Eco Friendly SWOT Analysis

Green Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats

Environmentalists tend not to do this too often, but it’s an interesting exercise.  This week’s #CTWW (Change the World Wednesday) inspired me to do so.

So, here it is, warts and all, my personal green SWOT analysis.

Strengths (Me)

• Like most ‘greenies’, I’m passionate about saving the planet.  This means I don’t find it a chore to do green things – it’s just the right thing to do.
• Green is my job as well as my passion – I get to do what I love and make a living from it.
• Researching the issues to keep content flowing on the site, keeps me constantly aware of the plight of the planet.
• When I moved house and downsized significantly a few years ago, I was really worried about losing out on things, missing my ‘stuff’ (I am a collector of note).  Instead, I found that I felt lighter, freer, more relaxed and much happier.  (And insurances, cleaning time and worry have also been significantly reduced).
• Living on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere has its challenges but one big advantage is that there’s no need to “keep up with the Joneses”.  There is such a set here, but actually I’m more than content with what I have.  The simple pleasures are real, true pleasures.  Grocery shopping for example can sometimes be a nightmare, but a walk on whichever-beach-I-fancy-today soon dissolves my frustration.   Looking around me from pretty much anywhere on the island gives me fabulous views which soothe the soul.
• I’ve lived for many years in various parts of Africa and I learn so much from people who have so little.  They practice Reduce, Reuse Recycle to the extreme, and nothing, but nothing is wasted.
• Although it’s slowly changing here, I eat seasonally simply because I have to.  Now I’m finding I’m enjoying it, and appreciating the food that comes into season much more.
• I don’t eat a lot of meat (but I do eat some).
• I plan each main meal at the start of each week, and shop according to that list so there’s very little food waste (and what there is goes to compost or (if he’s quick enough) down the dog’s throat).  We cook each meal from scratch.
• I grow my own fruit and veggies and preserve them.
• Living in a hot climate is wonderful – it’s so great to never be cold!  So there are no heating bills, and the sun heats the water for the house (without solar panels!).

Weaknesses (Me)

I eat meat – I would be happy to go vegetarian but I’m a pathetically picky eater and surviving on potatoes, peas and squash (really the only veggies I eat) for the rest of my life probably isn’t viable.  It’s a battle to get my hubby to eat veg and both of us refuse to cook 2 separate meals so reducing our meat consumption is a challenge.

We eat out once a week and thus have no idea of our carbon footprint for those meals.

I’m not particularly creative when it comes to re-using things.  Granted, there’s very little, but still, I could do with improving there.

Although I do grow my own, its not enough to cater to all my needs.  Plus, I don’t always remember to give them their due care and attention every day so only the hardier survive my efforts.

Opportunities (External)

• As the island gains prosperity more food options become available, I have greater food variety and hopefully some organic options (other than my own home-grown).
• Sometimes we have take-away food and we bring our own reusable containers – interestingly, some local shops actually charge for those ghastly polystyrene food holders, which I think is great.  It made a massive difference here when retailers were forced to charge for plastic bags, and I hope the same will happen for fast food.
• Houses, while not necessarily pretty here, are designed for the heat and have lovely, deep verandahs, and window shutters.  Mostly of our living is outdoors, to catch the sea breezes.  Air conditioning is not widely used (it’s very expensive) and I think that’s great.

Threats (External)

For 3 months of the year it gets overpoweringly humid and at the hottest time, so some localised air conditioning is required, mainly at night to enable us to sleep when there’s no breeze.

Bulk buying is difficult.  I can buy sacks of rice (if I could ever pick one up) but shops don’t have aisles for bulk produce (and even if they did I’d be concerned about freshness / turnover).

Fruit and vegetables that are imported mostly come in plastic for damage protection – it’s a small island, it can’t produce everything.

Organic food is difficult to come by.  I used to get lovely free range eggs and chicken from a local lady – she wasn’t certified organic but I saw how she operated – but now she’s moved and I’m back to battery-raised.

Flying – when I want or need to visit family and friends that means an international long-haul flight – the downside of living in the middle of nowhere (although I’m told it’s a great place for safety from nuclear fallout!).  I use carbon offsets but I’ve never been totally convinced by that concept.

In some parts of the island the tap water is OK, but in my little patch it’s not – even my dogs got sick from it.  Mercifully I managed to locate a carbon filter rather than buy bottled water, but of course that can’t be recycled and ends up in landfill.

The houses don’t in general have gutters or drainpipes, which makes rainwater harvesting difficult.  Plus there is a general lack of concern about future water supplies – “oh, the rain will always come” despite serious droughts.

Electricity is almost all coal powered, but it’s quite expensive so people are careful with it – you rarely see lights left on unnecessarily here.   I don’t hold out much hope for renewables – the government has other priorities.

Recycling here continues to be  a challenge and yes, I still have a horrible, guilty feeling when I look at those empty wine bottles

What does all this mean?

Well, this was a good exercise!  I often focus on the positive, and the many daily things I do to be eco friendly.  But when it comes to the really big items, I have a lot of room for improvement.  If you class the really big-impact things as flying, eating meat and bottled water, then I’m fine on the latter.  I’m decreasing my meat but nowhere near as much as I should, and I do fly once a year long-haul.

So, this week’s challenge has forced me to take a step back and look anew at my efforts.

Hmm, I see I need to work on my Persuasion Skills – reducing meat consumption in the Clare household will be a challenge indeed!