Shop local – Search for REKO on Facebook!
An easy way to become a little more sustainable than the everyday is to go on Facebook and search for REKO. Then various REKO rings appear, made up of local producers and consumers. You can order food directly from your local food producer. This means that you get locally produced, often with sustainable and decent methods, and thanks to buying directly from a producer, you cut out a lot of red tape and get an OK price. The order is placed on Facebook and producers and consumers meet regularly at a specific location to complete the deal. Behind the REKO rings is the Hushållningssällskapet, an organisation with a long history. According to their website, there were about 220 REKO rings in 2021 and the ambition is to spread these throughout Sweden.
Get a starting point!
If you really want to get better, you need to be able to measure that you are making progress. You do this by measuring where you are now. You simply measure your starting point. There are a few different meters on the web that all try to measure in a more or less sophisticated way the CO2 footprint of your behaviour, i.e. how much you affect our climate and the globe. Take a measurement here and be as honest as you can. Make some changes and come back and measure again. This will give you something to compare with and in the long run we need to reduce our CO2 footprint. I have included links to 2 different links below. Go ahead!
Both open in a new tab.Climate calculator. WWF self-assessment tool.
Climate account. Tools of the Swedish Environmental Institute.
The text below is a commercial collaboration with ClimateHero.
I am very fond of ClimateHero. They are run by a company whose aim is to reduce CO2 emissions. The goal is to stay below 1.5 degrees of global warming. Their measurement of where you are in terms of CO2 footprint is combined with what actions you can take. At the same time, you’ll get concrete tips on what you can do to reduce your impact on the climate.Click here to go to Climate Hero.
It’s just one of the useful things they do. They also fund sustainability projects. Please go to the page and judge for yourself.
How you can think around some common energy-guzzling products.
If you might be buying new equipment for your home, it might actually be best to buy new. Here, the Swedish Energy Agency’s expert Helena Holm shares 7 good tips on;
- Refrigerators and freezers
- Wine coolers
- Washing machines
- Combination washing machines and tumble dryers
- Dishwashers
- Televisions and electronic displays Helena’s tips.
Helena also provides a link to a calculator to help you calculate energy, water consumption and prices to make an informed decision.
Directly to the Calculator page.
Shop circularly – you may already be doing this sometimes.
In fact, we are already doing a lot that is sustainable right now. This includes shopping second-hand. Here are some tips on where to buy second-hand.
Everything possible – from person to person (and even company to customer)
Most people are familiar with Blocket, this site for second-hand goods, but you can also rent out your home if you have the opportunity. That’s actually a good thing too. The more we share resources, the smaller our footprint. To Blocket
There are also auctions. Auctions have a long tradition in the real world, but are of course also available online. Sometimes they are local and focused on a geographical area and sometimes they are focused on specific products.Examples of local auction sites (which sometimes sell far away) Stockholms Auktionsverk, Helsingborgs Auktionskammare, Norrlands Auktionsverk, all these are quality auctions in that they often sell older items, art and jewellery etc.
Then there are also Facebook market pages on Facebook that have buy and sell. I’ve used it a few times but it hasn’t produced any results. Then Blocket has been better.
Mobile phones and computers.
Several sites buy and sell reconditioned phones, mobiles and computers.
Swappie specialises in Iphones. They are a large European company with about 1300 employees and are present in 15 countries. To Swappie
Refurbed is another European company based in Germany. They have a bit of a sustainability perspective on their production. They also “recycle” laptops and tablets. To Refurbed
Cars
There are several sites that sell used cars mostly between private individuals and here I mention some that I have experience with and that specialize in cars.
Kvd or Kvarndammen a company that has been around for a while. Organises car auctions all over the country and has been in existence since 1991. They have an environmental policy and publish it on their website. To Kvarndammen.
Bytbil or possibly Bytbil.com is a company within the large and powerful media group Schibsted. It contains several of our largest newspapers, including. They also focus more on used cars from car dealers. To Exchange Car.
