Tag: buy local

Support Climate change with Domestic consumption

Practical measures for a positive environmental change available to all regardless of your personal limitations

Domestic consumption

A whole of life approach to purchasing needs be encouraged and pursued to make the difference required for positive environmental change.

We need to limit our escape expenditure on overseas purchases to keep as much as we can within the Country adding strength to our Economies –  Local, State & Federal.

Extending our endeavours to include all purchases allows us to concentrate on a range that is attainable from our resources.

Having a trade off acknowledges that we will still have some lifestyle choices that are not best for the environment. The trade-off permits us to  pursue other endeavours where the savings made can offset the effect. In this way we can all develop our own environmental program that results in positive change.

My viewpoint on Purchasing with Purpose I will think before I purchase with a preference for Local, State then Federal in lieu of International suppliers. I am committed to learning and knowing the supplier of my purchases to enable an informed decision to be made

Why Local, State & Federal Economies

Not all purchases required are attainable within your local economy and our primary aim is to limit our purchases from overseas. on-line, imported even overseas travel should be reviewed to see if it can be minimised, replaced or traded.

Purchasing spent overseas is lost forever – Purchasing spent within our Country assist our economies 2 or 3 fold. Our suppliers are very conscious of the importance of spending within their “local” economy as it funds the community’s ability to purchase from them. For more information on the benefits of Local, State & Federal purchasing see our Blog  Localised Spending is your HIDDEN Pot of Gold.

I believe in being a locavore wherever possible as it encourages you to seek your product close to home. Having all purchases on the table allows you to balance off some of the  endeavours in your program.

Balancing your environmental endeavours

My sister enjoys her travel averaging an overseas trip once a year. Her commitment to assisting with environmental change is trading the carbon footprint and international spending of the travel against her commitment not to drive but walk everywhere when at home. In addition, the money she is saving on not running a vehicle at home provides additional finance to purchase more quality products from local suppliers at Farmers Markets.
Having a whole of Life approach to supporting environmental change is still achieved bringing with it better health, better food and satisfaction in the lifestyle you have chosen

Resources for Environmental Change

Initially I believe we get too caught up in the belief that a commitment to environmental change will be a financial burden – requiring a commitment of your financial resources. There are many other considerations and I would like to discuss the 3 considered by me.

  1. Financial is the first considered and sometimes an excuse for non involvement. On its own I can understand that it may be a limiting resource however you can add to your financial resource from other endeavours undertaken;
    A commitment to grow produce at home can add to your finances from savings in your weekly purchases. Your home garden can also utilise the skills of others within the family or you may organise to limit your range and trade/barter with neighbours and family for other produce. This leads to my second resource Time
  2. Time – depending on your life stage may also be limiting – working full time and raising a family can be a huge drain on your time. A commitment to Environmental change can be similar to many other aspects in your life where you draw on your family and friends. Your own family program should include all family members with all having roles to play depending on their skills. Close Family members and friends can also be involved simply by making it the subject of discussion personal or electronic.
  3. Skills – not just your own but within your family, friends – even social media friends. Considering your own time limitations you may find the resource to grow produce, research your suppliers, provide advice and opportunities within this mix. Technology is so easy that this resource should be a priority consideration. We have a site Sourced Club that enables a business search by name, tags or location. the links to suppliers includes access to all their social Media sites entered for improved transparency

In the back of my mind

I do not want my Country to continue to mine and export fossil fuel as it is harmful to the environment. They continue to export it to provide a strong economy balancing out our growing imports by Business and more recently Individuals.
We can assist – building a strong economy by reducing our total purchases from international sources beit a household purchase or international holiday to name 2 of many.

Have good connections share them here

If you have some tried and true processes that will assist preparing, reviewing or expanding a program to work towards improving our domestic consumption or other activity supporting a move to environmental change – Share it with us

Localised Spending HIDDEN Pot of Gold

Make a difference – Every $100 spent with local business will add $175 to your Local economy supporting your family, friends and your local community.

