New Year 2023 Resolutions

For a Sustainable Future

Hi Helixers,

I am writing this post from scenic North Yorkshire, where we are on a short family holiday. All 3 of us were down with a flu (or so I think) for the entire month of December. It hasn’t left us completely, but my wife and I needed a break from regular household chores, so we decided to book ourselves for a Christmas break.

Whitby, North Yorkshire UK

The weather in the UK is far from certain, being an island, however this early December snowfall, put us down badly. I know that many of you in North America, are reeling under the big freeze. This year, we saw unprecedented rains & floods in Pakistan, heatwaves across Europe, and wildfires, all exceeding previous averages. 2022 proved to us, that the climate crisis is real and it doesn’t wait for us to find solutions, or the money to implement it. We should resolve to take action at a personal level, as inhabitants of this planet. No civilisation, known to man, destroyed their home, wilfully, and we shouldn’t too.

A month and a half ago, we had moved houses, just 2 streets away. We chose the house, based on the distance to my child’s school, since everything else didn’t matter. The move was triggered by the cost of living crisis, and in the current form of capitalism, profits mattered more to my previous landlord, than the fact that they had a tenant who paid on time, and was willing to rent the property for atleast 3 more years. We moved to a similar property, in the same locality but at 150% rent as before. That’s the rental market at the moment. I had tried to locate properties to buy, but was taken aback by the massive increase in the interest rates, and offers were hard to come by. We live in an inflationary trend, and are staring at a global recession in 2023, but we should resolve to change the current form of capitalism, by our choices. The choices we make determines the consequences we experience. What choices are you making?

When we moved in, we noticed that the heating was not sufficient, and the landlord promptly attended to it. But this took several iterations to find solutions to the heating and hot water issues in this property. We do realise that this is an issue in many houses. We use natural gas to heat the house, and get hot water. There is a huge opportunity here in the UK, to improve insulation in homes, and to improve energy efficiency. Can we switch completely from natural gas? As a tenant, I don’t have an option. The war in Ukraine, drove gas prices upwards aand we suffered a 250% increase in gas & electricity bills in 2022. But as a family, we are very judicious with our usage. We are taking steps to control drafts from windows, and doors, we schedule the heating and hot water usage, and we take shorter showers (baths are quite rare). Some of you live in hotter countries where air-conditioning usage is on the higher side. Energy efficiency options exist for both colder countries as well as hotter ones. What steps are you taking to improve the energy efficiency at home?

I started working from home, in 2020, as a response to the pandemic lockdown, and have continued working from home. My employer does encourage people to get back to the office, and I do meet clients at their offices, but not every day. This choice does mean that I reduce the miles I drive, and if I need to commute, I use public transport, for which the blue TFL badge helps me get a seat and avoid the excruciating pains I suffer from.

I’d like to continue using public transport whenever possible and reduce the miles I drive, on my diesel SUV. I don’t beleive in a car centric design, and hence a switch to EV (when the electricity is produced by burning fossil fuels) is not viable to me. Priority should be for pedestrians, followed by cyclists and public transport. Personal car usage should reduce as a strategy. During 2023, I’d like to continue advocating that choice, and continue making representations with MPs and continue to object to proposals that are against that choice. What are you planning to do?

Talking about food choices, we are a family of vegetarians, and have been so, since birth. A couple of years ago, I had visited the local council’s recycling center and had a chat with the team there. I had noted that the plastic milk containers, and the plastic yogurt buckets were not recyclable even though the package says so. And we usually filled our recycling bin with these. I decided to switch to milk being delivered in glass bottles, and decided to make our own yogurt. That reduced most of the plastic that went to my bin. We switched to buying local and seasonal foods, but can’t avoid some of the vegetables, rice and lentils that come from India. That’s reality as an expat. I don’t preach to others that they should go meat free, but I keep hearing stories of people going meat free, veggie, or vegan, all the time, and I see supermarkets, restaurants, events, festivals, all including meat free option. Consumer choice dictates what the retail & hospitality industry provides, and that drives the food supply chain upstream.

Those are some of the choices we are making. What choices are you making in 2023? Do let me know. I’ll be on chat to hear about the choices you are making.