Considering our carbon footprint ...

This week, France, like much of Europe, has sweltered in heatwave temperatures for the second time this year. On 25 July Paris recorded the highest temperature since records began, at 42.7c. Obviously this is the ‘official’ Meteo record because we exceeded that at 43c in the shade outside on the terrace. Life pretty much shut down for three days. The dogs had an early morning walk and then it was everybody inside, shutters closed and fans on, hunkered down until dusk. Fortunately, the canicule broke before the end of the week and cool rains replaced the scorching sun.

It was noticeable that we weren’t not the only ones to stay chez nous at times like this. There was barely any traffic on the roads, and when Mr VV did venture out to the supermarket to pick up a few essentials the aisles were empty, despite the air-conditioning there. It does make you wonder how many journeys are absolutely necessary. With the current focus on climate change, and the urgency of implementing measures to halt or deal with it, I also wondered if the excessive temperatures we’ve experienced this year, not just this week, but in February, March and June, too, were the result of global warming. An article in Nature certainly seems to point that way. So, what more can we do to help?

I do sometimes worry about the distance we have to drive to buy food, or more to the point, the type of food that we need, vegan food. Even going to Chalus, the nearest half decent Intermarche, is a round trip of 28 kilometres. St Junien is twice that distance, but at least we can combine visits to three or four shops. Limoges is even further, about a 60 kilometre round trip all told. Is it better to buy stuff over the internet and have it delivered? I don’t know - it still involves a journey by someone, La Poste or a courier driver, and the food may actually end up travelling further. A Google search confirmed that there is no simple answer to the question. Much depends on whether you are making a one-off trip to buy one item, or combining shopping, or if you have items delivered, whether you are in or have to send the goods back. The most damage done in the ‘last mile’ of the delivery.

I checked a few internet resources to see where we stand with our carbon footprint. One of the suggestions for reducing your climate impact is to shrink your commute. I don’t think I can improve much on the twenty steps I take every morning down the landing to my den, and this offsets our daily trip to take the dogs a few kilometres up the road to the voie verte for their morning walk. Overall, I think we’re doing OK. The average carbon footprint for individuals in France is 4.57 tonnes; the world target to reduce climate change is 2 tonnes, and our carbon footprint came in at 2.64 tonnes. The relatively low level is mainly due to our vegan lifestyle, my fear of flying and our little Ford Fiesta, though the latter is counteracted by our campervan trips. Still, a little way to go to meet the target.

Feeling a little happier that we are doing our best as far as balancing our economic needs with those of the environment, we had a morning out shopping in St Junien. I’m still on the #plasticfreeJuly mission (it will become #plasticfree2019, I think). A few weeks ago, I’d bought some reusable, washable cotton bags in Grand Panier Bio, Limoges. I’ve got two sets, large bags for loose fruit and veg, and smaller bags, helpfully marked with common weights for dry goods. I’ve been really pleased that all other shops where we’ve used the bags have accepted them without question. Grand Frais even gives a tiny discount to account for the extra weight of the bag. I just pop the bags in my handbag when we go shopping so it’s easy to whip one out in the supermarket.

A trip to St Junien meant the chance to pop into the BioCoop. I was pleased to see that the tiny shop is crammed with even more vegan things than when we last visited, even vegan mayonnaise. We stocked up on loose tea (or tisanes) and tracked down some savon de Marseille that wasn’t in plastic wrapping. In fact, it was just on the shelf. However, the best find was the olive oil refill station. I’d got olive oil on the shopping list, and whilst we usually buy it in glass bottles, so I suppose recycling isn’t so much of an issue, I was tempted by the refillable system. You simply buy a 500 ml or 1 litre glass bottle the first time, then when it’s all used up, wash it out and refill for less. Of course, it is more expensive than the cheapest supermarket olive oils available but compares favourably price wise with good quality organic oil. BioCoop also do a range of similar glass and cardboard containers for the dry goods in the vrac rack, but here I used my new cotton bags to stock up on wholewheat pasta and complet couscous. Just about everything we buy is available in this loose format so it’s a habit to develop for the future. And after our foray in the BioCoop, we still had time to pop into Leclerc where we were rewarded with vegan Magnums.