We’re always being told to reduce our carbon footprint by big companies that chug out far greater emissions than our plastic-wrapped cucumbers and drinking straws. Most of the world’s pollution problems can only be resolved by the businesses causing them and the governments that allow it.
However, with billions of us consuming at an exponential rate, our buying decisions do have an impact. If enough of us bought from ethical companies, cut down, or made noise about bad practices and unsustainable ingredients, these companies couldn’t ignore it.
They change with the times, or they lose money. And for many businesses, that’s the main motivator.
What does this have to do with hobbies? Well, many hobbies involve buying things, and many businesses exist to cater for that. If enough of us do our research and demand change, they’d have to react or risk their customers going elsewhere.
It’s not just about the businesses, though. There are several steps we can take to ensure our passions are more sustainable. A 2011 article by the Guardian claims that 27% of greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to leisure activities. Imagine how high that figure is now.
That said, you shouldn’t feel guilty for having hobbies – that’s not the aim of this article. If anything, your hobbies are a reason to get out of bed during these crazy times, so please don’t deny yourself. But if you want to lessen the impact of your hobbies, here are some ways you might do so:
Contents
- Impact-reducing tips by hobby
- The highest carbon footprint hobbies
Reading and writing
If you’re an avid reader like me, there’s a certain level of guilt attributed to every new paperback you buy (and digital books just aren’t the same!).
There was an estimated 129.8 million unique books as of February 2022, with 650 million units sold each year – more than we could ever hope to read in our lifetimes.
That’s a lot of trees.
Okay, so if you want to read a specific book as soon as it’s out, there’s not much you can do to reduce that footprint, other than to ensure the book goes to a good home after you’re done. But if you’re looking for a book that’s been out for a while, there are loads of places to get a copy:
- buy used copies online
- browse in charity shops
- local ‘help yourself’ bookshelves
- borrow from friends and family
- start a book swapping club
- dare I say it… a library!
If you’re determined to keep buying new, though, you can look at the book publisher’s website and find their sustainability policy. Penguin, for example, aims to be climate neutral and printing on 100% FSC certified paper by 2030.
For websites where you can’t find anything, or you’re unimpressed by what you find, get in touch with them! Ask what their plans are, or why something isn’t as good as it could be. For example, a lot of publishing houses used to destroy copies of books that didn’t sell – a complete waste of resources. What does the publisher you’re looking at do with unsold copies? Tweet them so they’re held accountable by more than just your email. There are lots of ways to draw attention to problems that’ll make them hot under the printing press.
And if you’re a writer – the book thing still applies, as no doubt you have a lot of books! But sticking with the paper theme, make sure to buy recycled and/or FSC-certified notebooks – or switch to digital if you can. Digital isn’t without its own environmental impacts though, so don’t feel bad for scrawling your way through several notebooks – whatever gets the creativity going!
On a similar note, refillable pens! Look for ones made from recycled or sustainable materials like bamboo, or even just use a pencil.
Arts and crafts
It can be easy to forget that some paints are made with oil and plastics, and how bad that is for the environment. But when you consider that a trillion litres of paint is used around the world each year (enough to coat the entire USA), the impact quickly adds up.
For those that enjoy making or painting things, consider the energy use and ingredients that went into all the materials of your masterpiece, every practice piece, and any waste produced. Using sustainably sourced canvases and sketchbooks, and non-synthetic paints, textiles, and other materials are great ways to reduce that impact.
A big consideration should be the quality of the materials. A general rule of thumb is that trying to save money will often lead to you spending more later down the line – which means a greater carbon footprint too. In some instances, the cheaper products will also be the ones where businesses cut corners to mass-produce items more cheaply.
You should look in more detail at these suppliers. Which ones are looking to make their products more sustainable, for example, by removing the toxic ingredients in their paints? Do they have a sustainability policy page that holds up? Check out Winsor & Newton’s, which comes across as refreshingly honest. Here, they mention energy use, which is a great sign that they’re not just talking about changes to packaging, but thinking about the whole lifecycle of their products.
It’s super easy to waste excess paint, so try to add too little rather than too much to your palette. And when it comes to the worst bit (cleaning up at the end), try to leave plastic-based paints to dry before putting them in the bin, rather than washing them down the sink where they will invariably end up polluting in the ocean.
If woodworking or textiles are your thing, again look for sustainably sourced materials, or even scrap. Apps like Freecycle often have scrap wood or metal available. You can regularly find offcuts of material in local markets and sewing shops too. For construction materials, perhaps try shops like Travis Perkins and B&Q, or even construction sites. You could also save scraps from your own work to use on later pieces if you don’t already.
And what better way to make your hobby more sustainable and poignant than using trash in your work? There are several artists already doing this, and their pieces sure do create a statement.
