The End

I realized that I already said the last time that it would be my very last blog comment. Well, so this time for real. Now that the whole thing is already over, I try to draw something like a conclusion out of it though I think can’t really give justice to these four extraordinary weeks. Well, any way…. Being generally a very optimistic person I have a tendency to at least see everything as a learning experience and these last few weeks surely were. First of all, you learn how weak you are and how deeply rooted your habits are. This was not totally new to me, but still it was striking. Buuuuuut nevertheless being or trying to be sustainable is FUN (at least partly)!!! For me it was following a very direct and easy rewarding scheme. If you go to the market e.g. the people are three times friendlier than the grumpy lady in the supermarket. They can actually tell you a story about the food they are selling. Even accompanied by Philipp, our camera man, they were open and friendly. The supermarket guard just made sure we would stop filming immediately! Also cold showers can be a very rewarding experience as Luis already pointed out, you feel like a million afterwards. All in all, doing good things gives you a good feeling (that sounds like a quote from one of these positive thinking bibles…urgh).
Surely, all of us have sinned. Some more than the others and we have all learnt that it’s hard and surely not easy. In the end, one has to keep in mind that we went for the radical way, the way of pain (wow, this now sounds like taken from an old western movie…).I am naturally aware of the fact that this is not a solution to alter mass opinion. For me it was an opportunity to gain a feeling of how far I can go.

Can I buy actually anything?

Today is my last blog contribution as it is also the last day of our experiment. I want to write a few comments on the rule that was hardest for me or the one which was the most difficult to comply with. This rule is our promise to abstain from things that have been produced more 120km away from lovely, sunny Freiburg. We were having some kind of dispute about how strict one should interpret this rule and I doubt that we really found a valid and sound answer to it. In the end I think we applied the rule a bit arbitrarily. Our major concern lies with consuming goods that have been produced locally and thus are more climate friendly while at the same time supporting local farmers (and organic farming). Easy as it seems, this is already problematic. Let’s say you buy a super locally produced delicious 5l pack of apple juice. It’s organic, it’s healthy and veery tasty, but it comes in one of these handy tetra packs with a little plastic tab. Another example is milk. There are hundreds of grassing cows on the picturesque meadows of the rolling hills of the Schwarzwald. You can buy their milk directly from the famer or on the market or even in the supermarket in recyclable glass bottles. But now, one does still not know if all their fodder is also regionally produced. And that is only the food side, not even talking about cloths or other non-food goods.

What I learnt so far is that sustainable consumption is heavily dependent on knowledge and information sharing. There are things you simply can’t know! But for me sustainable consumption is also about the will to reduce this black box. This means think and think again and again before you buy something. This is hard and if you end up being uncertain if the product really complies with the rules, you shouldn’t buy it. Well, that’s at least the theory. Unfortunately I discovered: I am a human being which has certain desires for unhealthy and probably unsustainable things. I am now at a point where I would probably kill for piece of chocolate. Unfortunately, even despite some unfruitful efforts, cacoa trees still don’t grow in Germany. This would mean that I would have to cross off chocolate from my diet forever, if I don’t move to South America any time soon. The same holds for coffee (though I don’t like coffee that much), tea and even spices. I was a bit inclined to think for quite some time that organic farming and bio-products would save the world and that it was upon us the consumers to switch our consumption patterns to buying more green. This illusion was very quickly destroyed when I had a closer look where the organically produced onions in my next door supermarket came from: Israel, Argentina and even New Zealand!!!! That is simply crazy! I now learnt that there are certain products that far away from being sustainable even when it says bio or organic on the label, since they have been ship almost around the whole globe. I think we have to accept that, since the system in which we are acting and in which the whole production is embedded is not perfect, certain tradeoffs are inevitable (unless we don’t want to deny ourselves every kind of good that doesn’t comply fully with the radical definition of sustainability, thus adhering to what some people call ‘new ascesis’ ). That’s a fact which we have to be aware of. I know, I must sound a bit fatalist and pessimistic and above all radical here. Nevertheless, I strongly believe that at least the basic idea has to be radical. It gets fuzzy and dodgy enough, once it collides with people’s cognitive routines and habits… So my new credo is to keep on trying despite all odds, but don’t expect it to be nice and short. I could go on for ages about this and I also feel a bit uncomfortable to not fully elaborate my position here but then we would probably enter in some neo-marxist discourse about how bad the world really is. I kind of have the vague feeling that this blog would then exceed its thematical boundaries. I will nevertheless try to elaborate on why sustainable consumption is actually a fun thing to do next week, when the experiment has already ended (I hope I will find some good points to back up this brave claim…) . Right now I am too much concerned with not buying some chocolate.

