HOW TO BE SUSTAINABLE(ISH

A NEW GUIDE GIVES US THE TIPS WE NEED TO BE GREENER PARENTS

In London, we’re all tripping over cycle lanes, street calming measures and LTNs, but it’s not just the traffic we need to address if we want to save the planet. From nappies and toys to food and bedding, parents have more choice than ever. But where to start is often the stumbling block.

JEN GALE, a self-confessed, ordinary, knackered mum spent a year not buying anything new, and the result is The Sustainable(ish) Guide to Green Parenting: Guiltfree eco ideas for raising your kids, out this month.

When did you realise you wanted to make a change? We spent a year buying nothing new in 2012/13 and what started as a fairly naive ‘fun’ challenge was a real eye opener and made me realise that we needed to make more changes.

What did you decide to do first? The year buying nothing new was a decision made not really from a particularly eco perspective but taught me so much. One of the first changes I think we made aside from that was switching to a renewable energy provider.

How did your family respond? The kids were only four and two when we did our year buying nothing new, so they weren’t really all that aware. I think my husband fully expected me to get distracted quite soon with another more exciting idea, and his biggest concern was whether he would be able to buy a newspaper!

Did you find it difficult? I think the first steps of any change are often the hardest. The gap between wanting to change or feeling like we ‘should’ and actually doing it can feel huge. But once you’ve made that first step, no matter how small, it becomes easier and easier to keep going, and all the changes you make very quickly become your new normal.

Have you become an evangelical tree hugger? Not at all! I’m a big fan of the ‘ish’ in Sustainable(ish). I’m very aware that in the same way that there’s very little in life that is black and white, there’s very little green and white too - more like lots of different shades of green in between, and it’s all about working out what works for you and your family. Any step in the right direction is cause for celebration!

During your make do and mend year, what did you give people for birthdays and Christmas? I made the vast majority of gifts during that year, and I’m pretty embarrassed now when I look back on them! Some of them were ok, but I attempted to make my brother a cricket ball hat that I’d seen on Pinterest, and I’m sure it went straight in the bin. As the year wore on I came to the conclusion that my talents probably lay more with baking than sewing, and edible gifts seemed to be pretty well received!

What were your biggest learnings? I learned loads of practical skills, like darning and patching jeans, but my biggest takeaway was that we absolutely can make a difference, even as just one person or just one family. I realised that all of the choices I was making everyday, many of them pretty unconsciously about what to eat, buy, and wear all had an impact. And that I had to take responsibility for that impact and make changes where I could.

JEN’S 5 TOP TIPS FOR GETTING STARTED

1THINK ABOUT YOUR WHY My why, when it boils down to it, is my kids. Our kids. All of our kids, and their futures. When it all feels a bit much, when I’m tempted to just jack it all in, when I see other people carrying on as normal and there’s part of me that wishes I didn’t know what I know and that I too could do all that stuff with a clear conscience, it really helps to tune back into my why. It doesn’t always make it easier, but it reminds me why it’s important.

2FOCUS ON WHAT WORKS FOR YOU What works for other people might not work for you. It doesn’t matter. ‘You do you babe’ is an internet phrase that might make you want to vomit, but annoyingly it’s actually a pretty good sentiment. Don’t worry about what other people are doing – if they’re ‘aceing it’ with reusable nappies that they made themselves from old t-shirts and are weaning their baby on an entirely homegrown vegan diet – if that works for them, wish them well. If they’re jetting off on multiple holidays a year and purchasing a holiday wardrobe for the kids each time, which they then just throw away (yes, I have heard of this happening) because it’s ‘too cheap to bother washing’, don’t waste your energy getting angry at them (maybe also don’t wish them well though…) if you can’t do anything to change that. 3 EMBRACE THE ‘ISH’ As a society, it feels increasingly like we’re polarising – we’re left or right, leave or remain, vegan or not, drinkers or teetotal. We’ve lost sight of the middle ground. And, just as in life there’s very little that is black and white, in all things eco there’s very rarely a ‘green and white’. There isn’t this green hierarchy, where we start at the bottom as the very palest of greens and move upwards in a linear fashion to the pinnacle of the greenest of all greens. What there is, is a myriad shades of green – and we’ll be different shades of green in different areas of our lives, on different days of the week, and depending on how irritating the kids are being. 4 GO FOR THE EASY WINS Especially at the start. Think about the changes that will be the least stressful, easiest to get everyone on board with, cheapest, and do those. It doesn’t have to be hard to be worthwhile.

5PICK ONE THING Start off by picking one area to work on: maybe that’s food, or clothes, or single-use plastic. And then pick ONE thing to change within that. So maybe that’s eating less meat, buying fewer new clothes, or cutting down on single-use plastic in the bathroom. Then, again, pick ONE change within that – maybe that’s one meat-free meal a week, or sorting through your wardrobe, or finding a plasticfree(ish) shampoo that works for you. Change happens ONE step at a time.

The Sustainable(ish) Guide to Green Parenting: Guilt-free

eco ideas for raising your kids is published by Green Tree (Bloomsbury) and available in paperback, audiobook and Ebook. £12.99 Jen hosts the Sustainable(ish)podcast and is founder of the Knackered Mums Eco Club.

asustainablelife.co.uk