Eco Friendly House And Garden

Why plant yourself in an office when you can get your work done out in the garden?

Running an eco friendly business shouldn't be separate from your lifestyle, so why should you have to make all your decisions and phone calls in your office?  Why can't you plan your next meeting while you are planting your next crop of courgettes?  Or catch up with your contacts while you are painting your pottery?

Eco living is all about the life/work balance not just remembering to check the page setup before printing anything or ordering those reycled content envelopes!

But Smart Phones Are Bulky?

Well, good job I wasn't talking about smartphones then!  I was thinking about wireless headsets.

Modern mobile gadgets can have their place in an eco friendly office – especially if they replace old-fashioned, energy-consuming older versions – but why still rely on an old phone for your office?

Yes, simple phones with no ansaphone or display features don't use electricity and are still the most eco friendly form of telephone communication – but you can't run a successful business these days without technology – and this includes your phone.

If you were trying to run nearly all big businesses with one landline number, no answering or call divert system and no website – you wouldn't get too far.  So why not take all the gadget world has to offer – but just choose the most eco friendly companies to buy from and recycle all your old equipment.

What Is Out There?

Well, there are many companies out there that can offer a range of wireless communication headsets and accessories – like Plantronics - where you can get the whole set-up you need from the one place.  There are also many types of headsets and bluetooth ear-pieces to choose from

And you could be out there too!  Most businesses thrive on their ability to answer customer calls within seconds and to actually offer a human voice to your consumers – so what better way than to have your landline linked up to a headset that you can wear or carry around your home and garden with you – and never miss a call!

There are different accessories of course, for different purposes.  Ear pieces for when you are in public, or comfy supported headsets for longer use and greater ease of use.  Whatever suit your needs – and wants.

All options keep both your hands free for getting on with the important things in life without having to wedge the phone between your chin and shoulder, muffling your voice or dropping your phone!

Never miss and eco customer and never waste time at your desk waiting for a call!

Think smart – think eco friendly!

Shouldn't being eco friendly be easier than not being green?

Why do so many eco friendly alternatives mean 'putting yourself out' or taking longer to get things done?  When you are a busy mum or are running a tight business – green alternatives should be making your life easier – not slowing you down!

So, I have found a few great eco inventions that could make being eco aware that much easier – and hopefully save you time and money along the way…..

Whole House Switch Off:
Why waste time checking all your plugs and appliances are switched off before leaving the house – because if you are in a hurry – you might not be so thorough!

By wiring up your whole home – or just parts of it – to 1 single 'OFF' switch your life couldn't be easier!  Obviously it won't be linked up to your fridge and freezer, or anything else you need to leave on – but all the lights, TV's and other appliances will switch off until you return home!  Easy.

Power Aware Cord:
If you don't fancy a giant one off switch, then maybe glowing power cables can make it easier to see if things are switched off before you go to bed rather than climbing behind units and cabinets to check the wall switch.

Strida 3 Folding Bike:
Rather than having to carry around your bike seat, take spare clothes to work or wipe oil off your trouser leg – you could ride a tiny folding bike instead!  Gone are the days when a bike was in 1 piece and you needed to worry about leaving it outside.  No more riding in the rain or catching your shin on the pedals when pushing your bike into the garage! 

This neat little bike folds up so easily and is so portable that you have nothing preventing you cycling to work or town knowing that you can still pop inot the shops – or catch a bus if it starts raining!  And they are thinking of making an even smaller, lighter version too….

Eco Friendly Room Dividers:
There are several different eco friendly room dividers on the market that can change the appearance and layout of a room without resorting to stud walls, re-decorating or demolition. 

Either made or felt, wood, eco-friendly plastics or strengthened cardboard and designed in a modular fashion – these 'walls' could be made, shaped or moved to suit your needs – without great cost.  And coming in a variety of colours – they could act as temporary 'wall paper' as well then changed with the seasons being used again and again over time.

Just keep them coming…. We need more like these……

There is a way to save electricity that doesn’t involve any nagging!

Instead of always ‘reminding’ the kids to turn off that light and to not leave the TV on standby; and your partner to stop using the washing machine half empty and to only boil as much water as they need – nip it in the bud!

There is now an easy way to stop extra electricity being used in your home that could reduce your usage by around 10% without anyone even knowing.

They would be helping to save energy and lower your energy costs whether they left the lights on or not!

photo credit: CresySusy<

How’s That?
The standard voltage in the UK is variable – meaning that you regularly get more into your home than you actually need.

The appliances in your home work on a wide range of voltages – and they all have a minimum amount to get them started.  However, they will all keep working as normal with extra voltage – and you won’t even know they are using more electricity than they need!  

So, if they work at a basic minimum – why let them run on more? More electricity costs more money and releases more carbon……

And it would seem that too much electricity running through appliances all the time can actually shorten their ‘lifespan’ to a certain degree – so you will need to replace them more often – which is especially true for lightbulbs.

So, What Can You Do?
Well, why not limit the voltage entering your home to a standard level?

What if you could fit a special meter onto your power supply to make sure that you never got more energy than you actually needed: I mean; would you pay for 30 litres of fuel for your car everyday if you only needed 25? I didn’t think so…..

Therefore, by restricting the voltage that reaches your appliances and lights to around 240v means that they will all still work perfectly – and you won’t be wasting any energy.

And the beautiful thing is that you don’t have to worry about switches, buttons or stand-by – it basically works behind the scenes.  Once fitted it requires no maintenance, upgrades or alterations.  It just keeps saving you energy!

That way – if you do actually manage to convince your kids to switch off their Playstation – you will be saving even more!

Welcome back – and I hope the first 2 eco bathroom tips made sense!

I’m still in this holiday cottage – and in just the bathroom alone I am still finding ways to reduce their impact on the environment by making simple changes to the design and function of their bathroom.  Obviously I haven’t mentioned everything – like having a smaller sink – but I hope to have covered the main areas that could easily benefit your home if you are planning an eco-upgrade!

Needless to say all the little things added together really can make a difference if you think of them in the long term and for the whole community too. I mean 1 extra squirt of sealant in your bathroom might not seem so bad this week – but if every household in your county all went to the store and brought a tube of sealant for the same thing in the next 12 months – then it becomes a serious eco issue!

3) Proper Sealing:
The floor is tiled in this cottage – but the skirting is wood – so there is no waterproofing on the floor for cleaning purposes.  I know that it isn’t a full wetroom, but when you mop these tiles, you are going to get the wooden panels wet and allow excess water to seep down behind them and into the floor – not such a good idea really.

photo credit: Ken Doerr

Why not use tiles as the skirting so that you can virtually waterproof the room by using the same grout as the floor and so protect the walls and ground beneath from absorbing moisture.

Same goes for the sink.  Why not get a sink with a raised protective back that reaches a little way up the wall.  So, rather than the white sealant between the wall and basin holding a layer of soap or toothpaste-filled water and eventually going yellow and rotten or becoming mildew – the sink itself is in one piece so feeds the excess water back into the plughole!

It will eliminate all of the above problems and reduce the amount of cleaning and maintenance needed to virtually nothing.

4) Protect The Walls:
I don’t know about you, but I always hit the wall with the swinging light pulls – the larger the handle the more banging seems to occur! As you can imagine, each bang is damaging the wall.

Also, people can’t always find the string in the dark, so end up touching the paintwork or – as I have done if the pull string is too near the wall (as it is here) – chipped off some paint and sometimes plaster under my fingernails!

As you can imagine, it doesn’t take long for the paint to become patchy or the wall to become a bit dirty – so protect the wall with a tile. If you put a large tile or 4 smaller ones in the area where the most contact and therefore damage will occur, you can save having to repaint the entire wall for just that dirty patch!

A few tiles or a whole tub of paint?

5) More Hanging Space:
There are only 2 of us here, but the hanging space in the bathroom is virtually non-existent – so what do we do with the wet towels?

Well, you have to hang them somewhere, don’t you – which will inevitably be the backs of wooden chairs or over other wooden furniture like the stair rail. (Don’t forget that we are in a little self-contained unit away from home and without a garden so a drying horse or washing line just aren’t an option unless supplied).

Needless to say, the moisture from the towels is now being absorbed by the furniture and the room so as a result this could all be reducing their workable lifespan. And seeing as this property is designed to be used almost continually by family after family it is going to get through furniture a lot quicker anyway.

The Answer?
Well, there is nothing much I can do here as it has already been installed by the owners, but it is certainly worth considering these things when redecorating or improving your own bathrooms.

The future is looking towards sustainability and the longevity of our resources – so why not help by reducing the amount of repair and replacement your bathroom needs!

PS – it’s not quite damage to the bathroom itself, but one other thing they did is certainly a big no no and was very uncomfortable too:

6) Toilet Roll Holder:
They have put it right behind the toilet, so you have to reach right round to pull off a few sheets – but inevitably you pull off way more sheets than you actually wanted as you are bent sideways. But now they are all unrolled and in your hand – you are going to use them all aren’t you.

I mean who but the most eco addicts would leave those extra few sheets to one side and use them later?

By swapping the toilet with the sink in this room, they could have had the toilet roll holder to the side of the toilet reducing the excessive use of this already over-used resource.

Eco design should be a part of your eco living – it’s not just about the individual products.

Wasted time is the great enemy of an eco friendly professional!

Not arriving at an appointment on time can cause a huge drain on resources, peoples time, money and generally increasing your chances of opting for a more expensive and less eco friendly alternative.

Time is an invented concept that we hope to stick to – but being late can ruin a good day.  Not only for you – but also for the planet.

We all know that being eco friendly needs careful planning – and last minute fixes nearly always mean spending a fortune on a waste of resources!

The Scenario:
Say you are planning to meet a like minded associate to discuss a new product for your eco friendly business to promote.  The appointment is 10am in your city business lounge – to create a good impression.

You plan to arrive 2 hours before the appointment so that you can buy some locally made organic/fair trade/vegetarian food and drink to bring to the lounge for the meeting and to print off some last minute sales figures before she arrives.

However, you take a bit longer getting ready in the morning for no particular reason – but you know that the buses are regular so you plan to catch the next one.  That next one is delayed, so you miss your link on the train and lose another 25 minutes waiting on the platform.

You get a little bit stressed while you are waiting – thinking of what order to do things in now as you have lost around 45 minutes of time.

On arriving close to your lounge – with just under an hour to spare – you now have a new plan – but you don’t have time to walk……

photo credit: ~Sincere Stock~

The figures are more important than the food, so you head to the office in a cab straight away – however there isn’t a free colour printer for another 20 minutes as you missed your slot – so you get a bit more stressed and decide to print them in black and white so you at least have something to hand.

Then you remember the food – but now it’s too late to get to the local store – so you call a small scale catering company that the receptionist recommended and order whatever they can make at such short notice and deliver it ready to eat.

With 10 minutes to go – the colour printer becomes free and you know that this will create a better company image so you print all your figures again in colour just in time to collect the food from reception and get to the lounge before your colleague.

When she arrives, you offer her a drink and some food.  She asks if its vegetarian, and you sheepishly admit that you don’t know – so she declines.  The office coffee isn’t fair trade either, so you get her a plastic cup of tap water in the mean time – and pay reception to run out and get a suitable drink.

She asks for your figures and you pass her your file without thinking as you are still whirring from the stress, and she reads your black and white print out, and likes what she sees – however, she then finds your colour printouts of exactly the same figures underneath……..

The Result?
A complete waste of resources – just piling up higher and higher throughout the morning.  And eco friendly anything (apart from public transport) went out the window!

Planning ahead is an essential part of being eco friendly and running a successful business.  We all know that problems arise that are unavoidable – but when you really analyse everything that has caused you delays in the past few months – or even days – I bet it all just comes down to bad planning.

Those reports that your assistant didn’t get to you on time – did you really give them enough time to do it in the first place?  Did you really give your partner all the information you could have before asking them to make that important decision? 

If you used that software upgrade instead of inputting data by hand – could you have got home to see your son/daughter/nephew/niece/partner/parent in that sports day/one-off performance/school or college assembly/conference/graduation/any other achievement or anniversary?

Think about it – and think ahead.

Can working in your local bakers be just as eco friendly as saving whales in the Pacific?

Yes, of course it can!  Just because you aren’t out there on the front line fighting deforestation and humanitarian crimes – doesn’t mean you aren’t making the best choices for your environment.

Don’t get ‘ethical’ issues confused with ‘environmental’ issues – the latter being active for the planet – and the people and communities benefiting from the ethical side of things.

How Can You Help?
Well, working closer to home is an easy one for starters.  Why travel miles to work if you can get a job within walking distance of your front door.  I mean, there will be people driving past you as they work in the offices or stores near your home, and you spend the day working close to their home!

It’s not always working for an eco friendly business that makes your individual job more eco friendly either.  I mean travelling 20 or more miles a day in your car to get to an eco friendly workplace by no means compares to someone who walks 5 minutes to work in a local bakers – even if the baker doesn’t use the most eco friendly equipment! Over a year the difference is more obvious.

And if you are eco minded – then you could help to implement changes to your workplace to make them more eco-friendly in themselves.  I mean if you could work locally to promote eco friendly practices in a locally run family business in your own community – what could be more eco friendly!

Look At Yourself Now:
Even if you aren’t planning on changing jobs – there are plenty of things you could look at in your current role and help to change.  And with the shortage of truly ‘green’ jobs about – you are probably better to become a mini activist in your current role!

However, it’s not all the same green!  Just because the charity you work for helps wildlife conservation – it doesn’t mean that everything else is a given.  For example, if you are working in a retail outlet on behalf or the many charities out there – is that really green at all?

Retail stores are a massive polluter and creator of waste – I mean you only need to look out the back of a store to see the tonnes of waste cardboard and other packaging being used.  All the pricing, stock holding and transportation add up to something huge – so can you really call this an ‘eco friendly’ job?

Ideas For The Future:
Start to think about everyday things in your job as well – rather than the large sweeping achievements of the great big companies.

I like to think that the people who are working for their community are making as much of a difference as those campaigners on the other side of the world.  It’s the people who just plod along day after day thinking of all the things they could do – but not doing them!

I know now isn’t the time to be giving up your job on a whim – but you could start to work through all those little things that have been nagging you.  Find out about local funding for certain projects that might apply to your business.  Promote communication methods that save energy and canteen options that can reduce food miles.

And, trying to find an eco friendly business improvement that can save your company money will always go down well with the boss – so try to find an cost effective eco friendly angle for everything!

Low energy, CO2 reducing, HFC-free, natural materials, easy to maintain and fully compostable! 

Now that sounds a lot better than the high energy demanding, hydro-carbon filled, man-made material landfill site-filling drain on resources air conditioning units that we all know at the moment!

So if you are thinking of replacing or installing a new air conditioning system for your home or office, then maybe compare the benefits of this new system alongside the normal ones – and make you choice then.

The Financial Benefits Of The New System:
There are many many eco-friendly benefits of these new air conditioning units which I will list below, but there is also the financial costs too.  For example, the replacement filters can be fitted by you rather than having to call out an engineer, and the maintenance of the whole system is low from the start and it only costs about 10p per day to power.

You also need to input less energy into the units to keep them running as they transfer their energy very efficiently within themselves requiring less input from external energy sources.

And, they control the levels of carbon dioxide in your workspace.  Now we all know that a stuffy office is not conducive to work – and you normally fell like it’s time for a nap – but this is only due to the rise in the level of CO2 (the ppm count) with all those warm people breathing out!  So, if this level is maintained at a low level, everyone should be able to keep working and be more productive during the whole day.  And this mean better profits – essential for a small business!

The Green Credentials:
Here are some facts and figures from the Cool Phase website detailing the eco benefits of their great new invention!

• Each system installed could save around 800kg of CO2 a year.
• Units do not contains any ozone damaging refrigerants or contribute to excessive global warming.
• Outer casing is made from FSC approved plywood materials.  
• All materials used are natural, and so can be mashed up and composted at the end of their life.
• Units recover heat from their surroundings late in the day and store them until the following morning with no need for extra energy.
• If you live in the UK – this is a locally built product!

So, we should stop thinking of air conditioning as being a constant flow of freezing cold air into the workplace – but more of an ambient controlled atmosphere that actually does condition the air of your office, school or home for the better.

Better for the environment, better for your health and better for your wallet!

An eco friendly business doesn’t just talk about it – it acts on it!

Depending on the type of business that you run, or the company that you work for, there could be a certain amount of long-distance travel involved.  And long-haul means wasted time, staff not working and carbon emissions!

So Climate Care Day is asking: ‘Why not consider a ‘travel free’ day as part of your current business plan?’  This initiative supported by the WWF is trying to give you the opportunity to look at the alternatives, and make businesses more eco-friendly.

By asking you not to travel as part of your working day, they are trying to get businesses and individuals to think about the impact that their decisions can have on not only their business itself, but also on the wider environment.

What Are They Asking?
Basically, the idea of Climate Care Day is to get businesses to not arrange any long distance travel for that 24 hours.

So, on the 26th of March 2010, they are hoping that corporations will communicate via other means rather than face-to-face.

Whether this means individuals will communicate verbally by telephone, digitally via the internet or virtually with live video conferencing – it doesn’t matter.  As long as they haven’t flown or driven hundreds or thousands of miles to do it in person!

There are plenty of technological alternatives available to businesses today that can eliminate or reduce the need for business travel – and can save a lot of money in the process!

However, a lot of people are not thinking of these alternatives as they plod along doing everything as they have always done it.  Added to this is the problem of the changing market, where something that wasn’t really a viable option a few years ago is now readily and very often cheaply available.

Sometimes things that have always happened a certain way are seen as static – with no real reason to change it – well, if it has always worked like that – why change it?

But we have seen with the impressive speed with which cell phones have morphed into a huge array of handheld mobile technology gadgets that make phone calls, give you directions, display whole journals, film events, take pictures, search the internet and even play games.  Why would you still want to do all these things separately and as slowly as we used to do it?

Would you rather go to a library and scan through the paper index and individual paper journals to find a certain fact, when you could use the internet instead?  And why would you want to carry a camera, your cell and a laptop to review new products for your company, when a smart phone could do all 3 jobs in 1?

The same could be true for your business if you worked smarter – and it makes economic sense.  Save time, save money and reduce carbon emissions – but also create a better work environment and help society change for the better.

Why Do It?
Climate change is said to be the biggest threat to nature and humanity in the 21st century, and has now become a serious business issue.  Ignoring this could have detrimental effects on not only your own business itself, but on the way we work as a planet at the moment.

Coastal cities are having to make 25-year plans to move whole industries away from threatened coastlines.  You can’t just change the country’s infrastructure overnight!

And supplies and raw materials are changing – for example landfill sites are being raided for their raw ingredients which were buried in the past decades, and old computer parts are being harvested for the precious metals they contain.

We also know that in general things that stay the same are left behind.  I mean if you ran a business today that was based on using only dial-up internet- you would not be able to compete with others in the same market.

You don’t always need the newest inventions, or the most expensive – but you need a viable alternative that suits your business needs.

So, even if you can’t take part in this event, consider looking again at some business improvements – and become more eco friendly along the way.

Choosing The Right Font For Your Printing & Help Save The Planet!

Well, I’m not saying that this new invention will drastically reduce levels of methane in the atmosphere, nor will it clean up the oceans and help coral to re-grow – but it will make a difference to your contribution to other environmental issues haunting us today.

It will save ink – lots of it.

What Is This Great Idea?
Basically it’s a typeface – like Verdana or Tahoma – that has got holes in it!

It’s called EcoFont, and at normal printing sizes (size 10 for example) it looks just like every other mainstream font. Perfect for printing your emails or on-line receipts.

You can’t see the holes in the letters until you make the font larger – for example up to size 32, but for normal use you won’t really notice them. So you can carry on as normal.

Apparently the Dutch company that invented this EcoFont are called Spranq, and they say that this will save a fifth of the ink used in similar fonts – that is a lot of ink for personal uses.

And let’s be honest, there isn’t a lot of personal printing that needs to be in perfect font, apart from the odd letter to the bank or a job application. The rest of the stuff you print won’t do any harm if it’s a bit ‘holey’ will it?

What Can You use It For?
Well, you can download the font free from ecofont.eu and get a good look at it and see what size you are happiest with – or whether the holes at the larger sizes even bother you that much anyway.

And it can only be used for printing drafts of homework and things at the last minute anyway. I mean, you can write you essays or reports in your preferred fonts and sizes, and only when you want to print the draft can you highlight the whole thing and change the font to EcoFont before printing.

After you have printed you can hightlight it all again and return it to your nice fancy font for the final report. That way it doesn’t have to be your ‘new font’ for ever – it can be your new printing font!

And why would the kids mind if their things were printed in a font with microscopic holes in it anyway?

Think of the money saved in ink-cartridges and the reduced pressure on natural resources by using a fifth less ink than you currently do!

Add this to other eco-office inventions such as the Eco Printing Software and recycled paper and you could be eco friendly and money-saving at the same time!

Renewing your magazine subscription on time is helping the environment?

I recently received a subscription reminder for my National Geographic membership – way in advance of my current subscription ending.  And I almost put it to one side.

Knowing that I would renew it – why did I leave it to one side for later?  Was it because I thought why give them my money several months before they needed it?  Was it because I was hoping to book a vacation and thought I’d leave the money in my account just in case? 

It doesn’t matter why – because I didn’t do it in the end – I paid for another 2 years (the most you can pay for in advance) there and then.

Why Was I So Prompt?
Firstly, I know that – like every other organisation in the world – they would remind me again nearer the time – sometimes several times in fact so there was no chance that I would forget to do it.  And that was one of the reasons.

Why create all that extra administration and paperwork and postage and energy waste – when all I needed was 1 piece of paper.

If you follow the possible paper and energy trail of not renewing until the last minute – it starts to get a bit messy……

1) Computer system at NG HQ flags my account up as needing renewing – so 1 staff member or just the computer software itself triggers the 1 renewal letter to be sent to me – along with the renewal form and their standard complimentary envelope.  It gets printed, gets posted and gets delivered to my door.

2) I receive the reminder and leave it on the side.

3) After receiving no reply, the NG computer triggers a further reminder letter, payment form and complimentary envelope which is printed, posted and delivered again.

4) I receive the reminder and immediately throw it away into the recycling – as I know I already have the original form – and I remind myself to send it off this time – but leave it a week or so.

5) The NG computer still hasn’t received my renewal and has passed through various screening systems that NG staff are no doubt monitoring and keeping details of.  This processing isn’t free and certainly uses up a lot of NG’s time and resources.

The system then triggers a final reminder letter for me – with the obligatory renewal form and envelope – all printed, posted and delivered.

6)  I receive the final reminder and am encouraged to act on it – sending the payment in the post – and throwing out the other reminder letter, form and envelope for recycling.

I’m also sure that if you allowed your subscription to expire – that most companies would continue to write to you to try to in you back again – wasting more resources and putting up the price of it in the process! 

I mean they can’t staff all those offices, computers and memberships and send all those letters for free every 12 months to millions of people!

What a waste!

And It Doesn’t End There…..
I have the choice to renew for either 1 or 2 years on the form – and if I only do 1 year – this all gets repeated every 12 months!

If you can subscribe for longer – do so.  Not only does this save on renewal paperwork – but it’s better for you!  You get to pay today’s price for it rather than the cost in 2 or 4 years time – which will no doubt be higher!

If memberships give you the chance to sign up by direct debit then do this instead as it saves them having to send out the renewal form and envelope to you – they just need the ‘Thank You’ letter to be sent every year.  You sometimes get a better deal this way too as you are saving them money.

If your membership company is a UK charity – then make sure you sign up for the Gift Aid scheme – where they can claim back the tax on your donation or membership fee – raising more money for something you believe in and support – and at no extra cost to you!

If you can, sign up for their details and/or magazines to be sent to you via email – saving on printing and postage.  Make sure that you also tick the boxes to say that you don’t want to receive whatever it is that you know you won’t read – that way you get less wasted mail – whether it’s their newsletter or junk mail.

If you are joining a company for the first time – make sure you tell them if you do not want their ‘joining’ gift.  Again, this will save them money and ultimately the environment as it won’t be affected by them getting it to you!

And Finally:
Unless it says FREEPOST only on the envelopes – always put your own stamp on the envelope so that the companies you are supporting can keep more money for themselves.

Companies or charities with more money in the bank (rather than being spent on postage and renewal letters) will ultimately stay in business longer, give you a better service and achieve their goals more successfully as a result!