no meaaat no clean cloths... ugh

Here I am again and I have to start with a confession: I ate meat yesterday, buuuuuuuut by accident! Now, how is that possible? I can surely distinguish a chicken from a tomato. For my defense I have to put forward that I was trapped by my mom. It was my dad’s 60^th birthday this weekend, so I visited them to attend the party. I arrived at my parent’s home and my mom, loving and caring as she is, had already prepared a little plate with some sandwiches. Since I had been travelling for quite some time I was very hungry. I just stuffed myself with the sandwich as fast as I could and only after chewing for about a minute realized: S*** there is meat on it!! My most favorite though.. and it was delicious!!!! I was startled how easy it was to just forget about the whole experiment thing for a few moments once you are really hungry and placed in a totally different environment where no one knows about the thing you trying to do. Then I felt guilty and then I just ate up.. I just couldn’t face my mom’s disappointment if I wouldn’t. Even though this is a rather bad example of my endurance and mental strength, I generally behaved quite well with respect to being a veggie. Quite well, not very well though. I do not miss schnitzel or steaks, since I don’t eat that much meat anyway, but I love stuff like ham or salami. I generally eat a lot of sandwiches so I had to switch to cheese or vegetables there, which was ok. I discovered quite a few new cheese sorts. But I missed it. Being quite sure that I will not become a ‘real’ vegetarian in the next time, I still want to reduce my meat consumption a bit more, since I feel that this is a contribution to sustainable consumption which I easily make.

Washing without a washing machine: difficult!!!!!!!!! I did not disobey this rule during the experiment, but I washed all my cloths right before starting it. The real challenge for me is now how to economize with my cloths so that I don’t have to break the rule on the last day. I know that this is not the right way of approaching the issue of ‘having-clean-cloths-without-using-washing-powder-and-the-washing-machine’. Furthermore, I think that there lies probably one of the most striking problems sustainable consumption faces: social norms and conventions. On the one hand we want to save our environment but on the other hand we have to or want to live up to a few very basic social requirements like not wearing stinky or dirty cloths. No one could say stinkyness is a social construction, but I am sure that bad smell is a social construction which is very hard to overcome..

Shame on me....

My first blog entry, shame on me....

I must confess that blogging and all this New Age information sharing is not really my thing.. I know that is not an excuse... I kept on writing my blog contributions in word all the time and but somehow never posted them. stupid I know and also somehow running counter to the whole idea of having a blog, being super up to date and all that stuff.... but better late than never... So here it comes....

