In 2022, Jen and her husband Remo Pistor came across an Instagram ad that would, by the end of the year, re-define the way they commuted, shopped and ate.
The ad was an announcement by the Canadian Geographic magazine calling families across Canada to participate in Live Net Zero — a 10-week-long competition with six themed challenges (commuting, home electricity, home envelope, thanksgiving, heating and cooling and holidays) that pushed families to come up with creative ways to reduce their carbon footprint.
For Jen, who is a "slow fashion" blogger and content creator, this decarbonization challenge was right up her alley.
Jen had been taking baby steps towards living a carbon-conscious life — be it by growing her own vegetables, cooking from scratch or opting for thrifted clothes instead of new ones. Then about six years ago, Jen watched the documentary The True Cost that changed her perspective of the fast-fashion industry.
“It really switched my brain into another gear,” said Jen, who has 30-plus years of modelling experience.
She dug into the topic, and learned that sustainable fashion was not just about clothes, it crept into consumer behaviour and food consumption.
“The further I went down into it, even just within the fashion space, it started encompassing more and more areas of my life. And we just started making more and more changes as time went on.”
So, when the Live Net Zero ad popped up on her phone screen, Jen knew exactly what to do.
The Pistors applied to be part of it, and were one of five families from across Canada to be selected for the challenge, as previously reported by the Record.
The families were each given $10,000 that they could use towards reducing their environmental footprint, and, in the end, judged based on how far they succeeded in doing so.
Though the Pistors didn’t win the competition, they came out of it with a whole new lifestyle and a home that leaked less energy.
“It was eye-opening!” said Jen.
‘Tougher than anticipated'
Over the course of the challenge, the Pistor family started using public transit (after three years of not using it), added a carpool day for their daughter’s soccer practice and “walked a whole lot more,” as Jen wrote in her blog.
They learned that their 1940-built home had a big carbon footprint — “While previous owners had done some work on it, we had walls that had no insulation. There was a lot of draft and we had a ton of energy going straight up our chimney flue,” said Jen.
A “big yucky” energy audit score of 102 (a new home, Jen wrote in her blog, scores 59 ideally) pushed them to insulate their attic space with cellulose, a recycled paper-based product, install an energy-efficient damper in the fireplace, and caulk and seal their doors and windows.
That was only the beginning. They also got rid of their wine fridge, converted all their light bulbs to LED lights and scheduled their entertainment console to shut down overnight using a programmable smart plug.
But then came the “most challenging” and “oftentimes frustrating” task — that of managing the house's heating and cooling.
Their plan was to convert their home's heating system to a heat pump. A heat pump, as per BC Hydro, is a more energy-efficient alternative to natural gas furnaces or electric baseboards.
“It's something we had wanted to do for a long time. But when we really started deep diving into it, all the true costs of it started coming out.”
It amounted to between $26,000 and $35,000. For the Pistors, coughing up that much money for a heating fix wasn't a realistic option.
“That was one of the challenges where we felt a little defeated at times. Because we just didn't know what we could do to make an impact."
Jen even wrote a blog post titled “If I was a Rich Girl” venting out about the high cost of going green.
"But ultimately, we found a solution,” she said.
To her surprise, B.C.’s Natural Gas provider FortisBC responded to her blog post suggesting they switch to Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) that uses organic waste and costs nada to set up.
Though going 100 per cent RNG meant a slight uptick in their gas bill, it also meant being able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3.51 tonnes.
“It was all tougher than I had anticipated,” said Jen.
More so, because of the limited time of two weeks for each challenge, she said.
“We wanted to make changes that were sustainable in the long run.”
It’s almost been four months since the challenge ended — have the changes sustained?
Passing on the experience
They have reduced their electricity consumption by over 700 kWh, they drive close to 100 km less per week, and walk to the destination if that’s an option. And for the Pistor kids, a thrift store is a “regular” store to buy clothes. “They know no difference.”
It’s been quite a learning curve, one that Jen shared with her 7,000-plus followers on Instagram.
”There was definitely a lot of interest along the way.”
Seeing somebody who's just an average Canadian — "with a family, kids, a house and all those regular things" — probably struck a chord with people, she said.
She had people reach out to her on social media — sometimes asking for more information about energy-efficient solutions and other times, commenting that her content had them take a step towards their decarbonization journey.
“So that was a really neat thing to be able to see that it was working in real time.”
As for the big takeaway from the contest, for Jen, it was a lesson in slow living. “It's funny, because I always talk about slow fashion. But through this challenge, I've realized it's also important to have a slow lifestyle.”
“By finding ways to cut out the unnecessary, we can slow down and really have purpose with all our actions throughout.”
Follow Jen's Instagram page to know more about slow fashion and slow living.
Jen's tips to live Net Zero
- Slow down with your purchasing decisions; really think if it's something you need. We can get very habitual with how we shop and how we spend. Sometimes it's the inaction that actually has an impact.
- Find ways to cut out unnecessary things. Say no to certain things in your lives so you can have more time. Time is a precious commodity and not something that everybody always has (it’s possible to feel the crunch when you decide to walk to the grocery store instead of taking the car).
- Attend to the low-hanging fruit — like changing the light bulbs and sealing up the windows. Those really simple things don't cost all that much but they can make a big difference.
- For bigger changes, look into grants. Sometimes, that can really help guide the decision. There are some really fantastic grants that different levels of government give you (the Pistor family ended up getting the Income Qualified grant, which covered 60% of their insulation costs).
