Eco-logical? Three families tell
Warm family
«We parents grew up in the USA when the Exxon Valdez spilled off the coast of Alaska. The images of the oil spill had a huge impact on us: Angela was passionately involved as an environmentalist and travelled on Greenpeace's "Rainbow Warrior». Erik is our head and numbers man; he finds it pointless and expensive to waste natural resources.
When we had children, the question of what kind of planet we were leaving them became even more important to us. There wasn't one «aha» moment when we completely changed our lives - it remains a process, a trial and error approach to sustainability.
We are always looking at how we can keep environmentally harmful chemicals out of our lives. For us, health and the environment go hand in hand. As a young mum, Angela discovered how essential oils can be used for many things. Today we use them for cleaning, care, healing and prevention. We make almost all of our household and body care products ourselves, with the children joining in and finding it very exciting.
Instead of giving us more toys, we now ask our relatives to contribute to our family travel fund. Our children don't think that's so great at first - until we're sitting on the train and discovering new things together, like southern Italy last summer. It wouldn't be as easy for us in the USA as it is in Europe, where we can walk, cycle or take public transport everywhere!
They eat a lot of fresh food from the Lenzburg market, only rarely meat, and then it's organic and straight from the farm. Miles and Alison are happy to separate waste for recycling and take it to the recycling centre. We do this so consistently that we manage with one 35 litre bag for residual waste per month.
We can still improve a few things: wash clothes less often and stop using the tumble dryer, even if it saves time. And find a local environmental group in which we can get involved and exert political influence."
Schneider family
"We would love to live in a tiny house and be self-sufficient, keep animals, grow plants - simply produce everything ourselves! But realistically, that's not compatible with our jobs. Nevertheless, we try to buy as little as possible, but buy durable and sustainable.
Our fruit and vegetables come from our own garden or from the Erbsenpicker association. In this co-operative, we put in 20 hours of work every year and receive a vegetable basket for 30 weeks - fresh from the field! Thorin doesn't go to Chindsgi yet and always comes to work with us; Freya does too outside of school hours. The children love planting, weeding, harvesting or simply digging around outside with us.
We started thinking about the environment when we were able to separate plastic from residual waste. It really made us realise how much unnecessary packaging there is. Since then, we have been buying from the unpackaged shop in the neighbouring village, online via www.wayste.ch and milk, yoghurt and quark directly from the Demeter farm. Miriam boils soap for hair, body and shaving. We also bake our own bread.
Jörn cycles to the farm shop once a week. Miriam travels 12 kilometres to work, 90 per cent of which she does by e-bike. We want to provide a cargo bike for ourselves, local shops and the cooperative via Jörn's shop. We use our hybrid car for short journeys and our VW bus for holidays. It's a diesel, but the experience of nature outweighs that for us. When friends want to fly away for a short trip, we sometimes ask whether this is necessary?
Our heating runs on a heat pump that we installed together with neighbours. We have many other projects - switching to green electricity, swapping more clothes, offering machines for hire in Jörn's shop ... We think that in order to solve environmental problems, we need to bring people closer together again and get over the «everyone wants everything for themselves» mentality."
Kraus family
"I'm really worried about the state of our world. I'm afraid that Finn will have it bad one day - that his generation will have to deal with wars, climate refugees, hunger and water shortages because we are suppressing too much today.
As a child, I was already bothered by animals being kept in cages, but today I mostly eat vegan. Finn eats organic meat at his father's, and I sometimes eat vegetarian. I don't think you have to force yourself to make black and white decisions. This pressure to do everything perfectly only paralyses many people.
After our separation, we had to refurnish a lot of things, but I was able to organise almost all the furniture second-hand. For me, living sustainably means being minimalist. I asked myself with every product, is it sustainable, do I really need it?
I walked through the rooms and gradually changed everything we use. In the bathroom, we use solid shampoo and soap, less natural cosmetics, cloth pads, cloth nappies, flannels instead of wet wipes, bamboo toothbrushes and toothbrush tablets, wooden razors and organic deodorant.
In the children's room there are second-hand clothes and toys, mainly made of wood and often from the toy library, as well as books from the library or from book swaps. In the kitchen we only have cotton cloths instead of kitchen roll and handkerchiefs. Finn doesn't eat with special children's crockery, but on ceramic and glass.
I make my own cleaning products. Because I know exactly what's in it, Finn can spray it on and I mop. He loves that. I usually travel by e-bike, I would never fly.
I would like to become more politically active, but that is difficult with a small child. It frustrates me how exhausting and time-consuming it is for us to shop in an environmentally friendly way. There are not enough organic vegan products in the supermarket and everything is packaged too elaborately. I have to consciously take the time to cycle to the farms in our neighbourhood and the organic shop - but it's worth it!"
Read more about environmental protection in everyday family life
- Living more sustainably as a family
It's not just young people who are demonstrating on «Fridays for Future», more and more parents and grandparents are also campaigning for an environmentally friendly future. Our author Ulrike Légé asks herself: shouldn't we finally start living more sustainably?
- «Environmental protection should become a family project»
We know that the global climate is in a bad way - environmental psychologist Hannah Scheuthle explains why we still find it so difficult to change our behaviour. The environmental expert talks about entrenched patterns, the desire to spend Christmas on the beach and how families can manage to live more sustainably.
In the children's room there are second-hand clothes and toys, mainly made of wood and often from the toy library, as well as books from the library or from book swaps. In the kitchen we only have cotton cloths instead of kitchen roll and handkerchiefs. Finn doesn't eat with special children's crockery, but on ceramic and glass.
I make my own cleaning products. Because I know exactly what's in it, Finn can spray it on and I mop. He loves that. I usually travel by e-bike, I would never fly.
I would like to become more politically active, but that is difficult with a small child. It frustrates me how exhausting and time-consuming it is for us to shop in an environmentally friendly way. There are not enough organic vegan products in the supermarket and everything is packaged too elaborately. I have to consciously take the time to cycle to the farms in our neighbourhood and the organic shop - but it's worth it!"
Read more about environmental protection in everyday family life
- Living more sustainably as a family
It's not just young people who are demonstrating on «Fridays for Future», more and more parents and grandparents are also campaigning for an environmentally friendly future. Our author Ulrike Légé asks herself: shouldn't we finally start living more sustainably?
- «Environmental protection should become a family project»
We know that the global climate is in a bad way - environmental psychologist Hannah Scheuthle explains why we still find it so difficult to change our behaviour. The environmental expert talks about entrenched patterns, the desire to spend Christmas on the beach and how families can manage to live more sustainably.