East Actions from The Greening Alton & Holybourne Campaign

The Greening Alton & Holybourne Campaign

SAVE ENERGY, SAVE MONEY and by SAVING CARBON
help SAVE the PLANET.

We aim to motivate and support residents in Alton and Holybourne
to reduce the impact of climate change by decreasing
their carbon dioxide emissions, reducing waste and saving energy.

To contact the campaign either or write to:-
Mrs Chris Chappell, Secretary, Greening Alton & Holybourne Campaign, 65 Ackender Road, Alton, Hampshire. GU34 1JT. Tel 01420 544422

Environmentally Friendly Actions you can Make

Environmentally Friendly Actions you can Make

Go to the Alton Town Partnership Main Page

The Greening Alton & Holybourne Campaign

Concerned about Climate Change? Here are some simple changes you can make in your life. Each of these actions may make a small difference but if you used several of them then the benefits would add up. If many people used most of them then they would make a huge difference. You will also reduce your living costs.

If you have a kerbside recycling scheme, please use it.

Reduce your waste by thinking before buying. (Forget fashion? Avoid brand madness!)

Buy goods with less packaging.

Buy consumables in large packets or bottles - less packaging per unit of measure.

When you go to a pub, try and choose drinks which are delivered in reusable draft containers. Some people even think they taste better!

In an office, Encourage everyone to recycle as much as they can from their desks. Put a list or poster above recycling containers identifying what can be recycled to make sure the correct items are recycled. Position recycling containers in a convenient place, so it’s as easy to recycle as it is to throw things away.

Reuse and repair things as much as you can before your throw them away. Give spare items to relatives, friends or neighbours.

Use scissors to cut the frayed ends of brushes to give them a new lease of life.

Think about buying second hand if an item suits your requirement. Go to auction sales, charity shops, jumble sales and antique shops.

Compost green waste and/or think about fitting a food waste disposer to reduce your kitchen waste. Try not to use EHDC's compost service if you have a larger garden to reduce transport miles.

Other waste food disposal methods include keeping chickens, Green Cones and the Bokashi system. The Green Cone is a vermin-proof bin reduces food waste to its natural components of water, carbon dioxide and a small residue. The Bokashi system uses Bokashi Active Bran which is a dry mixture of bran, molasses and a probiotic mixture of micro-organisms. It is spread over food scraps every time you add them to a container that can be kept in the kitchen. Once full, leave the container for 2 weeks to ferment. Then add the contents to your compost bin or dig a hole in the ground and bury it. The fermented matter enhances the health of your garden plants.

Give some thought to menu planning to reduce your amount of discarded food. (To what extent do you appease/tolerate fussy children?!). In the UK, 4.4 million apples, 5.1m potatoes, 1.6m bananas, 2.8m tomatoes and 1.2m oranges are dumped every day.

95% 0f fruit and 40% of vegetables consumed in the UK are imported. Try to reduce your waste and do buy from local producers.

Ideally you should know where your food producer is based. Labelling regulations in the UK are very lax. Packed or prepared in the UK does not necessarily mean that the food is of UK origin. Read the label carefully.

Cooked spaghetti is commonly thrown away. For about £2.50, buy a spaghetti measurer and cook the right amount or just take care and allow for it to swell.

Write a (food) shopping list and do your best to stick to it. If everyone in the UK eliminated their food waste, the carbon dioxide saving would be the same as taking one in five cars off the road. We waste overall about a quarter of the food we purchase.

Make soup with odd amounts of left over vegetables. No two such soups will ever be the same! (Soup can also help with losing weight as it fills you up without you eating too many calories.)

Keep fruit and vegetables in a cool, gently ventilated, dark place. Local food is also fresher and tastes better. Meeting the producer can also give you confidence about your food's origins.

There are 600 acres of growing space on the UK's windowsills. Even high rise flats can produce some local food.

If you cannot consume all of a loaf quickly, cut off half and store it in your freezer.

Use real nappies if your children are young. There are also compostable nappies on the market now but you must be certain that they are really composted! Some nappies labelled as eco go some way with an unbleached cellulose core and cornstarch packaging but they are a bit of a compromise - though better than no compromise at all!

Buy recycled or re-useable goods.

Look in skips for discarded items. Always ask before removing items (but it will almost always be given as you are helping the hirer save money.)

If you ever need to hire a skip, check to see if the hiring company remove recyclable items fron the skip before sending what remains to landfill.

Buy second hand items from the shop at your local Household Waste Recovery Site and also shop in local charity shops. (There are plenty!)

Donate, Don't Dump! Always, always.

Fit low energy lightbulbs. They are becoming smaller to go into most fittings and are also becoming cheaper in the shops. Their time to power up is also shortening dramatically. Lighting accounts for about 13% of household energy bills. Lighting consumes nearly 20% of global electricity generation.

For a typical UK house, space heating accounts for 60% of its energy use, water heating 24%, lighting 13% and cooking 3%.

LED (light emitting diodes) and cold cathode bulbs are even more efficient than miniature fluorescent/low energy bulbs. LEDs can for some domestic applications last for as long as 50 years. A good time and place to buy discounted LEDs is in garden centres after Christmas.

