The Art of Green Finance

In general terms, these five decisions are likely to be the most important life decisions in terms of saving money and reducing overall environmental impact for most people. Some of these decisions may be easier to make at earlier life stages when important decisions are yet to be made; for many of us, decisions about where we live and how many children we have, for example, may already have been taken. For other items on this list, cost and environmental impact may be just two of many factors that need to be taken into account when making big life decisions. Other valid factors that might need to be taken into account include, health limitations, family responsibilities or religious or cultural considerations for example. However, as this is not supposed to be a prescriptive list but merely an idea generator, one that may be particularly relevant for those about to make an important life decision, this should not be a problem. If you read this list and find that you cannot change anything on this list, that’s fine too – you can only start making changes or having an impact from the position you are already in and there are plenty of other ideas within these blog pages for making an impact. So with this in mind, let’s look at the list.

1. Choose a smaller (ideally, well insulated*) home close to work over a larger (possibly, poorly insulated) house further away from work. As the money spent on accommodation is one of the biggest financial decisions that most people make, this decision is likely to have the biggest financial impact. Not convinced you can manage with a smaller house? Consider the freedom that paying off a mortgage could give you in mid- to later life stages. *If the smaller house comes with good insulation, that’s a bonus, but it’s relatively cheap to add insulation to most houses, particularly newer houses.
2. Live car free. This is only possible if you have chosen to live within walking or cycling distance of work, or have good public transport options available. This decision can save around 2 tonnes of CO2 equiv. and over £3,000 for every car free year. A massive win-win! For the triple-win, there are likely to be added health benefits of walking and cycling more.
3. Have fewer children. Obviously, the number of children that a person or couple choose to have is a very personal and private decision with a multitude of factors coming into play. However, there is no doubt that providing for children costs money and that every person uses environmental resources during their lifetime thus generating a carbon footprint. In the UK, this is almost 5 tonnes of CO2 eq. per year per person on average. In the US, this is as much as 15 tonnes per year per person. Although it is possible that a few indiviuals may have a net positive impact on the environment, the majortiy of us do not. Some individuals, particularly in relatively wealthy countries may have a far higher environmental impact ( although, if they are the children of anyone chosing to read this blog, hopefully not!).
4. Fly less. This may have a positive financial impact depending on what you choose to do instead of flying. Unfortunately, train travel is generally currently more expensive than flying to many foreign destinations, and even some domestic destinations. However, if the alternative is a video conference then there is both financial as well as environmental gain. Having fewer but longer holidays is also likely to have a net financial as well as environmental gain (there may be exceptions to this, but we are talking in general terms only for this list).
5. Eat less meat. This undoubtedly reduces the environmental impact of your diet but may not have much financial or health benefit if the alternative is pricey vegetarian/vegan processed food. However, if you can cook and can make recipes using lentils or chickpeas rather than meat, then you can save money, improve your environmental impact, and likely improve the overall health of your diet as well.