Film and photography
As film and photography now occupies a predominantly digital space, consider where and how you store your content. Where do you keep your images? If it’s somewhere online, this takes up server space, which uses more energy to maintain than storing locally. However, if your device memory is full, this can slow down the hardware and cause it to use more energy trying to load internet-enabled or reliant apps, so you may end up replacing your device quicker.
Basically, try to save these files externally where you can.
The size of your media also affects energy use, and I’m not just talking about duration or dimensions. How large are the digital files of your creations? How many megabytes, or even gigabytes are you uploading or sending? Can they be compressed without compromising their quality?
Look also at your hardware. Do you buy all your tech brand new? Buy second-hand gear where possible and try not to feed into the technology sector’s regular and deliberate upgrade churn.
Sure, there’s the potential of a degraded battery or functionality with used tech, but it’s not always the case. Often, the latest tech releases are more for the benefit of making money than because the features have been greatly improved. When this happens, a lot of perfectly good tech will be sold at low prices by technophiles eager for the latest models. You might well find a bargain.
Programming and web development
Whether you’re coding websites, apps or games, the same rules apply: smaller files and more efficiently written code equal less energy usage across the board.
When a website or programme loads, it will load everything in a particular order. If you have messy code that contradicts itself, has to pull in libraries from multiple sources, loads in large media files, and so on, that causes the server and user devices to use more power.
You may not think this equates to much energy, but if you think that the average person in 2022 spent 6 hours 37 minutes on the internet every day, this quite quickly adds up. Internet power usage alone rivals that of entire countries.
So, to improve the sustainability of this hobby, you can:
- Minify your code
- Reduce the number of fonts you’re using
- Reduce the number of libraries you’re loading
- Ensure images and videos are using efficient formats and are compressed where possible
- Ensure images and videos aren’t huge or cropped in your application.
- Find a host or platform that uses green energy
- Use servers local to either yourself or your primary audiences.
Gaming
As a child of the PlayStation era, it hurts me to say it… but we should switch to buying digital copies of games. Of course, it’s fine owning old games where they’re no longer making new copies, or buying games second-hand, but there’s really no other real excuse to buy physical copies.
This change also means less storage space for cases! More space for plants!
Again, this hobby also comes down to energy use. Approximately 24 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year come from consoles in the US alone, so try to remember to switch your PC or games console off at the wall after use. Downloading games locally rather than using the internet (when you’re not playing multiplayer) will also help to reduce energy use.
You can also look to upgrade your PC with more efficient hardware to avoid excess heat and power costs. Make sure to sell on or recycle old computer parts or consoles where possible when you upgrade, though. Computer parts are often in demand – look to Gumtree, Facebook Marketplace, and the like to see what else is out there.
And here’s one most gamers will never go for, but hey I’ve got to say it – to reduce energy use, you could also play in lower res! No, please keep reading…
Food and drink
First and foremost, one of the best decisions to reduce your food-based impact is to order less meat and seafood-heavy options. The negative effects of meat on the planet are commonly known, but if you’re not sure why seafood is bad, make sure to watch the Netflix documentary Seaspiracy.
Red meats like beef and lamb are worse for the environment than white meats like chicken or turkey due to the amount of food needed to raise the cattle, the amount of land they need, and their terrible gassy toots.
That’s not to say you can’t treat yourself to meat or fish once in a while (I’d rather order meat at a restaurant than cook it at home), but maybe choose a small steak instead of a mixed grill platter?
Like everything with sustainability, though, you can get into really minute detail with this. You could also consider:
- the seasonality of ingredients (some independent restaurants have seasonal menus that account for this already). Are the ingredients likely to be grown locally? If they are, is it the right season for them? If not, they’ve likely been grown in energy-intensive greenhouses or flown in. Find out more about this in my seasonality post.
- the cooking method of the dish. Is it cooked on an open fire? Deep fried? Think about all the heat energy and oil used.
- if that restaurant has a sustainability policy. What does (or more importantly, doesn’t) it include?
- what happens with food waste? Do they offer specials based on leftovers?
Obviously, if you’re hungry, you’re not going to be thinking about all these things. But if you do your research beforehand, you might start giving your money to businesses that care a lot more about their impact.
If cooking at home is more your speed, you can still think about most of the bullet points above, but also the packaging of your products, and whether they’re Fairtrade.
And don’t forget, when grabbing a coffee or takeaway food with friends, you can bring your own cup for drinks and reusable cutlery too (bamboo is a fave) to avoid single use plastic waste. Many cafes offer discounts for customers that bring their own cups.
Travel
One of the biggest culprits in the hobby sphere is of course jetsetting. Travellers can quickly rack up carbon, especially if exploring beyond the UK.
