How long is too long to wear the same pair of knickers before washing them?

I’ve been in the laundry trenches this week.

It hasn’t stopped raining in Adelaide, which means nothing dries, everything smells, and I fear I will never see the bottom of my laundry basket.

As if having a seven-year-old wasn’t bad enough for the laundry situation, we gained a family member this week.

Meet Emma:

But don’t be fooled by that face-that-I-just-wanna-SQUISH! She’s already pissed on our bed twice and shat on it once.

I’ve gone from washing sheets once a week to washing them every second day. They’re perpetually damp. And they smell miff (is that only something South Africans say?).

If I never have to wash linen again, it will be too soon.

Which is why I was intrigued by an article on the growing “no-wash movement”: a new trend where people will wear their clothes for longer than is socially acceptable* before washing them.

I’ll wear a pair of jeans two – max three – times before washing them. Four-ish times for a jersey, and a week or two for a jacket or coat.

But no-washers take no-washing to a whole new level. Some will wear a pair of jeans twenty or THIRTY times before cleaning them! Others will wear the same pair of underpants for a WEEK! 😷

Give my kid half a chance and she’ll wear the same pair of pyjamas for a year, oblivious to the tomato sauce stains or the fact that her PJs, which were once blue, are now brown. And there’s a suspicious stain on the pants.

I get the environmental benefits of less laundry (other than preserving my sanity): less water used, less carbon emissions, less detergent polluting our water.

Plus, washing less makes clothes last longer, saves money on energy bills (which increased nearly 30% in Australia this month 😵), and you don’t have to wait five years for a pair of jeans to dry in winter.

I’m all for it, but I’m not sure I could wear a pair of pants for a whole month.

Could you?

*By “socially acceptable”, I mean socially acceptable to me. If you want to stew in your undies for two weeks, you do you.

— Tarryn ✌️

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This week's climate and sustainability news worth noting

⏰ King Charles and London Mayor Sadiq Khan have activated a climate clock, which will count down the time left to balance global greenhouse gases to prevent the Earth heating more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. We have six years and 21 days before we’ve used up the carbon budget. There are 150 versions of the clock around the UK, and one will feature prominently in Piccadilly Circus this weekend. 👇

💸 Yet another climate summit delivered yet more unexciting outcomes. At last week’s Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it would make US$100 billion in special drawing rights (SDRs) available to vulnerable countries. Also known as “reserve currency”, the SDRs are not actual money but can be exchanged for currency in the event of a crisis, like a flood, hurricane, or other financial crisis. Now, wealthy nations have “donated” some of their credits to the IMF, which will “lend” them to developing nations. That’s right. This “donation” will still need to be paid back. By countries that are already drowning in billions of debt. Here’s a wild idea. Developing nations owe the World Bank just over US$112 billion. Why not use the SDR “donations” made by rich countries to write off this debt and start on a clean slate? This way, all developing nations will benefit equally from last week’s announcement that poor countries will be able to delay debt repayments on new loans if they’re hit by a climate disaster. [Disclaimer: I know nothing about how these financial systems work, so I could be talking out of my arse, but it seems rational, no?]

🛑 European Union countries might soon jointly quit the 1998 Energy Charter Treaty, which lets energy companies sue governments over policies that damage their investments – a system initially designed to support investments in the sector. Recently, the Treaty has been used to challenge policies that require fossil fuel plants to shut down, raising concerns that it is an obstacle to addressing climate change.

🌳 An area the size of Switzerland was cleared from Earth’s most pristine rainforests in 2022. That works out to 11 football fields every minute and it’s higher than in 2021.

🇨🇭 Speaking of Switzerland, almost 60% of Swiss voters have backed plans to reach net zero by 2050. The new law requires the country to decrease its dependence on imported oil and gas while increasing the usage of more environmentally-friendly alternatives to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

✅ Scotland will ban fossil fuel boilers in homes from 2024. Under the new law, buildings will either need to be fitted with heat pumps or connected to low-carbon district heating networks.

🤝 France and the UK have launched a biodiversity credits initiative to mobilise nature recovery in accordance with the COP15 framework. The nations want to speed up the collection of biodiversity credits from companies so the world can get to work restoring nature.

🐝 Nearly half (48%) of US honeybee colonies died last year. Last year’s loss is up from the previous year’s loss of 39% and the 12-year average of 39.6%, but it’s not as high as 2020/21’s 50.8% mortality rate. Honeybees are crucial to food supply, pollinating more than 100 of the crops we eat, including nuts, vegetables, berries, citrus, and melons. Scientists said a combination of parasites, pesticides, starvation, and climate change are causing large die-offs.

🌀 Wild weather: Heatwave in New Mexico kills at least 100. Record-setting heat in Texas sends hundreds to hospital. Monsoon in South Korea kills one. Smoke from wildfires in Canada continues to choke the air as far away as New York and Mexico. The fires have been blazing for nearly two months. There are currently more than 400 active wildfires across the country, 239 of which are classified as “out of control”.

And in business news

📗 The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) published its first two standards, which aim to be the single, global baseline of sustainability disclosures for the capital markets. IFRS S1 requires companies to communicate the sustainability risks and opportunities they face over the short, medium, and long term. IFRS S2 sets out specific climate-related disclosures and is designed to be used with IFRS S1. Both Standards are based on recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

❌ The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned "greenwashing by omission", especially when it comes to claims about carbon offsetting. This comes after an investigation found that more than 90% of credits from the world’s largest carbon credit supplier were worthless. Now, businesses that make claims about their low-carbon activities will need to include "balancing" information about their overall environmental impact. Last year, 26 legal challenges were made in courts around the world against corporates on greenwashing grounds – up from 10 in 2020. More than 180 other cases were filed but did not make it into court.

👩🏽‍💻 The UK has awarded £80 million to companies developing new clean technologies through its net-zero innovation portfolio.

✅ Does your business need help with understanding carbon offsetting and carbon credits? Check out this guide from edie, outlining the challenges and considerations that corporates must examine when exploring high-integrity carbon offsetting initiatives. Also, see the Claims Code of Practice published by the Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity Initiative (VCMI) It’s designed to be a rulebook for companies to follow when making climate-based claims and how carbon credits can be used to support decarbonisation.

One small thing you can do.

Wear your clothes more. Wash less.

But please don’t wear the same pair of undies for a week.

Other laundry hacks:

• Spot clean stains.

• Air dry clothes to get rid of smells.

• Wash on a cold cycle.

• Don’t own an iron. I never have and it’s been the ultimate excuse not to iron. Ever.

Because lots of little actions combined can add up to something remarkable./

I'll leave you on this happy note...

“Whoa!”

Vanilla the chimpanzee sees the sky for the first time in 28 years after spending most of her life in a medical research laboratory.

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