Here is a good website with plenty of background information about replacing incandescent bulbs with LEDs.
Turn off lights when not in use. Use time switches as they typically use 1 watt of power - much lower than leaving even LED lights on.
Proximity detectors consume about 3 watts or less power so they can make savings by switching on lights only when needed even though the detector is on all of the time.
You can also buy detectors to switch off lights whne they are not needed.
For outside lights, direct them downward so the light is where it is needed. Fit reflectors if necessary. Only buy designs which do the same.
For dark corners inside or windowless rooms, think about fitting sun pipes or roof lights.
Use rechargeable batteries (try and avoid those containing cadmium) and a mains recharger.
Only buy devices which can take rechargeable batteries, ie they don't use specialised batteries. Take care not to prematurely recycle rechargeable batteries by mistake.
Use a mains adapter, rather than batteries, on low voltage electrical devices if you can.
Some devices can be better as wind up products eg mobile phone charger, emergency LED torch, camping lantern and portable radio.
Energy costs have doubled in the last five years. The average family now pays Ł1,243 per annum. This trend is expected to continue to over Ł5000 in 2019. Energy efficiency wiil become important to most people. Watch this space!
Try and avoid aerosols. Where possible use a refillable pump action spray, paint brush or roll-on.
Maybe paint all your rooms in the same colour to avoid the waste of many unfinished cans of paint.
Use a water based paint. Avoid solvent based paints. Choose products with low volatile organic compound (VOC) ratings marked on the tin. VOCs are harmful to humans and also the environment.
Buy high efficiency electrical items - look at the labels for A-rated items.
Conduct your own home energy audit. There are plenty of websites to help you with this.
Switching to a genuinely ”green” electricity tariff makes a big impact on your carbon footprint – examples are Good Energy, Green Energy and Ecotricity 100%.
Appoint one of your children to be your Home Energy Manager. They can go around turning off lights and standbys etc. This is excellent education for the world they will live in.
Burglar alarms and bathroom shaving transformers typically do not have off switches. Try to arrange to switch the circuit off when the item is not in use.
Bathroom lights now have a fan arranged to come on when the light is on. Try and arrange such a fan to have a separate off switch. To avoid disturbance from noise in the night and to save energy, think about installing a low power additional light.
Trivial but you can now buy tooth brushes where you change just the head when it wears out and keep the handle for further use.
Modern more automatic items like microwave ovens, fridges and cookers also have features which constantly take power like clocks and timers. Keep this in mind when you come to replace them.
When you come to use your oven and you are cooking food that requires putting into a hot oven, do it as soon as possible. Try and cook several items at a time if you can.
Make certain that energy saving features on PCs, printers, faxes etc are activated. Switch them off completely overnight. Left on 24/7 total running costs can be up to three times higher.
Fit office vending machines with time switches.
Fit occupancy sensors and time switches where relevant to reduce unnecessary power use For example do external lights need to be on all the time? Try and stop lights in windowless areas being left on by mistake.
A modern cordless phone uses mains power all the time as it is usually plugged in all the time. If you need to replace it, choose a model with lower energy requirements.
When the time comes, definitely install an oil or gas condensing boiler or a biomass automated pellet boiler. Condensing boilers are typically over 90% efficient while ordinary boilers cannot achieve more than 78%.
All fuels are currently rising in price. Wood as a fuel has increased in price more slowly. It also has the advantage that it will not run out, is guaranteed, reliable and supports the local economy. Modern wood burning stoves are becoming more efficient and are exempt from smokeless zone legislation.
If you install a wood burning stove, as well as buying logs, try skips and building sites for free wood. Companies which use wood may also be glad to get rid of offcuts cheaply. One trip pallets are also a cheap source of firewood. Use a putlog scaffold pole to prise them apart.
You can always use the traditional paper and small wood pieces to light a fire but eco friendly fire lighters are now available based on say wax and wood shavings or sawdust.
If you are building from scratch, another good possibility is intallation of a ground source heat pump with underfloor heating. In December 2007, it cost £106 with a wood boiler to save a tonne of carbon dioxide being released, £119 with a ground source heat pump, £388 with solar thermal, £990 for solar photo Voltaic and £1049 for a small scale wind turbine.
Underfloor heating works at a lower temperature usually 35/28 C compared with radiators 50/35 C. Large solar panels can be used to provide some of this heat.
Heat pumps also have lower maintenance costs compared to conventional boiler systems. Boilers also typically last 15 years while heat pumps have a life of 20-25 years.
Heat pumps are very effective if a small lake, canal, flowing stream or the sea can be used as the heat source for the collector.
If you do really need air conditioning, then heat pumps can also be reversed to provide cooling.
Finally on heat pumps, the electricity to run them could come from a domestic (wood burning) combined heat and power unit. Domestic wind turbines or photo-electric panels could also be used as the thermal capacity of the underfloor heating will act as a buffer against intermittent supply.
Turn down your central heating thermostat. Anything above 21°C is too high. 17°C may be perfectly comfortable for you. Almost everyone will be comfortable between 15 to 21°C. 12°C will be too cool for most of us and at 9°C there is danger of hypothermia. As fuel costs rise you will save you more and more money. We don't need to keep our houses so warm that we can stay in shirtsleeves.
Clearly you don't run cooling and heating at the same time!
Heat excahngers between incoming and outgoing air are becoming more important as our houses become more sealed.
If you have open flued fireplaces which you are not using, then block them up with some non-flammable material such as rockwool or glassfibre. If you ever think you will take it out, then put it in a polythene bag. You are aiming for a good seal with about 10 inches or more thickness of fibreglass or equivalent.
Flueless gas fires are very efficient for heating but take care that they are properly installed, maintained and that you have a good carbon monoxide alarm.
Maybe find out about installing a combined heat and power (CHP) unit. They can be more than 90% efficient. Generating electricity at the point of demand is more efficient than centrally produced fossil power at typically 45% overall efficiency. By generating electricity, and all a household's heating and hot water needs, payback can be in 3 to 5 years.
Germany has become a world leader in renewable energy, generating 200 times more electricity than the UK because of genenerous feed-in tariffs. These at long last are starting to arrive in the UK.
Particularly for car parking spaces allow rainwater to be absorbed into the ground either by digging your own soakaways, or laying porous pavement or gravel.
If you can influence it, suggest that parking places are designed so that cars can be parked at an approximate 45 degree angle. It makes it easier to get into and out of the space and so uses less fuel.
Rainwater can be used for flushing toilets, washing clothes, cleaning cars and watering gardens. Some systems for such use are expensive but will become more economic as water provision costs increase. In August 2008, Thames Water announced a 7% rise in water bills. Other water companies will follow. Further above inflation rises are expected until 2015.
If you do use an automatic car wash, skip the drying cycle. It will save you money and your car is usually dry soon after driving off.
Unplug mobile phone chargers, battery chargers etc when not in use. A future new generation of lithium batteries will be almost instantly rechargeable.
Do turn your televisions, hifi, computer monitors and other items off completely when not in use.
Even if your computer appears turned off, it is usually not totally off unless you switch off the power at the plug. Often, you can verify that it is still using power as there may be odd LED lights still glowing in it.
Half of the computers at work or in the home in the UK, U.S. or Germany are not switched off at idle times. This equates to potential savings of £115 million per annum in the UK.
Laptop computers use inherently less power than desktops.
Laptop computers are harder to repair however and may therefore be discarded earlier.
Flat LCD screens use less power than old style bulky CRT monitors. LCD screens also take less resource to produce and also on average last three years longer than CRTs. Future Screens will use Organic Light Emitting Diodes.
If you use multiple socket strips, buy those with individual switches on each socket to easily switch individual items off.
Use reusable memory sticks rather than write once CDs to move files between computers.
Buy your music as MP3 downloads rather than on new CDs.
Print less on your computer and avoid faxes, email instead.
Do refill empty printer ink cartridges. They can also be cheaper than buying new.
If your PC printer cannot print on both sides, it is fairly easy to find out how to put the paper in to use it on the other side.
To save paper on a PC printer, avoid double spacing, large margins and unnecessary white space. It takes ten times more energy to make a piece of paper than to print on it.
If your computer use will be low, don't buy it but go to your local library or internet cafe and use theirs instead.
If you are in charge of an air conditioned computer room, try turning the air conditioning up from 20 C to 23 C. You will save up to 12.5% in energy use.
If you run a business, try doing routine computing tasks eg invoice prints throughout the month rather than having a month end peak. You may then at some point be able to reduce your total capacity.
Send you invoices and other communications via email to reduce paper use. There are also websites to do this if you prefer to use them instead.
Borrowing books, CDs and DVDs from the library and returning them is recycling the items for others to use.
Avoid household appliances with tamper proof assemblies eg nuts which are five sided as they are difficult to open and repair.
Move your freezer to an unheated space eg garage so it is not fighting your heating system. Leave a little space around it to improve air circulation. Clean the condenser coils at the back with a soft brush to improve heat transfer efficiency.
If you do happen to have an ice maker, do the same with it.
Chest freezers hold cold air in when opened so they are inherently more efficient than upright freezers.
If you have an upright freezer, fill it full to stop the release of cold air each time it is opened. Empty or water filled used milk containers will do! used ice cream or similar containers are also a good option.
Freeze items in small quantities so you can remove just what you need.
Ensure your house is well insulated eg to 270mm thickness for mineral wool in your loft. Other insulation materials will require a different, usually thinner thickness. A typical uninsulated house loses, 25% of its heat through the roof, 35% through walls, 15% in draughts and 15% through its floors.
The current (2009) most efficient (thinnest) insulator is spacetherm which uses flexible aerogel blankets.
Consider installing more environmentally friendly insulation such as sheep wool or wood wool.
How about wood fibre insulation which contributes to reducing the carbon dioxide compared to materials such as expanded polystyrene that has embodied energy 2.8kg CO2/kg which is petroleum based. Whilst wood fibre insulation can be made from waste wood and is therefore carbon negative. It locks up 1.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide for every tonne of board produced.
Cork is another material that in particular can fixed externally on solid brick walls. It looks attractive is eco friendly. Think of it as an insualting tree bark on your house!
Those who are over 70 or on certain benefits can act now to find out if their homes qualify for free insulation by contacting the government sponsored Energy Saving Trust.
As our summers get warmer overall, a layer of so of reflective foil in the roof along with insulation can also keep a house more temperature stable.
If you have the chance, construction of a green roof with plants in it is a good choice. Although it needs more physical support, it provides good insulation, the possibility of local food production, some flood management and increased biodiversity.
Wear more clothes on cold days and then turn down your heating.
If you live in a mobile home, siding skirts insulate against winds in the winter and heat in the summer.
The human body is comfortable when relative humidity ranges between 20 and 60 percent. With low humidity levels, body moisture evaporates quickly so that you feel cold even at higher thermostat settings. Seal your home from the inside to keep warm, moist air from escaping. Relative humidity is the percentage of water vapour in the air at a specific temperature, compared to the amount of water vapour the air is capable of holding at that temperature. Warm air holds more water vapour than cold air. During cold weather, higher humidity ranges may cause condensation on windows and on the inside of exterior walls and windows. Low humidity causes static electricity, dry skin and hair, and itching and chapping. Adding only four to six pints of water to the air raises the relative humidity in a 1,000 square foot home from 15 to 60 percent, assuming the temperature is constant. Plants in your home can help by releasing water vapour.
The six factors affecting thermal comfort are: air temperature, radiant temperature, air velocity, humidity, clothing insulation and your own metabolic rate.
Weather is not he same as climate. Climate is a summary of the weather over say 30 years and over a large geographical area.
Is your loft hatch insulated?
Install cavity wall insulation if you have none and you have cavity walls.
For windowless rooms or dark corners, install a sun tunnel in your roof to bring in reliable, free light.
When you come to move house, think about a smaller, more energy efficient house. (Your council tax may also be less!)