There are many reasons to spend with and support local businesses - keeping them operational for continued use, competition, employment & purchasing in your local community...how about

Every $100 you spend in a local business boosts your local economy by $175

Today I want discussion on an often overlooked or underestimated feature of local economies.

How can spending $100 with your Local Business impact your local community (Family, Friends, Neighbours) by $175?

Consider the 4 different types of expenditure where we spend our income.

  • Local economy - local business who create their own products or manufacture them from predominately locally sourced purchases employing locally where required.
  • National retailers who source their products nationally. Includes national on-line purchases
  • International retailers who substantially source their products globaly. Includes International on-line purchases
  • Your Future Fund where you are paying off a mortgage (equity you can use at a later date), adding to investments in retirement planning or Superannuation for later use. Savings for a rainy day.
With some retailers it is not easy to establish if their corporate base is National or International however the origins of their products should be easily assessed. In addition some purchasers may utilise a retailer who offers both Nationally & Internationally sourced products but only purchase nationally sourced.

The more you know about your Retailers, Suppliers and their products the more accurate you can construct your spending model and the contribution to the economy. For my purposes I have constructed the following contribution averages that applies to me.

 

My Purchase estimates is 5% Local Business, 50% Corporate (National Products), 18% Corporate (International Products) & 27% Future Fund of Mortgage payment & Retirement funds.
My Contribution to the Local Economy from local business purchases is $5687.50 ($2437.50 Pot of Gold above the original spend of $3250). This is calculated on the basis that Local Business appreciates the benefit of local purchases and will spend 50% of their income on local purchases

With a review of my purchasing options to supporting local businesses I can realistically increase local purchases to 28% of my income reducing Corporate National products to 30% & Corporate International products to 15%

 

 

 

 

The power of my spending has increased from $69,753 to $80,405 thanks to the ripple effect of spending in my Local Economy

The Pot of Gold to the Local Economy is now $13,650 on top of my original spend of $18,200. There is an additional estimate $4095 added to the Local Economy from the Local content of purchases in the other expenditure types. (see below for further information on my estimates)

The contribution to the Local Economy lifts from $11,090 to $35,945 assisting my family, my friends, my neighbours within this community.

The Federal Government knows only too well that by injecting money by way of Tax cuts, a Cash bonus and/or spending into Australia (its local economy) the ripple affect boosts the economy; similarly, the State Governments will boost the its Local Economy with infrastructure spending. It is up to the local community to boost its local economy through purchasing; and the rewards are well worth it.

There are a number of other reasons to shop local with many small business also committed to care for the product and the environment (leading by example) and we will address these in a later Blog

 Apart from the allocation of spending which is clearly indicated in the tables – I have included the following estimates regarding contribution to the Economies

Local Economy

The Local Economy after the initial allocation (eg. Table2) $18,200 gets 50%* of that spending back in the local community (Business & Personal spend) $9,100 repeating to a third level $4550 (total contribution $31850). The Local Economy also gets 5% from the spend in the other 3 categories to account for local employee / business involvement eg Retail outlet
*50% spend is based on the knowledge small local business understand the importance of spending in the local community

National Economy

Receives 65% of the Corporation (National Product) spend to take into consideration the acquisition of National Products and other National Business Spend, 20% of the Corporate (International Product) spend to take into consideration their National Business spend and 5% from the spend into Your Future Fund to take into consideration their National Business spend.

Australian Produce (1)

Global Economy

Receives 30% of the Corporation (National Product) spend to take into consideration the International Business Spend, 75% of the Corporate (International Product) spend to take into consideration that the majority of their spend is International.

Future Fund

Your Future Fund contribution is 90% of your Future Fund spend as it has minimal impact on either of the domestic economies after the allocation of the 5% to both to allow for Local & National Business needs including employment

 

Everyone’s purchasing scenario will be a little different. If you have reasonable confidence in your knowledge of spending and/or contributions you could tailor your own table to better represent you.

 

 

Message me if you would like a working copy of my table

Would love to hear from any small business that would like their Journey to sustainability to be highlighted in future posts
Peter O'Connor
Journey to Sustainability
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