Robert Ashton: Ten Ways to Return to Normal

ten Ways …

to return to normal

By Robert Ashton

The other day I rode on a park and ride bus into Norwich, my nearest city, to meet someone face to face to talk about how we could work together over the coming months. Until March 2020 this was almost an everyday activity, as my life was filled with meetings, usually locally but sometimes in London or elsewhere in the UK.

But as I sat on the bus that day, I realised that this was the first time for more than a year I’d travelled to meet anyone. Like you I guess, I’ve become all too familiar with meeting people on Zoom and only leaving the house to ride my bike or visit the supermarket. It’s no surprise then that according to the BBC, the International Energy Agency is predicting a surge in CO2 emissions this year as ‘the world rebounds from the pandemic1.’

The challenge we all face, is how to enjoy a healthy economic recovery, without further fuelling climate change, which I predict will dominate the headlines as the threat of Covid fades. Here are ten ways I’m going to try to balance a return to normal with consideration for my environmental impact: 1. Take small steps – Just as I felt oddly apprehensive about going to my first meeting for a year, so too am I apprehensive about reducing my environmental impact. Common sense tells me that to make dramatic change is not realistic, but if we all take small steps, then the cumulative impact will be significant. 2. Blend the old with the new – We all know that meeting someone online is not quite the same as sitting in the same room, but I will think before I set up a face to face meeting. I’ve been surprised at how much can be done, even with a large group, via Zoom. Yes, I’ll be going out more, but only when I think it’s really necessary. 3. Think about my diet – The media find it all too easy to demonise cattle and nitrogen fertiliser for contributing to climate change. I think there is also an argument that if we eat less meat, we will prompt further deforestation in other parts of the world where alternative proteins are grown. So yes, I will think about what I eat and will have ready reasoned arguments to defend the choices I make. We must not blindly accept all that we read in the papers! 4. Set realistic goals – I spent the first ten years of my career selling fertiliser and can well remember challenging the sales director when sales targets grew year on year. The market for most products is finite and to always strive for more is simply not realistic. In the work I now do, I aim to win enough work to maintain a comfortable lifestyle, not accumulate wealth I do not need. We do not live for ever, and quality of life is important.

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Challenge assumptions – Many will needlessly return to doing things just as they did before the pandemic struck. Without gaining a reputation for being difficult, why not gently challenge the assumption that things need to be done in 2021 as they were in 2019? Challenging assumptions provokes debate and only when alternatives are considered, can lasting change be achieved. Embrace new technology – Right now I drive a diesel car. It’s something I’ve done for more than 30 years, but my next car will be electric. I know that to start with, I will suffer from range anxiety, but equally I know that with a little planning, I will never find myself at the roadside with flat batteries. Who wants to be the last person left in the company car park with a diesel engine? Become a power generator – We’re told that the future will see micro-grids, with electricity from thousands of roof-mounted PV panels and turbines meeting our future need for energy. PV panels have also plummeted in price over recent years, so it might cost a lot less than you realise to generate more of the power you use. 8. Buy locally – The pandemic saw local retailers, in particular village shops, enjoy something of a boom as people travelled less and shopped locally. I’m writing a book about how rural life has changed over the past 150 years and been struck by how even small communities were virtually once self-sufficient. We’ve had the opportunity to rediscover trading locally. Let’s try buying from local people we know and can trust, not just on price alone. 9. Upcycle – I’ve written before about the way one company’s waste can become another venture’s raw material. I’ve seen social enterprises employing vulnerable people, who upcycle pallets into garden furniture and much more. People can be incredibly creative and inventive and often, grant income can help them generate profit from what appear to be unprofitable activities. Be receptive and look around to see how others might usefully benefit from what to you is rubbish. 10.Make time for yourself – Like children with new toys, we all face the very real danger of filling our diaries and trying to make up for lost time now that we have been largely liberated from lockdown. We’ve all had time to form new habits and become accustomed to living life in a new way. It might be many years before we face another pandemic, so there’s no need to do everything right now. As I said in my first point, let’s journey into our futures one short step at a time.

Another consequence of the last year’s disruption has, I’m told, been that many people of my generation have chosen to call it a day and retire. I can see the appeal of calling it a day and drawing your pension if you are able, but even contemplating this idea challenges my long help perception that only old people retire. Trotsky once said; ‘Old age is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man.’ I’m beginning to understand what he meant!

1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56807520