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The Hidden Impact by Babette Porcelijn

Posted on June 18, 2018January 24, 2023

The past week I’ve read a book that has been on my list for a long time. I still remember the day it was launched. My social media blew up (I follow a lot of people who are concerned with the environment) and I saw the writer on television around that time too. I wanted to read this book so bad. This is the book that’s the basis of an eco-positive lifestyle, every person should read this! I’m talking about the book: The Hidden Impact by Babette Porcelijn.

The Hidden Impact

The book is about, as the title says, hidden impact. The hidden impact of everything you do, buy, eat and use. The hidden impact is the negative impact of your behavior which you don’t directly see. Everything you do has a hidden impact which you don’t see and happens somewhere else. Huh? An example. We know driving a car is bad. You physically see the direct impact, the emissions coming from your car. However, the hidden impact of your car is usually a lot bigger. The car you bought had to be produced and shipped. That part is the part you didn’t see but does have the biggest negative impact. Porcelijn has calculated the hidden impact of everything by looking at the entire supply chain of a product and not just the usage.

Why We Need This Book

This book is the holy book for me, my entire lifestyle is based upon it. This book gives you an insight in the hidden impact, the negative impact you personally cause but don’t physically see. Right now most people don’t really know how to make their life sustainable. They start at some random point, just like I did. I started with a zero waste lifestyle. Why? Because that’s the visible impact and so that’s what you tackle. However, Porcelijn shows us in this book that the biggest impact of all is usually hidden. If you don’t read this book you don’t know what behavior you should change first.

Many people often tell me: you eat vegan but you still take 30 minutes showers! That’s because they think the impact is equal but it’s not. Going vegan has a much bigger impact than taking shorter showers. The visible things (like using less water in the shower) usually create a much lower impact than the hidden impact (the water used to make on single beef burger). That’s why we need this book very much! This way we can tackle the biggest issues and decrease our impact immensely. That’s why we need The Hidden Impact by Babette Porcelijn.

What Causes The Biggest Hidden Impact

Porcelijn has made a top 10 for the average Dutch person of the behavior that causes the biggest hidden impact. This is great! On the chart below you can which behavior causes the biggest impact for most people. The photo is in Dutch but the biggest category is stuff. When you buy new stuff this has a huge negative impact on the environment, especially electronics. Category 2 is meat. The third category is your house. Category 4 is your car. 5 is plant-based foods and drinks (the biggest impact in this category comes from drinks like coffee and tea). 6 is flying. 7 is clothing and textile. 8 is dairy and eggs. 9 is the bathroom (including cosmetics) and 10 is public transportation.However, this is the behavior from the average Dutch person and so it’s important to calculate your own (which you can do on the website).

I’ve done this three years now, in 2018, 2019 and 2020. For me stuff and flying caused the biggest impact when I first started. If you make a long flight every year it’s nearly impossible to have a sustainable lifestyle. Same goes with stuff, we need to buy less.

impact tot 10

Priorities

Most people buy too much stuff and that causes their biggest impact. The solution is to buy less or secondhand. That saves a lot of impact already. Meat is at number 2 and if you combine it with dairy and eggs it might even be the number 1 is this list (this depends on how much you eat of it). The future is vegan so join it, go vegan! But as I said, calculate your personal impact too. Then you know which things you should tackle first (instead of showering less or living zero waste first).

Decluttered

Well, the core of this book is amazing. It shows us how to tackle the climate crisis on a personal level. This is literally the guide to a sustainable lifestyle. It’s based upon research. But what I also like is that it is uncluttered. Porcelijn explains everything so well that it seems simple. And the figures in the book really help. I’ve listed a view photos below so you can see it. This makes the book extremely insightful and clear. The climate crisis is immense and overwhelming but Porcelijn makes you understand it. What makes it even better are the concrete examples. Do I go for organic or local food to name an example? Should I drive electric or not? Do I shower less or go vegan? All the answers are there. This is the holy book for a sustainable lifestyle.

The Hidden Impact by Babette Porcelijn
The Hidden Impact by Babette Porcelijn
The Hidden Impact by Babette Porcelijn
The Hidden Impact by Babette Porcelijn

So When I Buy No New Stuff I’m Good?

This book makes you tackle the important subjects first. Buying no new stuff, going vegan, stop flying etc. This way we can maintain it for the long term because our effort pays off. If we start with the things which have a low impact we spend a lot of time for something with little effects. That’s a shame. We can have much bigger results with the same effort. This book gives you the priorities! However, what is really important for is that I don’t let everything else go. Yes, buying vegan food is much more important than buying zero waste. But that doesn’t mean I can just go vegan and be done.

