Perhaps an unpopular question here.
How many years of YOUR life are YOU will to give to mitigating climate change? In general we Mustachians are already consuming less to quit working sooner. So how many extra years are we willing to work to invest 100% of it in green tech that has a high chance of failure but might save the climate? Or for those who are well paid in other fields, how many more years are we willing to work at a lower paying job at a clean energy company trying to solve some of these problems?
This isn’t rhetorical… I reached FI this year and it’s something I think about a lot. Should I work another year doing something highly profitable that don’t enjoy and then use the money to pay someone else doing work one of the technologies that might change something? Should I find new work in a green tech field even though I don’t need the money and sitting at the computer is bad for me? Should I say “F-it” the world is screwed and enjoy my free time and money while I can?
Well I can give answering this a shot...
For starters we've both deliberately taken careers in fields that focus on climate change solutions, so there's that. As we are more SWAMI than FIRE types in all likelihood we'll spend a few decades in these fields. I could probably make $5-10k+ given my background working for a few other employers in the area, but I love my job and our entire business is mission driven and centered on improving the planet. As long as it continues to be an awesome place to work I'll stay, regardless of what other recruiters may offer me - we have more than enough and I'm not going to turn away job satisfaction for more money (which i don't really need).
Beyond that, in our most recent house we spent about $28k and a few hundred hours converting a leaky 120yo home in a very cold climate into as close to net-energy zero as we could (and we got fairly close). That included a mixture of PVs, heat-pumps, insulation and extensive air sealing. Ironically I'm not even sure we could say this cost us anything in the end because we turned a slight profit 18 months later when covid forced us to relocate. It's impossible to know how much were the improvements and how much was the hot market, but looking at the comps and the number of offers we got ours was certainly more desirable than "similar properties" (based on sqft and bed/bath) in our area.
We plan on basically repeating the energy-efficiency improvements in our new home, though this time we're confident we can go net-zero due to a bunch of factors, and probably for about $20k and another few hundred hours of my time. Ultimately though we'll get a few thousand $ back each year, so beyond opportunity cost and labor cost it's economically a good decision for us as well.
More broadly most of our decisions to mitigate climate change are decisions NOT to buy or do something, and occasionally to pay a bit more for something more sustainable. We've cut way back on travel and drive PHEVs where we can run off battery 90% of the time. We've reduced the amount of meat from our diets substantially, and buy meat primarily from an organic farm nearby. We grow a ton of our own veggies and tend to skip tropical fruits at the store. We've never eaten much processed or fast-food. By most accounts our grocery bill is way below the national average, so ... really hard to put a dollar amount on how much extra we DO spend, as I know we buy foods that cost way more because we care who made it and are willing to give them our business.
interestingly we don't feel like we are sacrificing anything. While we could afford to take 2-week vacations to exotic resorts and to eat out more and drive fancy pickup trucks, that's not us. Occasionally we'll weigh whether flying to San Diego to participate in some event is worth it to us, but it's a holistic discussion which includes the carbon cost, financial cost, time cost, and benefit(s) of going. It's not a sacrifice to do something we believe in.
Perhaps what's most striking to me is - provided you have some disposable income - life can actually be better when you make environmentally sustainable choices. It starts with buying less crap and being more mindful of your actions. That quickly translates to improved health, less clutter, and ultimately a fatter bank account. Our house is absolutely more comfortable and quiet to be in after the extensive weather-sealing, and it's far less expensive to heat and cool. For us it's meant closer ties in our community and a better knowledge of the trails, lakes and parks in our region at the 'expense' of not knowing much about where the hottest vacation destinations might be or the on-trend restaurants.
