How locally is your family living?
A lot of products, including food, travel many miles- sometimes thousands- before they end up in your home. This is not only wasteful in transport costs and the pollution and other problems that result from that, but also does not support your local community, enabling it to thrive in so many ways.
The research projects below will help you to familiarise yourself with the concept of localisation and to understand ways in which your family can apply this in your community.
Household Inventory
Get a notepad and pen and make a list of the main household possessions. It’s up to you how comprehensive your list is, but the more you include the better overall idea you will have.
Leave food and other groceries for now, as we’ll look at this in another activity, but you could include things such as furniture; electronic; kitchen appliances; crockery, cutlery & kitchenware; bedding, towels, tea towels etc; curtains; carpets & mats; toys, games, sporting equipment; clothes, shoes & accessories; books, DVD’s, CD’s, software; outdoor furniture; BBQ; swimming pool; cars, boats, caravans, trailers… even things like hot water systems, solar panels, rainwater tanks, garden irrigation, statues and fountains. Whatever you see as you explore your home and garden.
Where Did They Come From?
If not, how might you be able to find this out? Ask your parents if they know? Google the brand or type of item? Even if you can’t find the specific item, it might be possible to get some kind of indication as to the most likely places it might have originated.
Have a look at the information you have collected. How many of the items in your household were local… and how local? Just from your country? From your state? From your city or town? From your neighbourhood?
Approximately how far did each item have to travel to reach you? How might they have been transported? Can you find out?
Can you work out what resources might have been used to transport them… both obvious and not so obvious… direct and indirect? What effect might the transport method and resources used have had upon the environment?
Better Options?
Choose a few items which have travelled many kilometres to get to you and research possible more local replacements. What pros and cons do these closer items have over the more distant ones?
Would your family consider trying the more local option if you needed to replace the old one? Why or why not?
If not, what kind of changes would a local manufacturer need to make to make it more likely you would choose their product?
Home or Community Made?
Just how local could you get in creating items for your home? Can you or a family member make some of the things you need?
Maybe mum, dad, grandparents, brother or sister could teach you how to make things.
What about quilting, knitting, sewing, woodwork, metalwork etc?
If your immediate family doesn’t have the skills, what about another member of your local community? Could you give them the job of making something for your home, creating a double benefit of getting a lovely handmade piece locally and helping support a community member.
Could members of your community teach you their skills? Are their local classes that you could learn from?
What about online videos that show you how to make various things? There's a wealth of great instructive videos out there on making almost anything! Learn how to do something well, then do it for members of your neighbourhood. If you get good at something, why not make your own do-it-yourself video and post it on YouTube?
Think of ways getting your household needs provided locally might affect your local community? Be as specific and individual as you can.
Talk It Over
Make sure you discuss what you have found with your family so they can help be a part of the solution rather than the problem.
What decisions can your family make about future purchasing criteria?
Can you support local businesses and help create resilience and growth in your community and ensure there is a wide variety of resources available locally?
If things can’t be located closer, are there even things your family might decide to do without now they know just how much it is costing the environment?
Maybe try to get friends involved with doing the same in their households and comparing what you all found. Did you get similar results, or was their wide variation? Why do you think this is the case?
You and your friends could even create a presentation based on your results for your class, friends and family or a local group… especially if you had a sustainable communities or transition town type group in your neighbourhood.
The more we can provide for our communities locally, the stronger the community will become and the less negative impact we will have on the planet. Try to use the understandings you have gained by the above projects in daily purchasing decisions, both for yourself and your family as a whole.
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