O/T Sustainability and all that shite

[eric olthwaite]

In England, 23 of the 92 league grounds can expect partial or total annual flooding of their stadiums by 2050

But it's not us

[eric olthwaite]

I put a fair amount of effort into buying stuff sustainably / ethically these days. Ordered a sweatshirt from a place that makes good quality gear designed to last, sustainable materials and manufacture, ethically made, all that. They say they ship direct from the factory in Portugal to avoid transport to and from warehouses etc.

So then I get the tracking notification from UPS. Picked up from the supplier about 8pm last night, was in Cologne around 1am, Essex around 5am (Stansted presumably) and delivered here lunchtime. Thing is, I never said I wanted it quickly but I didn't get a choice. Wife ordered a new pair of shoes and they took about two weeks from Germany and I'd have been happy to wait two weeks, too.

This obsession with instant gratification / delivery is the cancer that'll fucking kill us all. I emailed to complain anyway - be interesting to see if they get a lot of complaints because stuff arrives too quickly...

[AndyPaul]

That really should be in the grumpy old man thread

[eric olthwaite]

Just an interesting (well, I thought so) diversion on this subject from my work. I'm working on a project where we're planting a fair few 'semi-mature' trees - meaning maybe 4-6m tall at the time of planting. One of the UK's biggest suppliers has told us that the're no longer supplying trees this big because they've calculated that the carbon footprint for transport and the size of crane needed to plant it exceeds the carbon sequestered by the tree in growing to that size - ie plant them small and let them grow and sequester the carbon place. I guess I find it fascinating the way that companies are now starting to think about carbon footprint in this way.

But . . .

This policy has to be calculated on averages. If you wanted to do it properly, you would need to know tree species and crane / transport distances in each instance.

And if you plant a big tree in a city it provides immediate biodiversity and helps to mitigate the effect of urban heat islands, both of which are beneficial to sustainability - but in a way which is virtually impossible to measure.

Complicated, innit.