Kits and Mortar

I’m currently flying at 35,000 feet on my way to a conference in Washington DC. I’ve just read, cover to cover, this month’s copy of Grand Designs Magazine, and I’m struck by just how far I have to go. True, it’s still another five hours until I land at Dulles, my back is aching, my sinuses are threatening to give me hell later and I’m so squashed in my seat that I barely have room to fidget. But that’s not what I mean.

Reading this magazine makes me realise how little I know, and how much I have to learn about this whole self-build malarkey. Yet some things are becoming very clear, very quickly. Kevin and I are not eco-martyrs, and we are not looking at this project as a way to salve our consciences. There are no hairshirts here, no Luddite rejections of technology or modernity.

Re-watching old episodes of Grand Designs, especially the eco-builds, and reading websites about green houses has quickly illustrated that some of these projects are predicated on the rejection of almost everything about modern society. They are run by people who have fallen for the Victorian myth of Arcadia, the concept of the rural idyll in which we all hoe the land and live happily ever after. It’s an idyll that never existed, and never will.

Now, I’m a rural lass who grew up in a tiny Dorset hamlet where the amenities were, in order of importance, a post box and a phone box. There was a bus once a week to the market and if you missed the bus home, it was a long, long walk. Kevin is from rural Illinois, which is just like a stretched out version of Dorset but with maize instead of wheat. Both of us love the countryside, but both of us love our technology too, and believe that technology can help us live a more environmentally responsible life.

We also like our luxury. Well, ok, maybe this is more me than Kev, who does like his camping trips, but even so, I think he enjoys a bit of luxury once in a while too. I’m not giving up my future hot tub just because some eco-purist somewhere might think it’s too indulgent. Instead, I’m going to find the most responsible way to run a hot tub - recycling and conserving water and energy, and powering from renewable sources. Equally, I want my big American fridge (the Americans do such amazing fridges which make standard British ones look like small chiller boxes), my server rack, and my pervasive wifi. I see no reason why I can’t have all that without either succumbing to rampant consumerism or killing the planet.

Before someone suggests it, I don’t believe in offsetting, which to me seems to be an easy way for the guilty to feel better about themselves without actually ever having to do anything about reducing their environmental footprint. There’s not enough room on this planet for us to all plant trees, and if I want to invest in new green technologies, then I’ll actually invest as a shareholder and commit to the long term, rather than hope that money I’ve spent on carbon credits actually goes somewhere useful.

Nor does the irony of writing these words whilst on a flight to DC in order to speak at a two-day conference escape me. But we don’t own a car. We go everywhere on public transport, which is easily enough done in London where a car would be more of a liability than a use. Even with these flights as a blot in my copybook, I bet my carbon debt is lower than most car owners.

See, for me it’s all about balance between living a modern life as a technologist and behaving responsibly towards my environment. This is why I feel quite suspicious of some projects that claim to be green, when really all they are doing is making a weak political statement about the state of the world as they see it. I don’t care about politics, I care about building a future and a home with the man I love, and doing my best to ensure that my niece inherits a world that’s not totally ballsed up.

The only way we’re going to do that is en masse, by adopting more environmentally friendly building materials, by insulating our homes to the highest possible standard, by using renewable energy…

Those things have to become not just mainstream, but so embedded in our society that to skimp would be unthinkable. And the only way to achieve that is to make the end result desirable, aspirational. Few people aspire to be martyrs or to show off their lovely new hairshirt, and those that do rarely make a good job of it because they’re focused too much on the appearance and not enough on the substance. If green became synonymous with luxury, we’d see the adoption of green all over the place, but by associating it with privation, sacrifice, and soapdodging, activists have effectively shot the the environmental movement in the foot.

Luckily I think that it’s recovering. We are seeing increasing examples of green being just another form of normality. And with the price of energy and fuel skyrocketing, even just being energy efficient is moving from the “Oh, I suppose we ought to” category to the “We can’t afford not to” category.

We still have a long way to go as a couple, as a nation, and as a world. And I still have another 1858 miles before touchdown.