I have to apologize with all my heart to have not left any sign of me on this blog so far.
Different reasons, though still I will try cover up for it now. As we have alomst reached the last week of our experiment I will try to give a little retrospective and a bit of an overall assessment of this little crazy thing we did. In what way did it influence our daily routines and did it actually really change our mind-set about certain things and the way we deal with things? And most important: will this change be long-lasting and sustainable??? Well let me start…
This experiment is and was a very challenging and interesting time for me.
The idea of doing something like this had been crossing my mind from time to time before as I already spent some time on thinking about consumption issues. So until this summer I didn't really have the courage to go for it.
Last summer I read a remarkable and very recommendable book called Haben oder Sein by Erich Fromm, a German social philosopher. Though his findings and opinion are of a somewhat radical sort I found his thoughts very inspiring. In a nutshell, he is opting for total change of our way of dealing with the material world. Consuming things, in the end, makes us loose ourselves. If we cannot identify anything of ourselves that is not related to things anymore, there is nothing left of this 'self' anymore. Every item we buy holds a promise: I will affect your live positively in this or another way, you become a happier person, more admired, more loved by other people. Still most of the things we buy suffer a soon decay of appreciation. There lifetime is rather short.. Going on, he links consumption directly to the destruction on nature thus drawing a direct line to the issues that should trouble us most while designing our 2012 Student Organized Event: Sustainable Consumption.
The thought of really changing something about the way I surround myself with things, came to me when I moved to Freiburg last year. God, I had too many things!!! It took so long to get them all in the van and then back in my new room, I felt totally overwhelmed by this massive material presence. I felt somehow smothered by it and as though carrying a huge milestone around my neck.. Well, in anyway I felt less free. So I started to throw things away, but I kept on replacing them by other things.. a vicious circle! So, finally I came to the conclusion that something more essential had to be done or at least tried. The idea of doing such an experiment together thus was very appealing to me. It's always easier to do things like this in a group, keeps the spirit up.

So, the experiment then.

As the others had already outlined what kind of rules were set up, I directly start with my experiences.
Cold Shower and self-made soap: Grrrrr. But surely not the hardest point. I sometimes do it anyway to get awake though maybe not the for the whole shower. During the first week I was still very strict. I turned the knob to coldest possible, then in a hurry washed my hair, always turning the water of while shampooing. Same with the rest. This resulted in the fact, that I did not only use cold water but also quite little water since one is not so tempted to let the water run all the time.
After some days my reluctance to start the day in such an unpleasant way somehow grew. I started to do my hair with leak warm water. I had the impression that the shampoo would not really rinse off while using only cold water. And talking about shampoo.... That was surely one of my biggest weaknesses. I used our self-made soap for my body, but normal though organic shampoo for my hair.. I just couldn't talk myself into doing it...
Also, after the first enthusiasm had worn off, I was longing a bit for normal soap again. Our own product always carried this faint smell of old peanuts with tuna.. At least that was my impression. But I was rather strict on this, so nothing to confess here.
Electricity: Hmmmmmm. Well I turned my mobile phone of during nights and class more often, but I still used it. But I really became touchy on light. If my flat-mates would leave a lamp on while leaving the room I would hurtle after them and switch it off immediately. This darkened a bit the normally very sunny climate in our flat, but luckily did not cause any major conflicts...

So, enough for today.. My experiences with meat abstinence and no washing machine washing follow in the next days… So far I wish us all good nerves for the last days and KEEP THE SPIRIT

Post-experiment analysis…

The experiment has shown me that it is difficult to consume more sustainably, even in a green city such as Freiburg. It certainly costs more to purchase organic food. This is quite an impediment for students wanting to follow the strict rules of the experiment. It also takes a lot more time to organize yourself - to make sure you go shopping when the local markets are on, to produce your own organic soap, to make your own lunch every morning so you don’t have to go to the Mensa, etc. If you get caught out, the temptation to duck into Pennymarkt is very strong. I guess this is one area where students have an advantage, as they generally have more spare time than working people. In addition, and this is something I didn’t really think about before doing the experiment, it is quite a challenge to make sure that you are getting proper nutrition when you are eating only local vegetarian food. I may be being overly pessimistic, but I really think it isn’t possible to have a completely local diet in Freiburg and remain healthy.

