Parents, can we change the world?

I have to admit, the world is different the moment you have children. All the time you had to think about making a difference gets occupied by the seemingly simple act of keeping your little dependents alive. It sure isn’t simple — not only is this a lifetime of responsibility you have undertaken to parent a child, parenting is relentless! It distracts you in the day when you are working, and haunts you at night when you are downright exhausted.

The fact though, is that childhoods haven’t changed in 2,000 years, why is it so much more difficult today? I think it is because parenting has changed. In the past where we used to have access to a village of support, unfortunately today the nucleus of a family unit is singular. As a result, childminding becomes a formalised arrangement in which paid childcares and nannies do the work while we bring home the bread. When working parents come home, we then have an average of 3 hours every day to feed, shower, impart knowledge, build character, build resilience to your children, all this while dealing with the unpredictable blows of tantrums from the teething tots.

But I really do care about the environment and society. And I have no doubt that other parents also do. There must be more we can do in our everyday lives that allow us to do things right. After all, there is so much synergy in the habits we teach our kids, and what we can do on our part as responsible citizens.

So here’s my attempt to contribute to helping parents run a household in the most sustainable way you can.

What can we realistically do?

A picture paints a thousand words: Since moving to China, our 4yo son has been tuned into new issues in his universe, one of which — depicted in his free-time sketches above — is air pollution on the Great Wall (illustrated by the use of purple and black colours here).

My day job is one which involves dealing with businesses and key stakeholders on sustainability issues. Naturally, a lot of this spills into family discussions and personal reflections. Over time, you end up thinking a lot about your own actions when it comes to being a responsible citizen of the planet.

Whilst it is important to practice what you preach, I am also aware that virtually every action we make inevitably has some sort of impact on the environment. If we chose to eat healthily, that could mean choosing foods that use less pesticides, that come from organic sources, or have less fat and more protein. All these choices have their own negative environmental impact, and sometimes we choose one thinking we are doing a good thing when it means having a more devastating impact on the environment.

And so, over time I have come to terms with the fact that it is more important to have a sustainable lifestyle that is itself, sustainable over time. And that means reducing our negative impact in a way that is not too onerous on our everyday lives, while increasing our own positive impacts where we can.

What being sustainable means

Being sustainable can mean different things to different people. For most, it often means doing things that reduce our negative environmental impact. For others, it also means being socially responsible — choosing to buy from ethical sources, including brands that have public commitments to protecting the rights of workers and employees in their supply chains.

All of the above is part of being sustainable, but it is probably more important to remember two things:

Firstly, purpose. We need to be convinced ourselves of the reason for being sustainable, because everything on our planet is interconnected.

As parents of two, my husband and I feel a sense of purpose to teach our own children about environment and social responsibility, because it is part of our personal belief that everyone deserves a basic sense of respect and dignity. And so the purpose in instilling knowledge and values to the children, in our case means to show respect for all living things that have life on this planet, and that our natural ecosystem — flora and fauna, humans alike — should not be ‘conquered’ by any one.

Talking to kids about stuff around them always gives me a sense that children do understand issues. Our older son looked at the AQI levels indicating pollution on a map and said once to me, “Mama, it looks like China and India are sick.”

Secondly, prioritize. Because we cannot do everything, it is more important to focus on doing things where we have the greatest impact on. As an individual or as a family unit, you can think about which aspect of your life you could make the most impact to preserve the environment, or perhaps an aspect in which you could increase your positive impact to society. If you are a teacher for example, the biggest impact you can make is probably in the classroom, through your lessons. If you are a stay-at-home mother, perhaps taking care of reducing your environmental footprint, and teaching your children good long-term habits is a good place to start.

The principles of being sustainable at home

The scope of sustainability is large. To be environmentally responsible, it is important to understand the boundaries of what this means. It is not rocket science, but in general, this is my interpretation of ‘textbook style’ sustainability issues:

1. Everything we consume requires resources from the earth. The Earth has finite resources available to us, and so the more coal we dig to power our homes, or cobalt to charge our batteries or copper to operate our phones, the more likely these minerals will run out over time. Not forgetting the hidden costs of exploitation that could occur through modern slavery when we consume our goods cheaply.
2. Everything we consume uses energy. The sources of energy today is largely dependent on fossil fuels; even recycled or upcycled materials require energy to produce a new product. The world is seeking all sorts of renewable solutions to produce energy, but for as long as coal is the cheapest source of fuel, we must acknowledge that the more we consume, the more demand we are seeking from energy companies to extract fossil fuels from the ground.
3. Everything we consume will produce waste, and we are literally running out of space to store waste. Even as developed nations with sophisticated waste incineration facilities burn waste into compacted residue, the “recycleable” plastic today is an ongoing, bigger headache for the developed world who used to export their recycled plastics, until China in early 2018 announced they could no longer take the world’s trash. China itself is clearly facing its own domestic waste problems. The fact is, the most traditional form of waste management in most parts of the world today is still landfill. And as consumption patterns grow, there just isn’t enough land left to dump, so oceans are taking in our waste. Incineration only solves part of the problem, but is contributing to another problem of air pollution.

Big problems require big countries and big governments to tackle. So what can individuals do?

My take is, what we can control at home may be limited depending on where you live and the infrastructure readily available to support this. With parenting itself being an ongoing challenge for most of us, I think it is important to keep the broad principles of being sustainable in mind, and apply what we can, to be best of our abilities. The principles which I subscribe to are as follows:

1. Minimize consumption — buy or take only what we need.
2. Minimize waste: If it can be reused or reheated (ie. food), save it.
3. Minimize energy use, burn our own kilojoules instead.

More on the principles above in my next story.