Gårdsbutik Göteborg

We just decided to try out our first home delivery grocery shopping (which apparently has become extremely popular here in Sweden, it was even supposed to be the Christmas present this year). 

For us it’s not that important to get our groceries delivered to the door any more, since we nowadays have good stores on walking distance, including stores that specializes in organic and locally produced food. But when we stumbled upon Gårdsbutik Göteborg, who specializes in locally produced groceries, and only delivers once a month, we thought it would be worth a try. I really like their philosophy and hopefully it’ll give us a chance to try out some new products. And it will even be delivered by bicycle to us. :-) 

Vacation’s almost over

We’ve had a couple of days with really nice weather lately, but today it’s raining outside, so me and Eowyn are going to the cinema to see Cars 2. A week ago we went on a boattrip to one of the islands south of Gothenburg, where there are no cars. Just bicycles and mopeds for transportation. Very calm and picturesque. 

Speaking of cars, we no longer own one. The car that was parked next to ours burned (!) late one night and our car was so damaged that the insurance company gave us money instead. So now we’ve joined a car pool, which we had intended to do anyway, but in a couple of years time. It works really well!  

Five tonne life?

The one tonne life-project that I wrote about a while ago has ended. Even though the family did manage to cut their emissions quite a lot and our environment minister here in Sweden said the result was “inspiring”, I find the result to be not-at-all-comforting. We must do a lot more before we’re at a level where our lifestyle actually is sustainable. An interesting analysis and critique of the project and the results can be read here (in Swedish). The analysis shows that the family had an emission of about five tonne per person and year, not one tonne.  

Shopping

I went to H&M yesterday to have a look at their Concious collection, which of course feels more like a PR thing than a serious intent to make a difference. But anyways. Some of the things were quite nice but why on earth did they make everything in white?? Far too impractical for us. Instead, I walked out of there with some hair bands and two not-at-all-concious-but-really-cool t-shirts to match Eowyn and Ester’s new tutu skirts (Eowyn is sort of obsessed with her “dancing skirt” at the moment). At least the hair bands where made of organic cotton.

A Ramones-t-shirt for Ester. Come on, who can resist?!

Eowyn’s outfit. The skirt was a second hand finding.

Earth hour

Tonight it’s earth hour, so we’re going to shut down all electrical light and light some candles instead. Makes me think of last year, when we we’re ill and went to bed before it all started. The year before that we played board games, that was nice.

Greener paint

I wrote a while ago about green paint, and now I’ve read up a bit on the subject (e.g. in the magazine Kloka hem) so I thought I’d share some useful links with you. When it comes to the environment, there seems to be some difference, also between different water based colors (surprise surprise!?…).

Rina made a commented about Jotun Sens, and I also got a comment about Farrow & Ball’s paint, which both seems like a good alternatives, although the latter don’t seem to have any resellers here in Gothenburg.

In Sweden we have Auro, which seems like the best alternative for me. They don’t use any preservatives or synthetic binders in their paint, only natural binders and pigments. They have a wide range of products, although not all colors can be produced using only natural pigments. You can order their paint via their web site. Next time I think I’ll give them a try.

Green paint?

The last couple of days we’ve done quite a bit of painting around here. Although I’ve been interested in using spray paint, for the quick fix-effect, I must say that I would not use anything else than water-based paints right now. Apart from being more environmental friendly, it’s also a huge advantage that we can paint in the living room, after the kids have gone to sleep. Otherwise we would never get anything done around here… :) But I wonder if there is paint out there that’s even more environmental friendly (I’m currently using paint labeled with svanen, a Nordic environmental label, so I guess it’s not that bad)?

What kind of paint do you prefer for your own fix-up projects? 

One of our painting projects - the second hand kids chairs in Ester’s room.

One tonne life

The one tonne life-project, sponsored by three (sort of) Swedish companies, is quite interesting. The challenge is for a family to live a year on one tonne of carbon dioxide per person (the global average today is about seven tonnes, according to the project site). This should be achieved by moving in to a newly built climate-smart house and by driving an electrical car.

Now, I’m not the least bit interested in moving to a house in Hässelby (west of Stockholm), and I am a bit sceptical to the whole setup (perhaps because some of the sponsors aren’t all that “green”, quite the opposite actually), but I would really like to know how much carbon dioxide our family produces in a year and, more importantly, get some targeted advice on the easiest way for us to reduse it.

We very selldome drive our car (which runs on CNG), but we do eat quite a lot of meat. We don’t live in a climate-smart house, but an apartment in an old building. We do fly off to vacations every now and then and I take far too long showers. But we have redused our shopping and we try to buy second hand or green products most of the time. And we have stepped up a notch lately when it comes to recycling. :-)

I know that the numbers and information is probably out there, but sometimes a little advice as to what to focus on would be really nice.

Anyways, check out the project here!

Green gold

Now it’s officiall - in about a month we’re getting married. The wedding will take place in the town hall and we’re keeping it small, with a local focus and, hopefully, reasonably sustainable. Today we picked up our engagement and wedding rings. The rings, by Johanna E (who’s from my old hometown, Lidköping), are made of “green” Oro Verde-gold. My wedding ring will look similar to the top one below:

(image Johanna E)

Sustainable shoes

I need a new pair of sneakers for this autumn. Was dead set on a pair of Vejas but now I’m not so sure. Johan found a new brand today called Simple Shoes, who also makes eco-certified shoes. I especially like these: 

Also, today I’ve bought sustainable shoes from Kavat for Ester, second hand. Both ecological and second hand, now that’s just perfect. :-)

(image Simple Shoes)