The albedo of an object is the extent to which it diffusely reflects light from light sources such as the Sun. The higher - the more reflective. Overall a hgher aldebo is better to reduce global warming. Here are some sample albedos.

Surface	Typical Albedo
Fresh asphalt	0.04
Conifer forest	0.08 to 0.15
Worn asphalt	0.12
Deciduous trees	0.15 to 0.18
Bare soil	0.17
Green grass	0.25
Desert sand	0.40
New concrete	0.55
Ocean Ice	0.5 to 0.7
Fresh snow	0.8 to 0.9

So paint your flat roof white to increase its albedo. Maybe buy a lighter coloured car and make roads and pavements from lighter coloured concrete rather than black asphalt.

Share tools with your neighbours - particularly more specialist tools.
Some charities collect old or unused tools for refurbishment if necessary and then ship them to poor countries worldwide. Far better than dumping them!
always try at first to find an outlet for reuse for any unwanted item.
Look for the FSC mark when buying wooden items, particularly hardwood garden furniture. FSC (tries) to promote responsible forest management.
Say "No" to bad souvenirs when on holiday. Think twice before you buy any products made from any endangered species, including animal hides and body parts, tortoise-shell, ivory, or coral.
Close your curtains at night. Heavy ones will provide more insulation. Make them a generous size so they fully cover your windows.
Conversely at other times, when appropriate open curtains to let in sun and warm air.
Use draught excluders or curtains if needed to cut down warm air loss. Foam and rubber strips are relatively cheap and much cheaper then paying for extra heating.
External shutters on windows can be very effective both for keeping heat out on hot days and keeping heat in when necessary.
In snowy weather compare the depth of snow on an unheated garage with a house to get some indication of where the heat is leaking out.
Cover bare floors with padded rugs for added insulation.
Fit a nylon brush seal over any draughts such as letter boxes. Fill other holes with layers of newspaper, foam, brush seal, material scraps or beading.
Are your windows draught proofed? Use clingfilm as temporary secondary glazing if necessary.
Fit modern double glazed units when the time comes to replace your windows. Although often the cheapest option, PVC becomes brittle over time, is never recycled as it should be and cannot be burnt as it helps create highly poisonous dioxins. Softwood requires regular painting and maintenance. Oak hardwood windows are the best if you can afford them and they fit the style of your building. They also do not have to be painted.
Take showers in preference to baths. They use far less hot water. Yuo save on both the heating and the basic water provision costs.
Don't sing in the shower for too long! Keep it short, compatible with cleanliness!
Aerated shower heads use up to 70% less water than conventional shower heads.
Are any hot water pipes insulated and does your hot water tank have an insulated jacket or sprayed on foam at least 75mm thick?
Put a lid on your saucepans when cooking to keep heat in - even on your frying pan.
Think about cooking more than one portion and keeping the surplus for later use. We typically do this with cakes already.
When boiling vegetables, use just enough water to cover them.
If you have a choice, then gas cooking is more eco friendly than electrical cooking as gas has no transmission losses. Do light your gas quickly however as methane is a more harmful greenhouse gas than the carbon dioxide produced after burning it.
Boil hot water for cooking in a kettle first, then pour it into the saucepan.
Some kettles now make it easy to boil just the amount of water you need very quickly.
A gas hob kettle can be more efficient than an electric kettle. Storm style kettles are particularly efficient.
In hard water areas, about twice a year, soak the element overnight in vinegar and then put the loosened limescale over a hardy lime loving plant in the garden.
Reheating food quickly in a microwave uses less energy than holding food hot for long periods. (Food cooked or reheated in a microwave is also more nutritious because fewer vitamins are leached into the cooking water and far less oxidation occurs in meat.)
As well as microwave ovens, pressure cookers are also more energy efficient than pans on rings and normal ovens.
Chop food into small pieces to cook it more quickly.
Choose a pan to just cover your heat source. Simmer rather than boil to reduce wasteful steam production.
Use a toaster rather than a grill for toast.
Choose locally sourced random lumpy charcoal for barbeques.
Frozen food takes 10 times more energy to freeze and store. Buy fresh if there is a choice.
Tinned food uses less energy than frozen (but always recycle the can).
Dried food (in airtight glass or plastic containers) is a very energy efficient way to store food.
If there is a choice, buy eggs in paper machè boxes rather than plastic.
Draught beer does not use a possibly non-recycled bottle.
Driving to the bottle bank is just Ok so long as you recycle at least three glass bottles for every mile travelled. Do try and do other activities on the journey.
Take a coffee mug to work and avoid disposables.
Reheating a cup of coffee in a microwave produces 30g CO2 - producing a new one from scratch 150g.
Stock up your kitchen at work with plates, cutlery, linen serviettes etc to completely remove disposables.
Eat more fruit and vegetables in season. They are more likely to be produced locally and therefore to be fresher, healthier and take far less energy to bring to your table. They will also taste better. From 1977 to 2009 land used for orchards in the UK has declined by 33% and land given to fruit and vegetable production fallen by 23%. Check eat the seasons to know what's in season.
Store bananas separately as they hasten the ripening of other nearby fruit and therefore its keeping time.
Do more gardening - good exercise for you and also good for the planet. Join or set up a Green Gym.
If you set up a community garden for fruit and vegetable growing, education and demonstrations, arrange for neighbours to have easy access and invite them to contribute to your compost heap. They will also then help to keep an eye on the garden. Make it an attractive place for the community to share.
If you do flower arranging then floral foams such as Oasis are not recyclable as they are thermosetting phenolic foams. Better alternatives are pin holders, chicken wire and tape & foliage grids.
Order online to avoid driving to a large store. Each home delivery saves 20 car journeys (and can also save on one trip bag use).
A high quality durable reusable bag eliminates hundreds of cheap reusable bags, and thousands of paper and plastic bags over its lifetime.
When shopping, most fruit and vegetables can be put directly into your bag without any plastic wrapping.
More and more shops will happily fill your own containers. They save money and there are fewer containers to be disposed of.
Sign up for online banking to reduce trips to the bank and also to pay bills without paper cheques. Ask your suppliers for their bank details.
Wash your laundry at 30°C rather than 40°C, if you can.
If possible, hang clothes out to dry. Keep your tumble dryer for emergencies or very wet weather.
If you must tumble dry, can you spin dry or wring out the clothes first?
Avoid clothes which can only be dry cleaned. The majority of dry cleaning shops use perchloroethylene solvent which is considered to be both a health and environmental hazard.
Organise a clothes swap with your friends/relatives.
Turn down your hot water if you have a hot water tank from 60°C to 55°C (140°F to 131°F). You will save CO₂.
If you directly heat your water on demand, then turn down your hot water from 60°C all the way to 49°C (140°F to 120°F). You will prevent scalds and save CO₂.
Fit flow restricted or spray flow taps when upgrading kitchens or bathrooms.
Stop taps dripping.
In hard water areas, ceramic disk taps are very reliable and long lasting. They are a good choice.
Fit restrictor valves just before taps to easily reduce excessive water flow and therefore wastage. It will also be easier to change washers when they fail.
Either install a dual flush in your lavatories, or put a water Hippo ,brick or plastic water-filled bottle into your cisterns to reduce water use.
Some more modern flush devices stop emptying the cistern if you release the handle. They therefore result in less water use. They do not use a syphon which completely empties the cistern every time.
When upgrading any wash basins, install smaller ones to reduce water use.
Consider installing a water meter if you do not have one.
Keep windows and doors closed when your heating is on. (Encourage shops and public buildings to do the same.)
Definitely on external doors and maybe on selected internal doors, fit self closing mechanisms.
House doors in Scandinavia open outwards. The harder the wind blows, the more they seal onto the building.
When you go to your fridge, keep the door open as little as possible.
If you have a second fridge, turn it off when it is not needed. Don't just leave it running.
If in your home, avoid putting your fridge/freezer next to the cooker, in the sun or next to any radiator.
Turn off your heating at night - ideally 30 minutes before you go to bed.
Go to bed earlier - save on heating and light. Adjust your activities to maximise the use of natural light.
