ICAS ICAS logo

Quicklinks

  1. About Us

    Find out about who we are and what we do here at ICAS.

  2. Find a CA

    Search our directory of individual CAs and Member organisations by name, location and professional criteria.

  3. CA Magazine

    View the latest issues of the dedicated magazine for ICAS Chartered Accountants.

  4. Contact Us

    Get in touch with ICAS by phone, email or post, with dedicated contacts for Members, Students and firms.

Login
  • Annual renewal
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Find a CA
  1. About us
    1. Governance
  2. Members
    1. Become a member
    2. Newly qualified
    3. Manage my membership
    4. Benefits of membership
    5. Careers support
    6. Mentoring
    7. CA Wellbeing
    8. More for Members
    9. Area networks
    10. International communities
    11. Get involved
    12. Top Young CAs
    13. Career breaks
    14. ICAS podcast
    15. Newly admitted members 2022
    16. Newly admitted members 2023
  3. CA Students
    1. Student information
    2. Student resources
    3. Learning requirements
    4. Learning updates
    5. Learning blog
    6. Totum Pro | Student discount card
    7. CA Student wellbeing
  4. Become a CA
    1. How to become a CA
    2. Routes to becoming a CA
    3. CA Stories
    4. Find a training agreement
    5. Why become a CA
    6. Qualification information
    7. University exemptions
  5. Employers
    1. Become an Authorised Training Office
    2. Resources for Authorised Training Offices
    3. Professional entry
    4. Apprenticeships
  6. Find a CA
  7. ICAS events
    1. CA Summit
  8. CA magazine
  9. Insight
    1. Finance + Trust
    2. Finance + Technology
    3. Finance + EDI
    4. Finance + Mental Fitness
    5. Finance + Leadership
    6. Finance + Sustainability
  10. Professional resources
    1. Anti-money laundering
    2. Audit and assurance
    3. Brexit
    4. Business and governance
    5. Charities
    6. Coronavirus
    7. Corporate and financial reporting
    8. Cyber security
    9. Ethics
    10. Insolvency
    11. ICAS Research
    12. Pensions
    13. Practice
    14. Public sector
    15. Sustainability
    16. Tax
  11. CPD - professional development
    1. CPD courses and qualifications
    2. CPD news and updates
    3. CPD support and advice
  12. Regulation
    1. Complaints and sanctions
    2. Regulatory authorisations
    3. Guidance and help sheets
    4. Regulatory monitoring
  13. CA jobs
    1. CA jobs partner: Rutherford Cross
    2. Resources for your job search
    3. Advertise with CA jobs
    4. Hays | A Trusted ICAS CA Jobs Partner
    5. Azets | What's your ambition?
  14. Work at ICAS
    1. Business centres
    2. Meet our team
    3. Benefits
    4. Vacancies
    5. Imagine your career at ICAS
  15. Contact us
    1. Technical and regulation queries
    2. ICAS logo request

The challenge of sustainable living with a 10 month old

  • LinkedIn (opens new window)
  • Twitter (opens new window)
By Andrea McCormick, ICAS Sustainability Committee

5 October 2016

Key points

  • Scientific lifecycle assessment quantifies environmental impacts to inform purchasing decisions.
  • The circular economy works when players have the right incentives.
  • Shared parental leave offers a model of parenting that promotes more equal opportunities.

If I'm honest, sustainability isn't top of my agenda when it comes to my role as a new mum. I'm more focused on getting through the day without my ten month old eating any cardboard or climbing into the washing machine.

There are many new competing priorities that come with having a baby. But does that mean that sustainable living has gone out of the window completely?

The bottom line in sustainability

Our most obvious attempt at minimising our baby's environmental footprint is her re-usable nappies. But how do we know that real nappies (as they are known) are more environmentally friendly than their disposable counterparts?

Whilst they undoubtedly reduce the volume of waste being sent to landfill (an estimated 355,000 tonnes per year in England and Wales), does that outweigh the environmental impact from all that additional washing?

Andrea McCormick

What was once a decision based on instinct can now be made based on quantitative results from a scientific lifecycle assessment (LCA) of the options (see The Environment Agency's study as an example).

