From material inputs like yarn, through manufacture to retail – every step towards and in the final consumption and ongoing use, has embedded energy within any product. It takes 60 000 kilowatt hours of primary energy per person, per year to ‘run’ the Australian economy. At every point of transaction, energy is consumed, and lost in the conversion. Carbon dioxide is one waste product of an energy system that will remain dependent on fossil fuel use until it can’t. With this reality, to think or believe that any one product or ‘brand’ can be ‘sustainable’ is a furphy. The notion of ‘sustainable’ and ‘green growth’ is just one more narrative that has no basis in reality. Using embedded energy wisely, maintaining needed goods for basic needs is an attitude that has a basis in a recognition that we live in an energy system. I encourage supporting local artisanal manufacture wherever you may be.
Radical warmth - we live in an energy system