Patio heaters mostly heat the world. Don't buy or use one, just put on more clothes!
Choose FSC certified wooden garden furniture. If you go for plastic, buy it second hand. Ideally buy it made from recycled plastic. White plastic stains easily so is more likely to be discarded quicker than green or brown plastic furniture.
Avoid buying bottled water if you can. Drink tap water. Water delivered in a bottle uses 300 to 600 times more energy than tap water. If you do buy such a bottle, refill it repeatedly from the tap. For information and comparison, each litre of water taken from the tap costs 0.097p and accounts for 0.3 grammes of carbon dioxide. The cheapest bottled water is currently 11p per litre. This is 113 times as much. Its expensive as well as being totally wasteful.
Offices should also avoid bottled water (and the plastic cups which go with them).
80% of the waste from an average office can be recycled.
Buy recycled paper toilet rolls.
If your radiators are beneath windows, check that you have short (insulated) curtains and that you have a shelf above the radiator to deflect warm air into the room.
For radiators on outside walls, aluminium reflective panels behind them will direct more heat into the room.
Turn radiators down or off when you do not need the room heated.
Thermostatic radiator valves are easy to fit and allow good control of individual radiators.
Turn your heating off when you go out.
If you have a hot water tank, check that it has at least 75mm of insulation all over it.
Check also that all your hot water pipes are insulated.
Clearly it’s more efficient to turn your heating down or off than to open a window.
Keep cool in summer by changing behaviour. Close your curtains in the day and open windows at night. Plant deciduous trees on the south, east and west of your house to shade it from summer sun.
When is the best time to plant a tree? 50 years ago!
When is the second best time? Now!!
Choose a 'green' energy provider. (Onshore wind electricity costs about £1m per megawatt to produce - Offshore wind - double that.)
The average overall efficiency of a UK power station is 38% once generation and tranmission losses are accounted for. Scandinavian combined heat and power plants (which are on a smaller local scale to reduce transmission losses are 90% efficient.
Our power stations throw away the same amount of heat as is needed to provide hot water and heating for every building in the UK. On average, our large, centralised power systems throw away two thirds of the energy they receive. If power stations are sited close to where heat is needed - say, near towns and villages or on industrial sites - then this heat can be captured and supplied to homes and businesses or used in industrial processes. Power transmission losses also contribute to the wastage.
To change this inefficent system will require Considerable political pressure.
The laws of physics and chemistry are fixed but politics is always changing.BR>
Visit your local farmers market. Local goods use less distribution energy and are often organic. There are many farmers markets in Hampshire and Surrey within easy reach.
Some medicines are bad for other life forms, so don't just throw them away, take them back to a Chemist for proper disposal.
Try and use organic cosmetics. Avoid chemical petroleum based moisturizers like hydrogenated oils, butyl blycol, mineral oil, monostearate dimethicone, oleth 2, paraffin, stearic acid, petrolatum, potassium stearate and octyl palmitate if possible.
Instead look for natural oils and waxes like almond oil, beeswax, coconut oil, cocoa butter, jojoba oil, shea butter and olive oil.
The same is true for preservatives and fragrances. Natural preservatives include essential oils, vinegar, grain alcohol, honey, vitamins A, C, and E and grapefruit seed extract. Avoid synthetic fragrances and look for organic plant extracts like cedarwood, lemongrass, citronella, orange, eucalyptus, tea tree and fennel. When it comes to natural colourants, look for saffron, tumeric, annatto, paprika, caramel and beet. Synthetic colours are typically obtained from coal tar.
Make your own compost at home. A wormery is good for digesting kitchen waste.
Mulch your garden (but not with peat) and water the roots of your plants in the early evening as the sun is setting to reduce evaporation.
Drip irrigators to the roots of the plant can also help. Never use sprinklers.
Avoid the use of pesticides in your garden. Nature will eventually establish a productive balance between pests and predators. Use physical methods if control is required such as hand picking and barriers.
Feed birds to encourage them to come and snack on your pests.
Encourage hedgehogs, frogs, toads, lacewings and ladybirds to take up residence in your garden to eat unwanted bugs.
Try to grow even one lettuce!
Don't take plastic utensils on picnics. Instead, use mugs and plates from your own home or buy a set from a charity shop or car boot sale.
There are also now wooden utensils available.
Use biodegradable tent pegs, made from wheat and potatoes. They begin to disintegrate a few weeks after being used, and are available from Millets.
Buy wooden clothes pegs rather then plastic and metal spring pegs. You can burn the wooden ones to recycle them.
Wood is virtually the only building material that comes close to being able to be produced sustainably.
Stone is better than brick as stone doea not need heating to make it.
ONce you have a brick, always find a use for it or find someone else who does.
Large wooden spoons and spatulas take less energy to produce than metal ones and are biodegradable when discarded. (They also make good firewood).
Standard wooden knives, forks and spoons are now available and are far better than plastic if you want disposable cutlery.
If you use, or someone else uses plastic knives, recycle them as plant tags in your garden. Yes, you can write on them.
Use biodegradable dog poop bags. You can buy them in bulk on the internet.
(Sadly) do you really need a dog or cat? Keep only one dog? A rabbit is far more eco friendly (but maybe not so responsive).
Cats in the affluent world can be seen to have more power and influence than the poor people of this planet. Should accidents of genes and geography decide who gets the fish?
Plant hedges rather than erecting fence panels.
As the prices of gas, electricity and oil rise, hot water solar panels become more economic with a shorter pay back period.
If you have solar hot water, buy a hot fill washing machine and run it in the afternoon when the water is hot.
Maybe use a cold wash for clothes which you have worn only once. You could see if making every other machine load a cold wash is acceptable to you.
Buy plenty of similar socks to avoid wasting odd socks as they wear out.
Try and make the use of mains electricity for heating your last choice (unless you are using a heat pump).
If electricity is your only heating option, then running your gas oven at a low heat with its door open may be an economical choice.
Rather than using a fan or installing air conditioning, open windows downstairs and up to create a flow through draft to cool down.
Your tumble dryer is potentially the most energy consuming household appliance. Try and limit its use. If it doesn't cause you a condensation problem, then vent the warm moist air produced by the tumble dryer into your house to add to your heating.
Saving energy is a lot cheaper than buying it.
Clean your tumble dryer and washing machines filters regularly or they can use up to a third more energy with dirty filters.
If you have them, try to only run your dishwasher and washing machine with a full load.
Try divining your washing into white, colours (and mybe really dirty). Catch the washing water with the soap in it in a bucket when it is pumped out and reuse it on subsequent washes. Save on water and washing powder.
New technology is on the horison will dramatically reduce water use by adding reusable plastic chips to the washing machine.
Use ecologically sound cleaning agents.
With the dishwasher, not only will you save on power, water and tablets but in the full machine the water splashes more during the wash and so does a better job in cleaning your dishes.
Choose only A rated appliances when you come to replace them.
Bagless vacuum cleaners avoid creating another throw away item.
LCD and LED televisions are more energy efficient than old style CRT TVs and plasma screen TVs.
Install a mechanical rather than an electric doorbell which takes power all the time. Alternatively, fit a door knocker.
Avoid buying trivial electrical devices such as can openers, bottle openers, buffet servers, carving knives, knife sharpeners, hair straighteners, ice cube makers, scissors and shredders.
Cookers and furniture may be accepted by the Furniture Helpline on 01420 489000 and charity shops such as St Micheal's Hospice Shop in Alton.
Electrical items (except microwave ovens) are accepted by the Cardiac Rehab Charity shop in Market Street.
Nobody anywhere offically certifies and recycles microwave ovens as ovens.
Take items lke old broken clocks to clock repairers as they can be very valuable for hard to find spares.
It is better to use gas to fill a hotwater bottle than electricity. Electric blankets can be dangerous. What is wrong in getting into an unheated bed if you are healthy? If you wake up cold in the night, put on more bedclothes.
Bring back the launderette - it shares the resource of the machines but you should be able to walk to it.
Take frequent regular meter readings to find the cause and the full extent of your greater energy uses. Instant electric hot showers and tumble dryers will be near the top of the list in energy use.
Buy or borrow (for a month say) a smart meter with a remote radio linked display to make this really easy.
(The major energy providers in the UK have managed to water down EU legislation which says that we should all have a smart meter fitted by now.)
Clean with lemons, bicarbonate of soda, vinegar and/or tea tree oil.
Buy a basket, reusable or material shopping bag(s). See below and this document for more details.
Baskets are easily made from natural materials and do not necessarily require the inclusion of other materials. When they wear out, they can either be composted completely or burnt for heat.
Coffins made of recycled cardboard or baskets are more eco friendly both in their construction and in their degradation.
Burial better for the environment than cremation, thrown in the sea or freeze drying to embittle your body.
Donate to local charities for resale. St Lawrence's Church in Alton has a monthly furniture sale on the first Saturday of every month - contact 01420 88951. They will collect (and for a small charge deliver.)
Organise a Bring and Buy sale for a worthy cause.
Put bags in your car and hang them up on the way out of your house so you take them with you for reuse. Whichever bag you choose, choose to reuse it many times!
Put your bags under your alarm clock so you do not forget them!
Refuse or re-use one trip plastic bags. They either get burnt so acting as a fossil fuel or can join other plastic waste to kill marine life by looking like food. See also here for marine pollution. Plastic bags do not absorb water so they weigh less and blow about in the environment very easily. (Unbleached) paper bags take about the same amount of energy to make as plastic but they are part of a biological cycle and if not buried will harmlessly degrade. If buried, they degrade more slowly but do lock up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. If burnt they have become part of the usual carbon cycle. Hopefully they are made from wood from a replanted forest. We have written a brief note on different types of shopping bag.
The World is our larder, but beware, it is also our dustbin.
Ask your employer if you can set up a carrier bag dispenser somewhere at work, perhaps in the kitchen. Then people will be prompted to use the bags at lunchtime.
Put up Christmas decorations made from natural materials eg pine cones, evergree tree branches, holly, ivy and mistletoe.
Use brown, newspaper or wallpaper lining paper for wrapping presents rather than aluminised plastic. You could also copy the Japanese who wrap presents in a cloth to reuse again and again.
If you must use tinsel, then recycle it as aluminium.
Sadly eco friendly crackers currently (2009) cost about Ł3 each - about 4 times the price of normal crackers.
Do buy LED Christmas lights - they will last for years and have decreased dramatically in price.
Resend Christmas and birthday cards back each year with an extra message on them. They slowly become a fascinating social record.
Remove yourself from junk mail lists. sign up with the Mailing Preference Service, Department AM, Freepost 22, London W1E 7EZ, tel 0845 0700707, email address: - mps at dma dot org dot uk - or click here.
Avoid disposable products such as wipes, nappies, razors (grow a beard!), cotton buds, kitchen towels and paper plates & cups.
Use a mooncup instead of tampons or sanitary towels.
Paper towels are less environmentally friendly than using a hot air dryer for your hands. A cold air dryer using high speed air to push the water off your hands is is very eco friendly. For cotton towels it depends on how you wash and dry them.
Consider the ecological impact of any investments you may have.
If relevant, think about the size your potential future family may have on the environment. The population of the UK is currently 61m and is increasing roughly by 1m every three years. Here is some background information.
When the time comes and if appropriate, consider buying a mulching lawn mower or look after some sheep.
Longer grass in the summer means less evaporation. Leaving grass to grow longer means fewer cuts and therefore some energy saving.
If you were to use a scythe to cut your grass, you would gain a skill, save money, save petrol, diesel or electricity and get fitter.
If this is too much effort, then there are rechargeable electric lawnmowers on the market.
Wash your car on your lawn.
One bus load of people is worth 30 cars for energy use.
Maybe lease your car or join a car club. This will encourage the design and production of longer life, reliable, fuel efficient cars. The average motorist spent Ł5,539 operating a car in 2008 according to the AA.
Choose a home closer to work or school or take note of the availability of reliable public transport when you move. (You may not always be able to drive.)
Try if possible to work at home at least one day a week particularly if you drive to work alone through the rush hour. Can you alter your hours to do the same work but work for longer times each day and thus travel only three or four days a week?
If you are running an event or meeting, choose locations which are easily accessible by public transport and then give this publicity. Events held in the afternoon will allow participants to use use cheaper train tickets.
Do take trains to European destinations. See our Transport page.
Walk or cycle for short journeys say if under a mile. Every mile you walk is said to add 20 minutes to your life. If you are fit then a bicycle with no gears is more efficient (90-95%) than a geared one (70%).
Resist jumping into your car for short journeys. Cars use more fuel until they warm up. (Wait till any rain stops before cycling or walking?)
Arrange to drive someone else or be driven. There are increasing numbers of lanes for cars with more than one occupant being defined. There are now also cameras which can accurately detect the number of occupants in the car.
Share the ownership of a car with someone else if your use is low. There are now organised car share schemes.
Make certain the pressure of your car's tyres is correctly maintained. You can also buy low rolling resistance tyres now to increase your car's miles per gallon.
Do get your car serviced to maintain its efficiency.
Drive ideally between 50mph to 60mph rather than 70mph to improve fuel economy by 25%. (Less air resistance at slower speeds.)
Avoid sharp acceleration and braking. (Cooler, longer lasting brake pads and hence less fuel used to heat them up.)
Change up and down gears appropriately.
Look ahead and slow down as you approach traffic lights.
Avoid unnecessary revving.
Switch off the engine if you think you will be stationary for more than 30 seconds. Idling this long burns more energy than it takes to restart the engine.
Take your car for regular servicing.
Avoid short journeys as your car will not get up to an efficient temperature. Catalytic convertors also can take up to five miles to warm up and become efficient.
Reverse your car into a parking place so you can drive away faster with a cold engine.
Plan your journey to avoid congestion, road works and getting lost.
If your car has air conditioning, only use it if really necessary.
Correctly inflate your tyres to minimise rolling resistance.
When changing to a new car, consider a manual gear change and more fuel efficient vehicle. (Biofuels are not good if they come from palm oil plantations or reduce food supplies. Better biofuel sources are Chinese Tallow tree or longer-term farmed algae.)
Electric cars are slowly becoming really viable - far better than a Sinclair C5! Google "Tesla Roadster" for inspiration. Ultimately electric cars will be eco-friendly, quiet and very reliable compared to today's vehicles. (Some think they will be so quiet that they will need some form of device for the partially sighted to detect them.) Initial range problems could be overcome by attaching power trailers for longer journeys. New technology such as ferrous-ion batteries will revolutionise the car industry.
New lighter weight, more efficient motors will shortly vastly increase the range of electric cars. Regenerative braking will store power in capacitors for acceleration so overall the car will require a less powerful energy source.
Decreasing reliability, not fashion is the key reason to change a car.
Make every journey count by combining tasks in the same place together.
Declutter your car to reduce its weight.
You can also reduce your car's weight by say only half filling your petrol tank. Others however think that emptier fuel tanks waste fuel by more of it vaporising!
Buy petrol on cold mornings? Less loss from vaporising and fuel is measured by volume so it weighs more when cold?!
Take care not to spill fuel when filling your car.
Maybe change to an LPG car? There are plenty or pros and cons. Here is a discussion
Drive ideally at 55 mph on long journeys in top gear to optimise fuel consumption. Avoid sudden acceleration and braking.
Close your car windows when travelling at speed to reduce wind resistance. Cross car roof racks, bicycle racks and roof boxes should be removed for the same reason when not in use.
