What actions could you (in theory) undertake that would improve the 'sustainability' of your lifestyle? What might be preventing you from doing these?

In order to improve the sustainability of my lifestyle the first thing I would look at is what I buy, particularly food shopping, I could look at the quantities of the products I am buying and their sources. I would aim to buy just the right amount of food shopping to avoid wasting food and unnecessarily draining resources and impacting on the environment. I would also consider the geographical source of the products and consider buying fair trade if the option was available, as fair trade is considered as the best way of keeping things equal between the consumer and the producer. I may be prevented from doing these things by a number of factors, the main one being cost, although I would be saving money by cutting back on the quantities of the products I buy, I will almost definitely be increasing the amount I spend by purchasing higher priced fair trade goods.

Secondly, I would look at the way I travel. There are many ways to travel nowadays that reduce carbon emissions, road accidents, environmental damage and cost. I would consider walking or cycling when possible and using trains or buses for longer journeys. The main reasons that would prevent me from changing my travel habits would be time and comfort. Most people prefer to travel by car as opposed to walking or cycling due to the time consumption, you may have to walk for an hour to cover the same distance that you could in a car in 10 minutes. Comfort and hygiene are big factors in peoples decisions to use public transport, for example, you could be on a bus for half an hour standing up and being coughed and sneezed on, this prevents a lot of people from using public transport.

There are many ways that I can improve the sustainability of my lifestyle but it would take some time to sit down and work out the pros and cons to decide which ones would be the most rewarding to me and to the environment.