Casey Pevensey
Born 1998, London
Casey Pevensey - Born 1998, London
I work in sustainability (for a medium sized company) and am 28. I discovered the NetPositiveLifeApp after hearing about the work of Better Century. I didn’t know what to expect when I started laying out my plan, I suppose I assumed that I wouldn’t be able to do it. I had a bit of coaching from the team at Better Century through the Transition Leadership Course, and I realised that it isn’t probably as hard as you think. The struggle to begin with is one of psychology – why should I be the one to do this? Doesn’t the system need to change first? Isn’t this just a sacrifice?
When I started plotting my plan I felt pretty helpless, but then I saw how things added up, and I could do things in the future, I begun to feel more hopeful about what I could achieve in this process. I am a vegetarian, and have been for a number of years. I’ve also done all those little things; using the right amount of water in a kettle, using energy efficient lightbulbs, turning stuff off standbye. I also live in London so there’s no point in having a car – bonus right!
The bits which were harder was that I rent in a shared house, and have little hope of buying my own place, let alone having a garden. But what this thing helped me do was to see that I could plan some choices for the future. When you rent you can rent somewhere with a higher energy efficiency rating, there are choices in rental properties with heat pumps and once I’m off the waiting list, I should be able to get an allotment. When I added those things for the future, I saw that it is possible for me to cut my carbon and nature footprint in half by 2030.
Sure, I have usually been going overseas for holidays, but me and my friends keep on talking about exploring the British Isles some more. There’s loads of cool places to go, so I committed to cutting out European flights, and not to fly internationally too much. This feels good and manageable. I hadn’t really thought about looking up whether my bank was ethical, but it turns out that Nationwide ranks really well, so that was a win. I checked out my internet supplier and streaming services, and Council, turns out they all are on the way to Net Zero, and thankfully Kier Starmer still has the governments Net Zero targets.
I’ve always been pretty good about waste. I also love buying second hand, and as I’m in London I walk a lot and take public transport.
It turns out when you’ve made a plan, you don’t feel so bad about the nature and climate crisis. It really scares me what will happen if we don’t do something, but this has made me feel that I am doing my part. It’s also been super educational. I highly recommend!