Drive smoothly. Anticipate future traffic flow to reduce Unnecessary braking.
Do not let your car engine idle for long periods say to get/keep the car warm - particularly at the start of a journey.
Join a campaign against oil sand extraction, which generates three times the carbon dioxide emissions of conventional oil production and oil shale at eight times conventional oil. Extracting oil from shale mountains is not good for us and the planet. Here is a good link.
Buy a folding bicycle and combine its use with car, bus and train travel.
Electric cars and motorcycles are increasing their range and growing as a market. They are low maintenance and reliable as they have few moving parts. They are safe as there is no petrol to explode and only use power when moving. Regerative braking will increase their range. Finally they are non polluting where driven and also quiet.
At work, suggest provision of one or more office bikes for short trips.
Only if you have trouble reading maps, a satnav may stop you wastefully getting lost.
Never fly between UK locations. Take the train. (or travel with four people in a car.)
Take longer holidays so the effect of your travel is relatively less for each day away.
choosing a more efficient model if you decide to hire a car on holiday.
Campaign against airport expansion. For more about Heathrow's third runway go here and here.
Per person, Britons emit more greenhouse gases from flying than any other people on the planet (603kg per person per year, compared to 434kg for the Irish and 275 kg for Americans). In the UK aviation accounts for 13% of the country’s entire climate impact – a figure that is growing fast.
Offset any air travel by either using the appropiate web sites very generously or by planting plenty of trees after each journey (in your garden or anywhere!). One return Trip London/New york is roughly ten trees.
Plant a tree (and ideally many trees) anyway. One could be your rooted Christmas tree.
Offsetting however still means that the oil is burnt so it is not a long term solution.
Question the need or refuse to go on school trips which involve short haul flights.
If you must fly, avoid first class like the plague as it moves far more weight per person - go economy.
Miss out on short haul flights. They are more inefficient as take off and landing take proportionately more fuel.
Trains and coaches produce around 10% of the CO2 emissions produced per passenger km by aviation. There is a lot of scope to move passengers from short haul flights to rail. As well as less pollution, rail companies also can boast faster check in times, city centre to city centre travel and less frequent delays than most airlines. A Eurostar journey to Brussels or Paris provides opportunities for train connections to a wide range of destinations across Europe.
Overland travel offers the opportunity for stops on the way to explore other places. Serendipity may rule!
Longer term, small planes has been successfully powered by fuel cells, batteries and electric motors. Scaling up is under development as are hydrogen powered engines.
Fuel cells have a huge future. They are different from electrochemical batteries in that they consume reactant which must be replenished, whereas batteries store electrical energy chemically in a closed system. Additionally, while the electrodes within a battery react and change as a battery is charged or discharged, a fuel cell's electrodes are catalytic and relatively stable. Fuels cells can be powered by hydrogen, methanol and natural gas. Hydrogen (from electrolysis of water) can be the greenest choice. Fuel cells are clean, almost silent when running, have few moving parts and are easy to top up. You just say change the hydrogen cylinder.
Most fancy ceramic plant pots can last for millennia - go to any museum to verify this! Ideally, buy them secondhand.
Long lasting plant ppots can also be made from old car tyres.
Every time you buy a product you are responsible for the emissions due to its manufacture, packaging and transport. So only buy stuff you really need or will actually use.
You want it; You buy it; You forget it. Goods, Stuff, Rubbish. Try and resist. Slow the cycle down!
The gold produced for a single 18 carat gold ring leaves in its wake 18 tons of mine waste. Every year the smelting industry adds more than 140 million tons of sulphur dioxide to the atmosphere, representing 13% of global emissions. Think carefully before you buy. Could it be second hand or antique!
Travel by water is far more efficient than travelling by car or air.
Heavy goods delivery is also more energy efficient by water eg wine delivery to Manchester in containers along the ship canal from Liverpool.
Cities redesigned for human muscles and electric motors will thrive long after we have run out of fossil fuels.
Use a water butt to collect rainwater. In the UK, each person uses an unsustainable 150 litres of water each day. Use the water on your garden. It can also, with some plumbing, flush loos, clean dirty shoes, cars, bicycles etc.
Eat more organic or homegrown food. Current trends are leading to a world food crisis with mass starvation by 2035. The UK currently produces 60% of its food. (it can never be 100% as some popular items eg oranges and bananas do not grow easily in our climate. At a pinch we can do without them.)
UK agriculture is responsible for 7% of the UK's total greenhouse gas emissions.
As world population rises and the world has fewer food surpluses we will be forced to grow more food locally without the benefit of synthetic oil-derived fertilizers and/or pesticides. Synthetic fertilizers give off nitrous oxide which is a greenhouse gas 296 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Farmers using reduced tillage can minimize emissions by placing fertilizers below the upper 2 to 3 inches of soil.
Why?
Organic food is climate friendly because it bans the use of man-made nitrogen fertilisers whose manufacture is dependent on fossil fuel. Nitrogen fertiliser manufacture is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in agriculture and the single largest source of nitrous oxide emissions in the world. Organic farmers use clover and other plants to harness sun power to transform nitrogen in the air into soil nutrients. Pest control is carried out by natural processes and predators instead of using chemical insecticides and herbicides. Industrial farming and food production is one of the main overlooked causes of climate change, accounting for around 20% of the UK's total greenhouse gases.
Most Fairtrade fruit, such as pineapples, bananas and mangoes, is transported by sea rather than by air. Air freight uses an estimated 177 times more energy to move the same amount of food.
Because a train carries the equivalent load of 28 lorries, trips totalling 19,600 lorry miles can become 700 miles by train. This gives huge fuel savings. Campaign to move freight from road to rail as much as possible.
Plant an apple tree or two or more in your garden if you can. It will mature in less than ten years, needs no fertilisation, should not need spraying and will produce abundant fruit most years in our climate for up to 100 years. The English climate means we can grow some of the best apples in the world. What more could you want? Here is free, fresh, organic, local food.
Flower miles can be as important as food miles.
Eat fewer meat products. Consider becoming a vegetarian or eating meat free meals at least one day a week. Replace some red meat with fish, eggs, cheese, soya, nuts or poultry. We should not eat too much food and it should mostly be plants.
Don ot pour waste fat down the drain (to clog it). Feed it to birds (or your dog if you have one).
Some stocks of some fish are very low. Currently bluefin tuna is under threat. See here for an updated full list.
One billion people rely on fish as an important source of protein. Fish stocks have been declining substationally since 1988. The global fishing fleets are 250% larger than the oceans can sustainably support.
(An ocean quahog clam at between 405 and 410 years is probably the oldest living creature on the planet.)
How about starting with meat free Mondays?
Why?
By far the most important non-CO₂ greenhouse gas is methane, and the number one source of methane worldwide is animal agriculture. Methane is 21 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than CO₂. While atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ have risen by about 31% since pre-industrial times, methane concentrations have more than doubled. With methane emissions causing nearly half of the planet’s human-induced warming, methane reduction must be a priority. Global meat consumption has increased fivefold in the past fifty years. About 85% of this methane is produced in the digestive processes of livestock, and while a single cow releases a relatively small amount of methane, the collective effect on the environment of the hundreds of millions of livestock animals worldwide is enormous. Arguably the best way to reduce global warming in our lifetimes is to reduce or eliminate our consumption of animal products. One cow produces 220lbs (97kg) of methane annually - the equivalent in greenhouse gases of driving 7,800 miles.
If you cannot go vegetarian completely, at least have a number of meat free days every week.
Here is a link to more about this.

