentils, brown rice, oats, etc – buy in bulk (in paper bags)
- Shaving – Jason will either shave with a switch-something, or grow
a beard (yikes!)
- Bread – I freeze sliced bread to use during the week, so slicing
it myself (not rocket science, but it did take a long time for me to see this
solution.)
- Yoghurt – make it if we want it!
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Elizabeth
Inspired by Gandhi's quote "Be the change you want to see in the world",
I would like to use the No Impact November challenge as a transition to a more
sustainable lifestyle.
I will focus on the following two main areas:
Reduce impact - minimise waste (meaning both 'rubbish' and
'thoughtless use')
- Material & resources - minimise rubbish, avoid packaging, avoid supermarkets,
reduce/avoid plastics, minimise consumption...
- Power - investigate switching to a renewable energy company, switch off
electronic equipment, make better use of daylight...
- Water - 4 minute showers...
- Food - cook more at home, buy local, organic and in-season foods, go from
being pescatarian to vegetarian, compost all food scraps...
Make a positive impact - reconnect with myself, my friends & family,
my community and our land
On a personal level - slow down, practice meditation, ride my bike to work,
take a one day break from consumption and technology (mobile phones, internet..)
on a 'Do Nothing Day', spend more time in nature, dance more, smile more...
In the community - initiate a Sharehood in my local neighborhood, help spread
the word about the No Impact November challenge, smile at strangers and do other
random acts of kindness.. :)
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Edwina
Thank you all for making me feel so included in this challenge.A special thanks
to Elizabeth, a passionate girl housemate I lived with last year her inspiration
is contagious and has lead me here ultimately.
My focus is on accounability to myself initially. My areas of concerns are
as follows and they shape my challenge ultimately.
- Spending
- I have decided to keep a diary of all spending I do on a daily basis,
to look at where I spend my money and on what and why – so this
will be a an initial self spending evaluation.
- This I feel will assist my in the long term in choices I make, and is
a good first step to awareness.
- Transport
- I have a car and occasionally I use it to go to work if I am not bothered
or too lazy to take the bike.
- The car is locked away until the challenge is over.
If any of my friends wish to borrow the car I will tell a white lie and
say it is out of action for the week so they too can use the bike or public
transport.
I will ride every day from City Road to Clifton Hill
- Products
- I am a massive consumer of products and tend to try everything once
!.
- I will make a conscious effort this week to look at what I am putting
in my hair and on my skin as a sort of research project to draw some facts
and findings and hopefully alternatives or conclusions as to what I am
putting onto my skin.
- Food Glorious food
- I will be making attempts to find out where my food comes from, I will
make an effort not to eat out ( so that I not have to com up with this
)
- Or do some research as to where I can find a wholesome local restaurant
that I can bike to from the City
- Mobile Phone
- I will leave my phone at home during my working day to decrease me reliance
on it and explore my coping mechanisms.
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Nick,& Janet's Challenge
Here's the challenge that we've decided to take on, which serves as a good example of the process. Our household is actually Nick, Janet and Talitha whose 5 yrs old and Charlie
whose 2. Our challenge is three-fold, and these three parts work together.
1. Food Essentials. My own personal challenge is to bake
sourdough bread. We had been buying Edwards sourdough bread from the
local Footscray Deli – byo bag and so no packaging. However recently the
bakery burned down and so we're back to supermaket purchases with plastic bread
bags. So this is an opportunity to learn a new skill and by-pass the middle
men.
Strategies: visit neighbour Dom and request lesson; get sourdough starter
from either Dom or someone else; experiement in week leading up to challenge
week.
2. Power use. I was quite moved at our recent screening of
the 'end of suburbia' – a movie about peak oil. I know in theory the significance
of oil as the foundation to all that we do but like most of us haven't really
grasped how we'd get along if it was no longer available.
Oil is truly amazing stuff. Here's some stats that got me thinking.
- It's in fact 'liquid sunshine'. One gallon (4.5 litres) of oil contains
the equivilant of about 98 tonnes of original algae, distilled over 100 million
years.
- The amount of energy needed to maintain the average US citizen (or Australian
citizen) is equivilent to 50 people on bicycles peddling furiously in our backyards
all day and all night.
So what would we do if we didn't have access to these 'energy slaves'? It's a
big question. So to make a meaningful and managable task for the challenge week, I looked up global electricity consumption
per capita. Australia is 11th highest at 1,244 watts per person per day.
The global average is 364. That's about a third. (source: The World Factbook
via wikipedia
).
So our goal for the week regarding power use is to cut our consumption by a
third. There's a mind
map on energy use in our household which is my brainstorm on where we use
'fossil-fuel' derived power and some ways to reduce this for the week. It's
worth noting that the focus will be on behaviour change rather than technology
or gadgets. Doing things differently, such as going to bed at dusk and getting
up at dawn, thereby not needing the lighting that we're used to. This is quite
radical in itself and will test us in all sorts of ways.
Strategies: plan our time - what we presently do after dark needs to be
done beforehand; inventory power bills; inventory where we use the most power;
brainstorm strategys (see below for some of these).
3. Car use. Goes along with the point above. We use the car
infrequently but this is a chance to not use it at all for a week.
Strategies: inventory when we use the car; plan alternatives.
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