Attempts at sustainability or just eco-marketing?

Everywhere you look at the moment the big companies are trying to do their bit for the environment. For example, Ariel have been doing their ‘turn to 30’ campaign for a while now, with reportedly excellent success. They have also tried to address the issue of clean water with their campaign where they give 10 litres of drinking water for every special pack they sell. Volvic are also doing a similar campaign with their ‘1 litre for 10 litre’ promotion. But are these attempts at eco-marketing enough? If volvic went all out for sustainability, switched their plastic bottles for biodegradable corn bottles like Belu then I’d commend them. It just seems like some of these efforts are rather half hearted. Arial are kind of missing the point with their water campaign as to dilute the chemicals in one load of laundry to a safe level requires up to 12000 litres of water (as reported in ecologist magazine). Which makes the 10 litres of clean water seem rather insignificant. But I suppose any efforts from a major multinational are a step in the right direction.

Guilt free shopping in the credit crunch? You'll be lucky

The main problem I had with going to Africa was that I needed to buy stuff like a sleeping bag, mosquito net and insect repellent which of course you can’t really get in your local Oxfam. So, I’m ashamed to say, I went to a high street camping shop and spent far too much money on these travel ‘essentials’, most of which I didn’t even use. The other problem I had was that my chemical free lifestyle had to go on hold. I took biodegradable soap of course, but taking anti-malarial medication, taking anti-histamines and using DEET don’t go hand in hand with my paraben free shampoo and organic veg. But I didn’t commit the usual sin of holiday clothes shopping and buying a load of new clothes – well, I did buy new clothes but they were all from charity shops and I’ll wear them next summer too.

Since being back I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I have this urge to buy new stuff. You would think that seeing people who live on next to nothing would make me feel privileged but walking round the shops, I just want to buy things. I could easily spend hundreds on new clothes and shoes in the high street if I wasn’t the sensible, restrained person with great self control that I am. And in this time of ‘financial crisis’, ‘credit crunch’ and start of a recession it’s really inappropriate. I must admit, I did by a t-shirt in Next but it was organic. Apart from that I’ve been good, and again I have been saved by charity shops. I found a long jumper (just like the ones I was pining over in the high street the other day) in Oxfam for £4 and some lovely brown boots in another charity shop. Even though I still feel guilty about spending the money, as I am overdrawn and should be saving for a rainy day, I feel better knowing that my money has gone to a good cause. It’s not quite guilt free shopping, but the closest I’m going to get to it for a while!

Getting to the root of the need for cash

As you might have noticed, I’ve been away for a bit. I’ve been away, doing a lot of thinking somewhere very different from credit crunch England where people have rather different attitudes to money. I have been in Africa, met the Masai in Kenya and spent some time talking to the inhabitants of a poor village on the slopes of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Here, ethical shopping isn’t an issue. Both the Masai and the villages have very little money. They are mostly self sufficient, living off the land and making do with what they have. It really brought home to me that we in the west have a bizarre attitude to money. We work all day to make money which we then spend on ‘stuff’ to cheer us up and entertain us because we’re so exhausted from working all week. Whereas the people I spoke to worked hard to eat. They just got on with living, and they were some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met. Of course they would like more money but then so would almost everyone that I know. I think the different is, that they have their way of life and it’s been that way for generations and that’s how everyone else in the village lives. Here in the west we see rich people with their big houses, fancies clothes and posh cars and want to be like them. There is a line in a song ‘if I hadn’t seen such riches I could live with being poor’. Perhaps we need to stop aspiring to be someone we’re not and learn to accept who we are and live within our means. During the current financial problems we’re experiencing in the west, its probably best that we focus more on being content with what we have, spending less and just enjoying the simple things in life. Well, when you put it like that it sounds rather idyllic!