Beef and veal have higher associated carbon dioxide equivalent emissions than pork and chicken. Free range lamb from upland farms in Britain is a good use of a plentiful resource. Raising organic beef on grass rather than on concentrated feed, reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 40% and consumes 85% less energy. Nitrous oxide and methane respectively contribute 300 and 21 times more to the greenhouse effect than CO2. Livestock is responsible for 65 percent of nitrous oxide emissions and 37 percent of methane emissions.

Reduction in this source of methane can be easily achieved through everyone adopting a more vegetarian diet. By contrast, similar cuts in carbon dioxide are claimed to be impossible without possible serious effects on the economy. Even the most ambitious carbon dioxide reduction strategies fall short of cutting emissions by half. Shifts in diet lower greenhouse gas emissions more quickly than shifts away from the fossil fuel burning technologies. The turnover rate for most ruminant farm animals is one or two years, so that decreases in meat consumption would result in almost immediate drops in methane emissions. Unlike carbon dioxide which can remain in the air for more than a century, methane cycles out of the atmosphere in just eight years, so lower methane emissions quickly translate to cooling of the earth.
Government policy should encourage diets with more vegetarian meals in them. Possible mechanisms include an environmental tax on meat similar to one already on petrol, a shift in farm subsidies to encourage plant agriculture over animal agriculture, and an increased emphasis on vegetarian foods in government, school and hospital menus.