Results from LCA analyses like these are readily and freely available for all sorts of products from nappies to cars. If we can remind ourselves to think about sustainability when choosing what to buy, we can make better-informed buying decisions.

Baby-sized circular economy

There are a few sustainable behaviours that I've picked up by accident. Just like many other parents, I have (slightly addictively) started buying and selling second-hand baby goods on a local community Facebook page.

Sellers can get rid of items that their children no longer need and free up space in their homes. Buyers can buy reasonably priced items and collect them locally.

Parents participate because it’s convenient and economic - but the happy coincidence is that it reduces waste.

It's a baby-sized circular economy in action. And it demonstrates how the circular economy can work when players have the right incentives; when, sustainability aside, taking part just makes good business sense.

Making the circular economy a reality at an industrial scale is much more complicated - but, nonetheless, organisations like the Ellen MacArthur Foundation are currently working on initiatives such as the EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy to encourage better collaboration between business, civil society and the public sector to achieve this.

Sharing the caring

My husband and I are lucky that we can take advantage of the recently introduced shared parental leave policy, which came into force in the UK in April 2015. The policy bestows the legal right for both mother and father to share parental leave over a 12-month period (a right previously given only to mothers).

Whilst sharing the full-time parenting role more equally between us hasn't made us more sustainable parents, I believe it has helped to install a more socially sustainable model for us as working parents.

That said, surprisingly few parents have taken up the opportunity to share their parental leave (only 2% of companies polled by The Telegraph in October 2015 said they had seen any noticeable uptake).

The more parents that take up the offer, the more potential the shared parental leave policy has to level the playing field in the way that employers (and employees) think about gender when it comes to recruitment and talent management.

Sustaining the sustainability

I don't claim to be a paragon of sustainable parenting by any stretch of the imagination but, looking back on the past 10 months, I can see the influence of sustainable thinking in at least a few of my decisions.

There is plenty of new parenting territory to navigate through (another 18 years of it, so I hear) - so I'll keep trying to think sustainably in all the many decisions to come and teach my daughter to do the same.

After all, she is part of the next generation to take on the big sustainability challenge.

Andrea McCormick is a member of the ICAS Sustainability Committee.

ICAS Sustainability Panel

Background to the ICAS Sustainability Panel and our video where members can find out more.

ICAS logo

Footer links

  • Contact us
  • Terms and conditions
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Privacy notice
  • CA magazine

Connect with ICAS

  • Facebook (opens new window) Facebook Icon
  • Twitter (opens new window) Twitter Icon
  • LinkedIn (opens new window) LinkedIn Icon
  • Instagram (opens new window) Instagram Icon

ICAS is a member of the following bodies

  • Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (opens new window) Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies logo
  • Chartered Accountants Worldwide (opens new window) Chartered Accountants Worldwide logo
  • Global Accounting Alliance (opens new window) Global Accounting Alliance
  • International Federation of Accountants (opens new window) IFAC
  • Access Accountancy (opens new window) Access Acountancy

Charities

  • ICAS Foundation (opens new window) ICAS Foundation
  • SCABA (opens new window) scaba

Accreditations

  • ISO 9001 - RGB (opens new window)
© ICAS 2022

The mark and designation “CA” is a registered trade mark of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), and is available for use in the UK and EU only to members of ICAS. If you are not a member of ICAS, you should not use the “CA” mark and designation in the UK or EU in relation to accountancy, tax or insolvency services. The mark and designation “Chartered Accountant” is a registered trade mark of ICAS, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and Chartered Accountants Ireland. If you are not a member of one of these organisations, you should not use the “Chartered Accountant” mark and designation in the UK or EU in relation to these services. Further restrictions on the use of these marks also apply where you are a member.

ICAS logo

Our cookie policy

ICAS.com uses cookies which are essential for our website to work. We would also like to use analytical cookies to help us improve our website and your user experience. Any data collected is anonymised. Please have a look at the further information in our cookie policy and confirm if you are happy for us to use analytical cookies: