Off on holiday for a week...

... no planes, no cars, you'll be glad to hear.

Blogging of a familar quality will resume on my return.

This will make you stop and think...

According to WRAP, every day in the UK we throw away:

5.1 million whole potatoes
4.4 million whole apples
2.8 million whole tomatoes
7 million whole slices of bread
1.3 million unopened yoghurts and yoghurt drinks
1.2 million sausages
1 million slices of ham
0.7 million whole eggs
0.7 million whole bars of chocolate and unwrapped sweets
0.3 million unopened meat-based ready meals or takeaways
0.3 million unopened packets of crisps

Weekly Tip #14: Unplugging

Everyone knows that you should switch off your electrical equipment at the plug, but if your gadget has a battery (eg laptop, PDA or phone), you should disconnect it completely or the battery charge will leak out slowly through the earth connection.

Will green taxes be the victim of Gordo's woes?

Everyone and their dog knows that Gordon Brown is in trouble. What bothers me is the informed speculation that the increased car tax for polluting vehicles and pilots into pay-as-you-throw are at serious risk as the brooding PM tries to claw back some lost ground. Green taxation has already dropped under the Labour Government.

I was giving a speech on climate change to over a hundred energetic older people at an University of the 3rd Age meeting yesterday, and plenty thought that the Government were using it as an excuse to raise taxes. It's like this barmy idea that speed cameras are an infringement of civil liberties.

Let's make it simple:

Don't speed => no speeding tickets

Don't pollute => no green taxes

How can it mean anything else?

Weekly Tip #13: Grow Your Own

Now spring has sprung - why not plant some food plants in your allotment, garden, yard or windowbox. Zero food miles, organic and tasty (your own food always tastes better).

Weekly Tip #12: Reject bags for life!

... a small rucksack is much more practical!

Isn't nature brilliant?

I love this time of year. As I look out my window, white cherry blossom is starting to emerge among the trees along the river. I'm still in my running gear after jogging up the valley. As I entered Jesmond Dene, there was a flash of black, white and red over my head. I stopped and got my first really good look at one of the woodpeckers who I've listened to for 8 years. No shimmering flash of a kingfisher this morning, but I still have a big fat grin on my face as I get stuck into work.

I'm lucky - I live in a river valley less than 20 minutes walk from Newcastle City Centre. If you struggle to get out and commune with nature, why not try out BTCV's Green Gym - fitness and fresh air!

It shouldn't happen to a (green) dad...

I'm over the moon that my son has said his first word...

...except it is...

"car"

Aaaarrrrgggghhh!!!

Weekly Tip #11: Nematodes

Slugs will soon be decimating your garden if you don't act to stop'em. Don't use the horrible toxic blue pellets, use nematodes instead - we use Nemaslug and it works great.

Green office pet peeves

Every week I get a couple of PR pieces sent to me. I normally ignore them, but I quite liked this 'survey' from Xerox about what people get peeved about in the office:

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The Full List

The top ten environmental pet peeves among U.S. office workers:

1) Mindless printing resulting in increased waste (40%)
2) Leaving lights on (37%)
3) Lack of recycling bins (33%)
4) Excessive air conditioning in summer and heat in winter (29%)
5) Excessive use of paper products, like cups, plates, etc. (27%)
6) Coworkers not recycling (27%)
7) Coworkers not printing double-sided when they can (24%)
8) Too many cover sheets when faxing or printing (24%)
9) Having to store paper copies of existing, electronic files (24%)
10) Leaving computer on and not powering down when going home (23%)

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Interestingly number 10 would be no 1 on my list. What do you think?

(First published on the Sustainable Business Blog, but I thought it was relevant here too!)

Biodiesel good or evil? Part 2

Once upon a time biodiesel was a jolly good thing. Now it is evil incarnate.

Offsetting was once a brilliant idea, now it is morally abhorrent.

Surely, within these wild swings of opinion, there is a sensible middle road where the benefits can be had without the downsides?

Just a thought...

Weekly Tip #10: Go for quality, not quantity

In these days of semi-disposable furniture and fashion, choose quality, timeless purchases over cheap and cheerful everytime.

Time to rearrange the fridge (& the fruit bowl)

If you've been reading this blog for a while you'll know my view that food is probably our biggest impact on the environment - land use, pesticides, fertilisers, transport, processing, refrigeration, packaging, retail and waste all add up to a huge impact. Wasting food is obviously a bad thing and, of what we buy, a third is wasted, half of that unnecessarily (the rest is tea bags, peels, skins and 'endy-bits' that we can't eat).

Well I'm going to have to change my fridge habits (bung it all in except marmalade - horrible cold on hot toast) having read this interesting article in the Guardian about food storage. I've always assumed that cooler = better preservation, but apparently it is not the case for many vegetables - it actually cuts their shelf life. So it's going to be a busy weekend.

I've already evicted the bananas from the fruit bowl. I knew the ethylene they offgas helps ripen tomatoes, but I didn't realise they over-ripen other fruit, leading to them "going off" earlier.

Every day is a school day...

Weekly Tip #9: Target a Grot Spot

Inspired by spending Sunday morning hauling rubbish out of the river that runs past our house - why not get some friends and neighbours together to tackle a grot spot near you? You'll be surprised about the amount of rubbish you can collect in an hour or to, and you'll improve the area for people and wildlife alike.

Weekly Tip #8: Set up your sockets

Have a look at how your electrical sockets and multi-socket adapters are set up. You can often arrange them so you can minimise energy use by only switching on those that you need, for example:

- put your computer on a different socket from your peripherals, so you don't need to fire up the whole lot just to update your status on Facebook.

- likewise if your TV is on a different socket from your DVD player, digibox, video etc, you don't have to burn energy unnecessarily everytime you want to watch a terrestrial TV programme.

Energy Wasting Day

A little light relief for a Friday...

Weekly Tip #7: Start the rot

If you don't already, start composting using either a local authority style compost bin, or for larger gardens, a two-bay system built from pallets. Proper composting cuts waste to landfill, climate damaging methane emissions and recycles nutrients back into your soil. See my heaps here.

How's your car going to be taxed?

If you're wondering how your car tax will change after Darling's rather pale green budget, then the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT) has a useful database of all models' emissions.

You then need to check this against the new tax bands which can be seen here courtesy of the Guardian.

Weekly Tip #6: Buy secondhand

Whether it's records, books or clothes that rocks your world, there are some excellent secondhand and charity shops around. Buying second hand is guilt-free - I consume dozens of second hand books every year.

My tip is to visit shops in the poshest area of your town and you'll benefit from (and mitigate the impacts of) someone else's conspicuous consumption.

Blair does a Gore

Al Gore spent the Kyoto negotiations sticking spokes in the wheels. Now he's the champion of the world.

Tony Blair did nothing for the UK's carbon emissions while in office, now he's gonna save the world.

Funny how history repeats itself, isn't it?

Weekly Tip #5: Take Your Tops Off

Slightly late this week due to the ridiculous amount of traveling I've done since Friday under sometimes very difficult circumstances*. Anyway, something I have learnt in the meantime:

If your local authority collects plastic bottles for recycling, the difference between this being environmentally and economically worthwhile or not can be made by whether or not you take the tops off the bottles. If you don't the wagons have to shift much more air than plastic. So get 'em off!


* For example: what do you do if your minibus driver gets a call to say that his pregnant wife has fallen, broken her hip, and before they can fix that, they need to deliver the baby by caeserian four weeks early. And you're in a vicious storm several hundred miles away?

(mother & baby OK, by the way)

When to choose a Prius

Interesting article in the Guardian last week on the cult of the Prius, thankfully not repeating some of the myths that have been peddled recently.

The bit I thought was most interesting was the techie bit. It spelt out that the Prius beats its competitors hands down on urban driving, but loses out on the motorway. This is because the electric motor is efficient at moving off and the frequent braking regenerates the battery. When you get out on the motorway, the petrol motor is hauling that heavy battery, so the fuel performance drops off. So the combined mpg figures aren't brilliant compared to a good diesel.

So if you do lots of urban driving, buy a Prius. Don't bother otherwise.

Personally I use my bike for that sort of journey and my VW Golf TDi for less accessible work journeys (typically up and down dual carriageways to industrial estates), so I'm probably better off as I am. Although I must admit I am tempted by a Prius for the pose...

Weekly Tip #4: Support your local deli

It will always be more enjoyable than shopping in a big shed and the carbon footprint of the food tends to be lower as its transportation from farm gate to the shop is usually more direct.

Free Newsletter: The Low Carbon Agenda

I don't know how many readers of Eco-living also read my Sustainable Business Blog, but you may be interested in my brand new newsletter: The Low Carbon Agenda. Aimed at businesses and organisations, it is all about reducing your carbon footprint and exploiting the business opportunities in the Low Carbon Economy. You can see the first issue and sign up to future issues here.

I have my standards!

You wouldn't believe the number of press releases or "will you mention my business" pleas that I get as a result of this blog. I just want to spell out my policy on this so it is transparent to PR companies and readers alike:

1. If I think a piece of info is of interest to the readers I will publish it. Most of the stuff I get I simply ignore.

2. If you have a product or service and you send me a sample, then I may review it and tell readers objectively what I think of it. I do not charge for this.

3. If you want to pay for advertising on the site, e-mail me and I'll quote you a rate. But it won't appear as an opinion piece, but as a banner or button so readers know what it is.

4. Don't bother begging or getting sulky with me - my word is final.

Ahhhh, good to get that off my chest.

As an example of point 1. above, CafeDirect have just e-mailled me to say their fairtrade coffee beat some major brands of non-fairtrade coffee in a Which? taste test. Well done.

Train of thought...

I was on a Virgin Pendilino* Cross Country Voyager train yesterday, on my way back from a client meeting in Leeds. I went to the loo and then washed my hands like a good boy. These trains have those auto sinks where you have to wave blindly at unseen sensors to get water and operate the drier (for some reason the soap requires physical effort).

When I moved my paws under the drier it started up, but the water didn't stop... so... despite all that technology, the water pump was still pumping merrily to itself, wasting water and energy, and wetting the back of my left hand into the bargain.

Would it not be simple to cut the water pump as soon as the drier kicks in?

Just a thought.

It reminded me of my last job where the toilets were so narrow you couldn't get in or out without a 2 second blast from the drier. Clever design.

Sometimes I think we're going backwards.

*Update 1/3/08 - Note to self - never get your trains wrong... someone will notice!

Weekly Tip #3: Buy a bike

...or dust down that old one at the back of the shed. You will cut your car use and fit exercise into your daily routine.

Get lights, a pannier, a decent lock and puncture repair kit. A cycle clip will allow you to cycle in civvies. Ask your local council if they do free cycle route maps.

Spring is in the air...

... the solar panel occasionally kicking into life seems to have replaced the buds on the trees as the first sign that winter is coming to an end!

I do need it to heat up as my compost bin is almost completely full. This will only be a temporary problem as I have five pallets in my garden from the drystone wall, and I'm going to replace my single bay garden heap with a double bay model (which it originally was but the builders needed to cut it down to get scaffolding in some years ago, but that's another story).

The next big job in our garden is to lift the old concrete drive and replace it with a lawn. This is going against the current trend of concreting over front gardens to provide off street parking. This has been blamed for flooding problems as the water shoots off the surface into the drain and thus into rivers, rather than soaking into the soil and percolating through slowly.

We might get FIT at last!

According to the Guardian, UK Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks has suggested that Feed In Tariffs (FITs) might be introduced in this country. A Feed-In Tariff gives a premium price for small scale renewable electricity generators who want to export energy to 'the Grid'. This has led to an explosion in solar PV panels in countries such as Germany.

At long blimmin' last! The UK's Low Carbon Buildings Programme of grants for microrenewables has been an unmitigated disaster and our current export arrangements couldn't make it any more difficult for the little guys.

Weekly Tip #2: Bottle It Yourself

You might have seen the BBC headlines today proclaiming that bottled water has a carbon footprint 600 times that of tap water. Yes, six hundred times. Well the answer is simple: carry a bottle of tap water with you - buy one at a camping store.

When in a restaurant, no matter how posh, don't be afraid to ask for tap water. After all, if you're spending £25 on a £8 bottle of wine, they can hardly complain!