Here is the local Winchester Action on Climate Change group, an entertaining green Petersfield site and here is another more political campaigning site.
Ashton Hayes is aiming to be England's first carbon neutral village. The World Development Movement is very well informed.

If not now - When?

If not here - Where?

If not me - Who?

We have one earth and it will survive, but will we? There have been five mass extinctions since life began on earth. Our current lifestyle and its direction in the last 50 years is hastening the next. How many of us will survive? What will our life be like? How many other species will survive with us? They are an important part of the rich tapestry of life. We need to create the best political conditions and technology for our long term survival with truly sustainable businesses and communities which do not plunder the earth and change our environment for the worse. One Climate - One future - One Chance.

We have the benefit of two billion years of accumulated energy reserves. Our current lifestyles will be drastically altered in a generation if we do not make major changes now. Changes of behaviour, technology, legislative leadership and limitations on population will become necessities to avoid uncomfortable, impoverished survival.

The total amount of carbon dioxide humanity can release without serious consequences is about one trillion tonnes according to the Nature publication. We are already just over halfway there!

About 94% of the materials extracted for use in manufacturing durable products become waste before the product is manufactured. 80% of what we make is thrown away within six months of production. Paul Hawken,Natural Capitalism

As far as we know, we are on the only place in the universe which can support complex life. We are here because of an amazing long series of coincidences. If we do discover another such earth existing somewhere else in the universe it will be so far away that our chance of visiting it is essentially nil. We must take care of our spaceship home.

Zero carbon living is scientifically urgent, economically inescapable and technically possible. It will require bold decision making and a shared sense of common purpose. It may involve a lower meat diet and more exercise. Both of these will have other health beneficial effects. It may also curtail retail therapy, but given current levels of unsecured debt that may also be beneficial in other ways!

Do keep in mind the following sustainable principles:-

Only use resources which can be replaced or renewed.

Consume resources at a rate which is renewable.

Use only your fair share of any resource as an individual or region.

Do not generate more waste than natural processes can deal with.

Some people deny the reality of climate change and others believe we are heading irrevocably on a downward path. Both beliefs are justifications for inaction. We can make a difference if we make changes now.
The opportuniy to avoid climate change has passed but we can still avoid catastrophic climate change.

There is some belief that the optimum population of the UK is 30m people. In June 2009, the UK population was estimated at 61m people.

To the usual hierarchy, Reduce, Reuse and then Recycle we can add Rethink.
For example, when you go shopping remember to take bag(s) with you to reduce the number of number of one trip bags used.
Remember to drive at 60mph to reduce petrol consumption.
Are you replacing something because it is worn out or because of fashion?
Think about the impact your next holiday will have on the environment.
Growth may create more wealth but it is now increasingly damaging other things we care about. Replace Gross Domestic Product with an alternative indicator which measures total well-being. The assumption that more is always better needs to be challenged.

There is nothing in human nature that forces people to work 16 hours a day, to accumulate as many objects as they can. That's an imposed lifestyle, which like any imposed lifestyle has some attractions, or people wouldn't accept it, but it certainly doesn't have to be the one that's followed. - Noam Chomsky

There was little real progress at the recent Copenhagen Climate Change Conference - let's hope the next meeting in Mexico City is more productive.
Locally, despite many fine words from local politicians, the pace of change is mostly glacial.
If by living a greener lifestyle, you find you are more affluent, think carefully how you will spend the extra money. (Do you really need to fly on another holiday say?) How about planting some trees somewhere or investing in a new eco start up company?
The only future is a green future. For the sake of the next generation and future generations, we need to live in such a way that they can also live.
Future conflicts will be over energy, water and food. If they say to us 'What did you do about climate change?' the answer we should give is that we worked to stop it - any other answer will be found to be unacceptable.

If you have any other ideas about changing lifestyles to reduce global warming and its effects, do please contact us.

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Last Change - February 2010

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