Hey!
Ash here with a little summary of the impacts of the photoshoot images that you see on much of the website and will eventually find on the cover image. This was a really fun process that saw me getting to play with setting up a scene and working with a color palette when it came to how the styling balanced with the natural background setting.
This project is all about transparency and being honest with myself as someone who wants to be a climate activist, but knows she's made mistakes. I wanted to share where I got my clothes, what emissions were caused by this shoot, and how I decided to make reparations to the earth.
All cruelty-free and vegan makeup was applied by me and at Sephora (just ask them to apply their vegan and clean range). One of my favorite brands is Tarte, and I used their "Fake Awake" nude eyeliner pen for the waterline which really seems to help the makeup pop a bit. I asked for a very orange glowy eyeshadow look- and look at that winged liner (I could never 🤯).
My clothes are from H&M’s conscious line which relies on fewer synthetic components and fast fashion norms, while still being accessible to people with a lower budget. (Slow fashion and thrifting are good/better options too but can be expensive, and I want to consider the ways we ALL can work within a corrupt capitalist system to demand change, because I don’t see us all dropping our ways completely and living in caves again anytime soon). All makeup and skincare used for the shoot was vegan and cruelty free. My hat unfortunately contained wool, so I returned it. My Doc’s are vegan and jewelry is responsibly mined and/or recycled.
I calculated the total miles I drove to and from the shoot and makeup appointment to be 9.4 miles. According to the EPA, 8887 g CO2 are produced for each gallon of gas burned. My car gets about 24 miles/gallon. 9.4 miles/24 miles = 0.39. 8887 grams x 0.39 gallons = 3480.7 grams.
So about 3.48kg CO2 was the cost of this shoot as far as my direct driving costs (if my calculations are correct, sorry you had to sit through that with me WOW math is cool... 🤓).
The insanity of consumption is that we could break this down so much further. I could look at the gas my photographer used, how much energy it took to charge their camera, how much energy it took for me to charge my phone to text them, how much CO2 was produced in the creation of each makeup product or piece of clothing etc, etc. That's where it gets incredibly overwhelming for the individual, and where I agree that there needs to be a balance between individual responsibility and that of corporations and/or the collective. For the purposes of doing my part for this project, I decided to donate $30 to Climeworks, a Swiss company that works on direct carbon capture projects and removes an impressive amount of CO2 from the air. While I think capture efforts are an important part of the equation, the obvious better option is to avoid producing CO2 in the first place. This capture contributed to a 25kg reduction in my carbon debt. There's also the option with Climeworks to donate monthly for as little as $1.20 so that your contribution can be consistent. Luckily, I think there are other ways to reduce your impact (besides donating funds) that are just as important for us to do as consumers (see my Action page).
On your next creative project, drive to the office, or shopping trip - could you think about the impact of your choices and either avoid them if possible or find a way to try to offset them? I think these small actions are things we can all do to work within the confines of capitalism to fuel a less harmful system.