Well, this is it. The No Impact project 2016 has finally come to an end. 3 weeks later and we are done.
Although I have been successful at keeping to my commitments, these past three weeks have been extremely challenging, as well as an eye opener. I feel good about my actions, and I am hoping everyone else is too.
Fortunately for me, the lifestyle my family and I live, I have never had to think about the actions I do. My parents are kind enough to let me drive their car when I need to go somewhere, whether it is hockey, to get to school/work, to visit family or even for social reasons. These past three weeks, I really had to take a step back and think to myself if I really needed to drive, or if there were alternate options. As challenging as it was to refuse the car, especially for school, which meant I could sleep an extra two hours; I got up early to take the train. Not only has the No Impact project helped me reduce my carbon emissions, it helped me realized how privileged of a life I have. Being able to drive, when I want.
My other commitment was to not purchase clothing or anything unnecessary. Although I broke this rule once, I really improved compared to where I was before we started this project. Again, referring back to before, if I needed something (such as a water bottle, t-shirt, pencils, etc.), I was fortunate enough to be able to go and buy it. Not being able to do these things really made it difficult, especially when I needed something. However, this project thought me that there are other ways around it, and you don’t need to buy something right when you think I need it.
Lastly, my commitment for buying local food. Although this commitment wasn’t as difficult as I thought it was going to be, it still gave me a run for my money. Because I’m not home a lot in Toronto right now, I didn’t get many opportunities to go grocery shopping. However, when I did I realized how big of an adjustment it was. Shopping trips went from 30 minutes to almost 2 hours, having to go through labels and such. However, because my family lives close to St. Lawrence Market, my mom and I went down a few times to buy some local food products. This too however was difficult as not much produce is being grown because of the weather.
Overall, 3 weeks after starting the No Impact project, I feel good about my actions and myself to reduce my carbon emissions and I’m hoping to continue with my commitments. I am proud to say I stayed true to my commitments and only broke them 2 times which I offset by reducing in other actions that effect my carbon emissions.
