Tag: sustainable

Counting on … day 83

12th June 2025

Diesel – or petroleum diesel – is made from fossil fuels.

Biodiesel is a similar product which is made from plant based oils, animal fats and recycled cooking grease. Once treated using a process of ‘transesterification’ it can be mixed with regular diesel for use in combustion engines – it is not sufficiently similar chemically for use a complete substitute for petroleum diesel. 

Renewable diesel or HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) is also made from plant and animals based fats, and waste oils using a process called ‘hydrotreating’. This diesel substitute closely mimics regular diesel and can be used as a direct replacement – ‘drop in’ – fuel for combustion engines.(1)

Again the issue that makes the sustainability of renewable diesel questionable is the available supply of plant and animals based fats and waste oil needed in its production. There is a risk that virgin forests in South America and Asia may be cleared to make way for soy and palm oil cultivation – as fuel crops – exacerbating the imbalance of CO2 emissions (virgin forests are net absorbers of carbon dioxide). Equally relying animal based fats (also known as tallow) that come from beef farming adds to the growing trend in deforestation to make way for grass and fodder crops. And, ironically for a product sold as sustainable, when demand for waste oil exceeds supply, the shortfall is made up by substituting virgin plant oil. (2) 

Replacing fossil fuel diesel with plant based diesel does not provide a sustainable low carbon solution. Plants and animals are best farmed to provide food and not as a fuel source for energy. 

  1. https://hartfueling.com/the-difference-between-renewable-diesel-biodiesel-regular-diesel/
  2. https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/as-renewable-diesel-surges-sustainability-claims-are-deeply-questioned/

Counting on … day 135

26th July 2024

Ergonomic 

A pair of shoes that fits well is a pair well wear repeatedly. A pair of shoes that doesn’t will probably end up being discarded before it wears out. My current bicycle is the most comfortable I’ve ever had – partly because the bike shop helped ensure  that everything about it was the right fit – and as a consequence I have looked after it with far more care than previous bikes. 

Things that are made to fit tend to last longer and to be more enjoyable to use.

Counting on … day 133

25th July 2024

Life long

If our lives are to be more sustainable, we need to rely on many of the things we use having a long life – that they be robust and reliable. We need white goods such as washing machines and cookers to last not just 5 years but ten, twenty or thirty years. When we went to Zimbabwe in 1992, we took with us the fridge that my parents bought when I was five years old – making the fridge about 25 years old. When we buy electronic goods such as phones and tablets, we want them to have lives of at least ten years – together with all the upgrades to the operating system. When we buy cycles, we want them to have lives of 30 – 40 years (and the hope that they won’t be stolen). 

As well as wanting a long life for domestic items, we also need the same for commercial items be that equipment in schools and hospitals, railway carriages and buses, lampposts and paving stones etc. 

Counting on … day 130

22nd July 2024

Wanted 

There is no point in buying something you don’t want! Buying something on a whim and then discarding it is a waste of resources. It is not a sustainable approach. 

Equally there is not much point in buying something for someone else (say as a Christmas present) if it’s something they don’t want. One solution might be to agree within your family/ circle of friends that you will buy presents from charity shops with the premise that no one should feel guilty about returning something unwanted back to the charity shop. 

Counting on … day 126

16th July 2024

Robust and repairable

If our lives are to be sustainable, we need to ensure that the things we buy are fit for purpose, that they will be robust for use throughout their life – and should they be breakdown, be easily repairable.

Some manufacturers have a reputation for producing goods that are durable and repairable –  for example Dualit toasters, Stanley vacuum flasks, Fairphones and, from my experience, iPhones – which  are readily available second hand. 

In terms of repairability, ‘right to repair’ legislation and practice is evolving with the aim of both designing, and allowing, products to be repairable. For further reading – https://www.wired.com/story/right-to-repair-uk/

Counting on … day 125

15th August 2024

Part of  reducing our environmental footprint is about being sustainable and being able to make and use things that are renewable. To explore this I have created a nemonic which I will explore over the next couple of weeks:-

Robust/ reliable

Ethical

Nature friendly

Efficient

Wanted

Affordable

Beneficial 

Life long

Ergonomic

Counting on … day 104

10th May 2024

Having said that we try to minimise waste, should what we recycle be seen as recycled waste? Flour and oats both come in large paper sacks. The sacks are single use which arguable might seem wasteful but they can be recycled. They are good for collecting all the other paper that goes out for recycling. Margerine comes in plastic tubs – again single use but recyclable. 

One reason that our dustbin fills slowly is because we can recycle much of the ‘waste’ that comes into the house. We recycle paper and card, aluminium foil, tins, glass and standard plastics via the Council’s kerb side collection. We take soft plastics to the Coop for recycling, toothpaste tubes to Boots, medical blister packs to Superdrug. There is a recycling bin for small electrical goods at the library and for batteries at Robert Dyas.

Recycling is good and worth doing but it comes with its own consumption of resources and production of emissions. And we know that in reality many things that are labelled as recyclable are not recycled – often because they are not put into the appropriate recycling bin. Greater thought needs to be given by designers and producers to reduce what needs to be recycled and how often. 

The aim becomes not consuming more than you need to consume, buying less and ensuring the best and most efficient use of what we do consume.