Well, we’re nearly half way through this year already, so I thought it’d be a good opportunity to get up to date on how I’m going with the sustainable living goals I set at the beginning of the year. You may remember that I decided to make them ones I could actually achieve.

Growing Veggies

I’m happy to say that this has so far been going well – definitely aided by the fact that we moved house about 6 weeks ago. Aided in the sense that we actually now have a garden, as opposed to what is euphemistically known as a “nature strip”

(Yes, what you see in the two pictures here constituted the entire green space at our previous house!)

And this is what we have now:

Actually we have cheated a bit in that the previous owners of the house were fans of home grown themselves – we’ve got oranges, lemons, passion fruit, paw-paw, chili’s and pineapples growing about the place. So far we’ve added the obligatory tomatoes & basil, which will be followed by some more herbs and some strawberries a bit later this afternoon. (We’ve also noticed that the neighbour’s mango tree has a bit of an ..ahem.. overhang…) There’ll be more posts on how this is all going over the coming months.

Building a Compost

I have to say for me, one of the biggest revelations so far has been the compost bin. Composting is a concept that I’ve not been around since my age was well in single figures, so to watch a pile of something previously destined for landfill slowly become a useful product is simply amazing! And therein lies the secondary reward of building your own compost heap – I would comfortably say that we’ve halved our landfill bound output since introducing the compost – imagine if everyone could do that! I’m going to feature some more articles on composting in general in the next few months, but my recommendation for now is that if you don’t yet have a compost or compost bin, you owe it to yourself to get one.

Use Less Chemical Products

This one has been a bit of a winner for me also. Since picking up a few random books from the library on natural cleaners, remedies and the like and discovering just how easy (not to mention cheaper) it is to replace multitudes of harmful chemicals in the household, I’ve been on constant look out for replacements.

(My caveat here is that while seasoned ecologists may say it’s been this way for years, I’m approaching this from the point of view of a product being commercially available. The average modern day consumer is not going to go out of their way to get an environmentally product if there’s a chemical alternative already sitting on the shelf in front of them.)

So far I’ve replaced shower gel, shampoo & shaving gel for my bathroom products; washing powder, washing up liquid, dishwash powder and kitchen handwash in the rest of the house. I’m quite confident this list will expand through the second half of the year, and my ultimate goal will be to make chemical products the second or even third choice for any situation I may have previously used them.

Using Car Less (Get a bike, use public transport, walk)

I’m going to call this one a grey area! Due to the house move, I feel I am actually using the car less – e.g. I now walk to the beach for a surf, or to the shop for some milk, whereas previously I would have driven. And as far as surfing is concerned, this is augmented further in that I now live in the village that I would have more than likely driven too before getting in the ocean.

Of course, the flipside of this is that I’m now further away from my workplace, and in factors of distance that it’s now unpractical for me to consider riding a bike or catching public transport. But the cloud hath a silver lining: as a much greater percentage of my driving is now on the highway, my average fuel efficiency has improved by some 2 – 2.5L/100KMS, which personally I think is a pretty good acheivement!

I’d love to know how you are going with your own goals, so please let me know in the comments.

I noticed on a trip to the supermarket this week that Seventh Generation products have started appearing on shelves here.

Hailing from the US, a quick glance over some of their product range looks impressive. Covering a wider range than is normally seen from one manufacturer in the environmental line; there are baby products, household cleaners, laundry products and dish-washing items to name a few. And with one of this year’s goals for my family being to reduce the amount of chemicals in our home, their transparency about the ingredients they use is particularly welcome.

The company’s name is derived from the Great Law of the Iroquois that states, “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations”.

Please go back and re-read that last sentence. Would I be right in thinking that’s the first time you’ve ever thought of your great great great great grand-kids?

The packaging goes on to say:

“every time you use a Seventh Generation product you are making a difference by saving natural resources, reducing pollution, keeping toxic chemicals out of the environment and making the world a safer place for this and the next seven generations.”

which is pretty much what we all should be striving for, no?

My only gripe (and it’s a small one), is that they’ve yet to update their packaging for the worldwide market; most of the environmental messages are US centric, and I can see this putting off some potential purchasers.

Currently I’ve found a couple of products from their “Free & Clear” range being stocked, but will definitely be looking out for more. We’ll post a review of some of the products when it’s time to restock the cleaning cupboard.

Do you have any experience with Seventh Generation products? Please tell us about it in the comments.