No, I keep trying on zero waste too. However, I just know that most of my energy should go to eating vegan. So this doesn’t mean that you can stop buying new stuff and be done (that probably still wouldn’t leave you with a sustainable lifestyle if you calculate it). No, again, it gives you priorities. Start with the big things but if you have the energy, do the other stuff too. So, yes, I always eat vegan. But I try to cut down the amount of time I spend in the shower too. I eat vegan all the time for 100% and I cut down shower time whenever I can. Priorities, priorities.

The Book

This is the book. I recommend it to everyone who want to live sustainable. This book is the basis. I think it should even be mandatory in schools! It’s literally a guide to a sustainable lifestyle. And we need that desperately if we want to avoid human extinction.

Have you read The Hidden Impact by Babette Porcelijn?

Yours sincerely,
Romee

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ABOUT ME

 

when a teen goes green

Hi! My name is Romee Hoeksma and I am on a journey to an eco-positive life. An eco-positive lifestyle is a lifestyle in which I have a more positive than negative impact on the beautiful planet earth. On this blog you can follow my journey to a life with only positive impact. At this blog you can find all sorts of things, from tips to recipes to personal experiences, but most of all fun (I hope!). I write about how I want to change the world, but don’t look at it as if I’m judging you. If anything, I like responses from my dear readers the most, so don’t hesitate to contact me or respond to any of my posts!

Yours sincerely,
Romee

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Dit zijn vegan aanraders in Warschau, Polen ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฑ. De nummer 1 in dit lijstje is voor mij wel Veganda, en dan vooral het voorgerecht: die boontjes ๐Ÿ˜. Maar dit is echt nog lang niet alles. Warschau heeft me enorm verrast qua vegan opties, echt fantastisch! Hoi! Op dit account deel ik tips om duurzaam/eco-positief te leven. Maar! Het is ook gewoon mijn persoonlijke account waar ik dingen deel over mezelf. En dus leek het me tof om een kleine introductie te schrijven over mij ๐Ÿ™‹๐Ÿผโ€โ™€๏ธ. So, here it goes; Okรฉ, ik weet niet waarom ik dacht dat deze overgangen mooi zouden worden ๐Ÿ˜‚. Ik post het toch maar, want ik vond het te grappig en tja, alle outfits zijn wel echt 100% tweedehands.. De afgelopen jaren heb ik geleerd hoe ik met weinig tot geen olie lekkere gerechten op tafel kan zetten (helemaal plantaardig uiteraard) ๐ŸŒฏ. Weten hoe en waarom ik dat doe? Ik schreef er een artikel over die je nu kan vinden via de link in mijn bio. Dit is al het vegan eten wat ik at in Bratislava, Slowakije ๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฐ. De stad heeft me verbaasd, want er zijn echt veel vegan restaurants. Moet je er 1 kiezen? Ga dan voor Balans Bistro, die is echt het beste. Vandaag maakte in voor het eerst sinds in veganistisch leef (6 jaar) weer eens quiche! Want ik kon nooit echt een simpel receptje vinden voor vegan quiche en dat schrok me af. Tot vandaag, want ik vond een recept van de Albert Heijn, met vegan kookroom en vegan ei van Plant B die ze sinds dit jaar verkopen. Op deze manier is het echt een makkie en quiche is dan ook zeker toegevoegd aan mijn kookportfolio! Ik ga dit vaker maken, en ook verschillende varianten. Het is zรณ makkelijk, maar wel heel lekker. Vandaag zat er eigenlijk alleen broccoli in, maar ik ben benieuwd naar wat nog meer mogelijk is. Vegan spekjes lijken me er bijvoorbeeld heerlijk in! ๐Ÿฅ“ Als je gaat wandelen/hiken, kan je heel makkelijk positieve impact maken! Neem een klein zakje of tasje mee en raap al het afval wat je tegen komt op: easy peasy ๐Ÿšฎ. Vandaag verscheen het laatste artikel op mijn blog over onze interrail avonturen. Je leest over hoe we met de trein van Kopenhagen terug naar Amsterdam reisden met de trein ๐Ÿšƒ. De foto past er niet echt bij haha, hier ben ik namelijk aan het genieten van een vegan milkshake (met herbruikbaar rietje!) in Warschau, maar ach. Ik ben van mening dat je niet ver hoeft te reizen om mooie dingen te zien. Europa is prachtig! Dit is Boheems Zwitserland in Tsjechiรซ ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฟ.

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  • Why I do not participate in lotteries
  • Cooking without oil
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  • Copenhagen to Amsterdam by train
  • Warsaw to Copenhagen by train

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