According to Sustainable Travel International, tourism accounted for 8% of the entire world’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2018. This is broken down into predominantly travel emissions, but also includes energy use in lodgings, activities, food consumption, and shopping for souvenirs.
Here are some small changes we can make to reduce this impact:
- travel locally – use public transport or carshare
- travel by boat instead of a plane where possible
- never take a plane across the country – there’s no excuse for a plane across the UK unless you’re going from Land’s End to John o’ Groats!
- if you do have to fly, try to take a direct flight. It may sometimes work out cheaper to have a stopover, but that’s far worse for the environment.
- travel light. More weight on planes uses more fuel, so rewear stuff, or perhaps even rent stuff while you’re there?
- cut down on buying things you likely won’t use again – we’ve all been guilty of buying a lilo each time we go on holiday! If you do, gift it to a fellow holidaymaker before you leave, and tell them to pass it on too.
If you’re really into travel you probably do this anyway, but try to eat the local cuisine. Don’t go to an entirely different country and just have what you eat at home! Find out what food is produced locally – chances are that this is the best version of that particular food you’ll ever eat.
Going all-inclusive can be tempting for ease, but those buffets can give us FOMO. We want to try a bit of everything, and can end up being super wasteful. Try to eat everything you put on your plate, so make sure your stomach (and not just your eyes) actually want it in the first place.
Hotel room cleaning services are also an eco-problem the world over. If every hotel reconsidered rooms, towels and bed linen being cleaned every day, we would significantly reduce water and chemical use. The Mercure hotel in Edinburgh offers door hangers you can place outside your room to signal that you don’t need your room cleaning – simple, but effective!
As with the above hobbies, look for hotels and resorts with sustainable features and policies. Places that are powered by renewable energy, recycle rainwater, that kind of thing. For example, if taking a UK break, there are eco-friendly campsites such as The Quiet Site in the Lake District, which is carbon neutral. Several booking websites now highlight sustainability as a feature in their listings.
If you’re not sure on the impact of a holiday, here’s a handy calculator for working out the carbon equivalent of your trip.
Sport and exercise
Exercise can be pretty low impact on the planet, and often means you get some nature in the process. Just make sure to walk or cycle to the gym or park for your exercise where you can.
Some sports are definitely far worse than others in terms of carbon footprint (see the worst hobbies for the planet section further down!). These are usually sports that require fuel or have cleared vast areas of land to make way for arenas and pitches.
This means that yoga, running, and anything that doesn’t require a specific venue or vehicle are golden.
When it comes to accessories, exercise clothes and yoga mats made from recycled or sustainable materials such as bamboo and cork are becoming the norm. Responsible brands like Bamboo Clothing have good exercise ranges – but only buy them if and when you need them.
Collecting
Whether you collect figurines, teapots or shoes, there’s no getting around the production and energy related to making your loves. Some items like models will be made of plastic, if you’re into something like antiques, you could argue that they’re second-hand and had been made anyway. If you’re into collecting shiny pebbles, you’re probably off the hook altogether.
Truth is, every single purchase we’ve ever made has a carbon footprint, some are far worse than others. If you’re feeling guilty about your collections, but don’t want to stop because it makes you happy, you could always try offsetting with a positive difference – for example, green volunteering, or investing in sustainable companies, or planting a wildlife area in your back garden. Maybe you could even open up an exhibit of your collection, and donate any proceedings to a green charity!
The highest carbon hobbies
Unsurprisingly, the highest carbon hobbies include:
- regular travel abroad or by car
- sky diving
- motorsports
Any hobbies that require burning large amounts of fuel can be considered high carbon hobbies, and with many of these, there’s not much to be done in the way of reducing that footprint other than cutting down and filling more of your leisure time with other, lower impact hobbies.
There’s also a sport high up in this list that you may not have expected…
Golf’s effect on the environment is pretty negative – there’s a lot of water consumption and chemicals required to keep those greens pristine. When you also consider how the land was cleared to create the space, what was there before, and what damage may have been caused to natural habitats and wildlife. In 2017, British golf courses were calculated to cover 1,256 sq km – larger than all of Greater Manchester. That’s a pretty massive amount of damage to the natural world.
In a nutshell
The world has been ever-changing since the dawn of the internet, with constant updates in your areas of interest sparking reasons to travel to the next literature festival, or to chase a rare bird (or Pokémon!) species that’s been spotted several towns over.
Everything in society is always in an ironically named state of ‘growth’, which in almost all cases can’t last forever. Some of the best creativity comes from constraints, so make yours sustainability.
Whatever your hobbies, be on the lookout for lower carbon alternatives to items and processes, buy items built to last rather than for their price tag if you can, and travel to your hobby locations by walking, cycling, or public transport where possible.
So what’s the best way to make your hobby more sustainable? Experiment. You may just find something wonderful.
Ecoetry 