Anyone reading my previous posts would realize that I didn’t follow the rules all the time – in fact hardly ever! However looking back, I don’t think my experiences during the experiment were a complete failure. Even though I didn’t follow the rules, I was always thinking about them. I hope this consciousness will stay with me going forward. Also, I now realize that I am buying a lot more food from local farmers. I make going to the local produce stalls in my home village of Gottenheim a priority now, whereas previously I would do it only when I was passing by. I only buy fruit and veggies from the supermarket that I can’t get from these stalls. In addition, I am really conscious of the amount of packaging used in supermarkets and try to minimize this, and strive to buy organic and local produce as much as possible – certainly more than before the experiment. I’m also still doing my submarine showers (albeit with hot water). This makes me feel a bit better about my poor showing during the experiment.

My experiences in Freiburg have made me think about whether sustainable consumption is feasible back in Australia. Although I think it is, it would certainly be much harder than in Germany. For starters, there is no recognized labeling system for organic foods, and it is often difficult to find out where foods come from. In addition, in a big city like Sydney there aren’t any farms close by, unlike in the smaller German cities (like Freiburg) where you can find agricultural areas within 10km of the city centre. In Sydney, the residential areas spread for about 100km in every direction before you hit any real agricultural land. Furthermore, there is a different attitude towards what is considered local produce. In Australia, a mango that is grown 2000km away from Sydney in Queensland (and transported by truck) is considered local produce. Whereas, in Germany, people seem to have a stronger concept of regional identity, and some would be horrified by the prospect of buying an orange from Spain (only about 1500km from Freiburg). I will be interested to check out the sustainable consumption options when I return to Sydney next month.

I would definitely recommend that people become more conscious about their consumption habits. Although the rules of the experiment were perhaps too difficult for most people to follow, it was a good way to start thinking about the way in which you live your life. I think that the strict rules of the experiment are not sustainable, however I think people can certainly make changes, even if they are just small ones, which can make their lives more ecologically sustainable. If they can stick to these small changes, then gradually they can make bigger ones, and the process will build. I doubt we’ll all be having cold showers any time soon though!

13 July to 20 July 2011 - Week 4: Facing the music…

By this stage I had pretty much given up on the rules of the experiment. Ever since the hot showers and meat started creeping back into my daily routine, there was no way I was going to get back on track. In any case, I had to concentrate on preparing the Asia-Pacific dinner for the rest of the class (as part of a series of international dinners that my class has prepared for each other over the last 2 semesters). As one of the cooks, I realized that I would soon be consuming massive amounts of meat, chocolate, coconut and kiwi fruit at this event, and my motivation to continue the experiment was close to zero.

I must admit that I did feel a bit guilty relating my many failures to the cameras during the filming for the documentary - at least I was honest. I guess it just goes to show that it is pretty difficult to change your habits – even just for a month.

6 July to 12 July 2011 – Week 3: The wheels are totally gone!

Ok, this week has definitely been the worst so far. I never realized how much these changes to my diet would affect my mood (not to mention the cold showers). I was getting depressed, in my view from not having chocolate for 3 weeks. So I relented and ate a whole package of the stuff by myself – at least it was Rittersport, a relatively local producer (Stuttgart), which makes organic chocolate and uses renewable power in their manufacturing. Unfortunately, the mood-enhancing benefits of the chocolate were destroyed by the bitter taste of guilt that arose as a result of breaking the experiment rules.

I am also having fewer showers than before, because I really can’t stand any more cold showers. I do have hot showers now, but maybe only 3 times a week, at the expense of my personal hygiene. The trade-off is well worth it!

Things really went bad when a friend from Australia visited for a few days this week. I felt that it would have been remiss of me not to treat him to the finest of German cuisine whilst he was in town – the Schweinhaxn. For those not in the know, this dish is probably one of the most anti-vegetarian things on the menu. It consists of about half a pig, roasted with lots of crispy crackling. It’s probably best not to eat one without someone trained in CPR nearby, in case your heart stops halfway through. Of course, I couldn’t let him eat one alone. So I ate my first piece of meat since the Brazilian/Thai fish in week 1! I would be lying if I said it wasn’t sinfully delicious. Ah well, at least the beer was local.