Do you know what is in your ecological backpack?

What a great spring weather we had in Helsinki during last weekend! People enjoyed the sunny days outdoors and many also decided to stop by at the Recycling Factory.


Reuse, sustainable and ethical consumption were the key topics at the Recycling Factory. The two-day event included exhibitions, seminars, workshops and a market place. We introduced our newly released Finnish version of the One Did It website.
It was so nice to hear that visitors found our website useful and that they liked the design. When we talked about the ecological backpack test, some of the visitors would have liked to include more detailed information; some found it difficult to make estimation for all the issues included in the test. The challenge is that we are actually not always aware about the details of our daily practices like how many kilometres we travel by car or bus or what is the heating system in our home. For the One Did It team the challenge is to design an application that helps each and every one of us to easily measure our ecological backpack without a special knowledge. To help us in this task feedback from all of you is extremely valuable.
I started to think why it is so challenging for us to describe the very basic features of our everyday life. We might take things so much for granted that we don’t even know from which source the heat comes. Every day we take the bus or tram but actually, do we have any idea about how many kilometres we move around. And so what, does it even make any sense to know? In my opinion, if we don’t realize how we heat our homes or how much we travel, how could we have an idea about what kind of burden on the environment our lifestyle makes?

There is this saying, what you can’t measure you can’t manage. If you’d like to make your lifestyle a little more eco-friendly, the best way is to first find out where you stand now and identify the most significant issues. We are keen to know where and how our everyday food is produced, is it good for our health and how sustainable it is from the environmental point of view. Similarly we should pay attention about the details of housing, energy use and our mobility patterns. If we do that then we are well aware of the three high impact household consumption areas: Food, mobility and housing.

It is not easy being a responsible consumer, or is it?

Last weekend I had a peaceful morning with the thick Sunday issue of Helsingin Sanomat, the biggest newspaper in Finland. I learned about what Finnish people are willing, and not willing, to do in their personal life to stop climate change. However, what made me write a post today was an interesting story about comparison of tomatoes. What should the environmentally and socially conscious consumer choose?

Growing tomatoes in the Finnish greenhouses during the winter season requires loads of energy and produces lots of greenhouse gases too. This is shocking news for many Finns who have used to believe that local products are always the most eco-friendly and responsible option. According to the article, if you want to be climate friendly, you should choose tomatoes produced in temperate climate like Spain. It is more energy efficient to transport the tomatoes to Finland by sea or road than to heat the greenhouses in Finland. However, questions have been raised about the working conditions of seasonal workers in many countries in Central and Southern Europe. You can find the article in Finnish here.

No doubt that we are confused in front of these questions. I think this is a good story explaining that responsible consumption is a multidimensional issue. What I would have expected in addition to comparison of fresh tomatoes is a wider point of view on the issue. If you happen to live in the cold North do you actually need fresh tomatoes year round? I don’t know if from the social point of view dried or canned tomato products are better than fresh but from climate and energy efficiency point of view it would have been nice to hear if during the winter you should favour these products instead of fresh tomatoes.

If you’d like to favour local products, seasonality is the key word. Unless you happen to live in Southern Europe this means that tomatoes and fresh veggies are enjoyed during the summer and root vegetables, apples, preserved veggies, fruits and berries chosen during the cold season.

My point is that we need to move beyond the comparisons within one product category and look at the big picture. Now that fresh tomatoes are available year round, it does not mean that the only responsible option is to choose the best tomato. Maybe it is better to choose veggies from another product category. This is what One Did It encourages you to do, think beyond mere product comparisons and question your habits a bit.