Are you as environmentally sustainable as you could be? 15 actions to help.
Not long after lockdown began, a great quote was circulating about the two threats of climate emergency and the pandemic. It suggested that the lockdown and ‘amended way of life’ was a rehearsal for what what is store if we didn’t deal with the climate emergency.
It got me thinking - well we have had time to think haven’t we - a bit more deeply about two things:
What habits that I adopted during the lockdown should I sustain?
What else must I do to act on the climate emergency?
My personal, business, and environmental responsibility neeeded a review.
15 small habits to act on sustainability
Sharing what I have done so you can do it too.
Three principles that help to bust the myths it is difficult or you don’t know what else to do (say beyond recycling):
• it’s in your control
• it requires small habits (but can have a big impact)
• it’s a recognisable day to day activity or object or system
All of these 15 habits meet these three principles and are easy to do. A few may take a bit more of a commitment or conscious action, but the impact and difference are great.
1. Delete old emails. Servers use up huge amounts of energy and create a carbon footprint. Clearing out emails reduces it (and yours).
2. Pledges and commitments. Woodland Trust buy a tree; John Muir Trust pay for an acre of land to re-wild; No Flight UK (commit to not flying in 2020). These make good gifts in place of consumer-ised spending.
3. Measure your carbon footprint. Go online and measure it and then reduce the sum, especially if it is above the annual footprint per person. Offsetting is dubious but you can buy something to offset if you do fly for example (some online carbon off set companies include these as part of assessing your carbon footprint by telling you how much carbon your specific flight uses and what you can buy).
4. Buy / switch to clean (not green) energy. Example - Good Energy. I’ve been a GE customer for 3 years.
5. Plastic. Stop buying things made of plastic altogether. It’s in so many things where there are alternatives. If you buy plastic, check that it is recyclable or it just goes in the ground.
Examples:
You can buy toothpaste in a jar instead of a tube
You can buy bamboo toothbrushes
Bamboo clothing and kitchen equipment
Buy second hand/recycled clothes ( Patagonia sells 100% recycled outdoor clothing and uses clean energy, plus it’s a B Corp)
Hiutt denim produce the world’s cleanest and greenest jeans
Guppy bags stop microfibres entering the water system when you wash clothes
Garden centres – do not buy plants in black pots as they cannot be recycled and so they go into landfill
Clothes – think circular economy when you buy; give to charity shops and clothing banks if good or put in M and S boxes. Don’t send clothing to landfill even if it is ripped. Give to a textiule hub. BUY LESS CLOTHES!
6. Recycle everything you possibly can to eliminate filling land waste sites.
7. Share resources with neighbours and friends instead of all having a set of everything. In your street can you get some funds or all chip in funds for a shed and share all your gardening equipment? We don’t all individually need a lawn mower, for example, or share one with a neighbour/friend.
8. Do the things we’ve been told about from way back – switch off lights if you’re not in a room, switch off socket site buttons, switch off the TV at the main button and not let it stay on stand-by, close the doors, turn the radiator/room/boiler thermostat down by 1 degree (wear a jumper).
9. Have a plan to improve your house. If you have a business premises, haave a plan for that too. Some repairs are deductable.
If you don’t have a lot of money do small things first.
There are grants for loft and wall insulation and sometimes it’s free. I have had my loft double insulated and an energy audit for free. Some of the audit information shows there are big things to change so not everything is affordable immediately. Do the ones that are.
I saved up for a new boiler and heating system but didn’t have the funds to have 100% new radiators, so now I just have one changed at a time when I have a room decorated. So have a plan for one room a year and tackle it that way.
10. Paper – becoming paperless is the goal. Recycle of course. Use newspapers to line food compost bins; shred other paper such as confidential documents and put on a compost / in green waste bin. Stop printing off documents. Chances are you can read things on your smart phone.
11. Travel. Re-think how you travel. Use public transport, including to travel abroad and while you are there. Don’t fly. If that is too big a step, pledge not to fly for a year and then see what you think. Travel responsibly.
12. Do an audit. Easy. Then take action.
13. Meters. Most households and premises have a water meter. Other smart meters are great as they digitally connect to the grid and supplier and help with water/energy monitoring and distribution (and you don’t have to do a meter reading anymore!)
14. Produce a good practice plan once a year and add to it as much as you can. Get each person in your household or place of work to identify one new idea to help with resposibility for saving the planet and stick to it.
15. Clean, green and social.
Get all your suppliers such as utilities and your bank to send online bills and statements
Do online banking
Don’t take paper receipts – ask for emailed ones; many stores and suppliers now do this. If you do take paper ones, put them in the recycle bin.
Have a milkman/woman deliver your milk (and other goods too). The crucial things here are that the milk is in glass bottles which are eternally recycled (so eliminating plastic) and you are supporting local business often times. Use it or lose it.
Buy from social enterprises and BCorps. Use them in your supply chain if you are a business owner.
That’s it. There’s plenty more. But hopefully you have somewhere to start.
But start now.