Eco Friendly House And Garden

Why Not Make Even More Out Of Your Eco Friendly House And Garden This Year?

Rather than just living in your house as normal - why not consider a few of these ways to no only improve the eco friendly qualities of your home - but to make it work for you too.

I mean, why should a house just sit there doing nothing? Make it more useful than it already is by making some small changes or concessions….

Here are a few ideas for you to consider with regards to ’sharing’ your home with others for the benefit of others - as well as your bank balance in some cases!

Empty Rooms Are A Waste:
Even if you turn of all heating and seal up all windows - an empty room is a waste of resources!

It’s already in a home filled with energy and bodies - so why leave rooms empty when you could make them work for a living and keep the worlds ‘footprints’ smaller - after all, the more people living in the same house can save on so many levels!

If you aren’t into a full time tenant and live in a busy town or city, why not consider a Monday-to-Friday tenant instead. No huge commitment, less belongings and they are usually a reliable adult too!

Or the other end of the extreme - if your house is too big for you but you don’t want to downsize for whatever reason, then why not eco renovate and create a self contained unit in the basement or whatever and rent this out as as a permanent let or holiday home depending on your location.

Hotel Rooms Even More So:
Why not treat your home as a swap for a hotel room - either as a holiday for yourself or while you are away.

Firstly, you could take a holiday swap this year instead of booking a hotel. let a family move into your home while you go live in theirs! Not everyone is looking for an equal swap either - you might get a cute cottage for your family home, or a spacious farmhouse for your city flat!

Secondly, if you live near a local attraction or event (like Wimbledon or a show ground) then why not time your holidays to coincide with a huge demand for lettings! Signing up with an agency could bring you up to £2000 a week depending on your home and the event you are close to!

Parking Spot Or Tennis Court?
Same goes for the outside of your home - why not rent out unused space to others at virtually no cost to you or really any effort either!

If you have land that people could park on and you live in a busy location - why not let someone park there? You aren’t using it - and they probably waste time and petrol every morning looking for a spot!

And the same goes for your tennis court, trampoline, pool, piano, climbing frame or anything else you have sitting around that you aren’t using 24 hours a day. You might not want to charge your closest friends - but a few quid for a game of tennis for some young kids or keep-fit oldies won’t go amiss - basically paying for it’s own maintenance.

Your Skills Too:
It’s not just physical things that can help out others and bring in a few extra pounds - what about your own skills?

Music lessons, language lessons, discussion groups, Body Shop parties and product research groups. All could use your skills and your lounge, conservatory or kitchen - and of course - you!

Or if you are on a country walk or in a cute village, why not sell cakes and tea or garden veg and flowers in your front garden for passers-by!

House In The Country

Get Your Home On TV!
If you live in a city, your home has a great garden, great views or great architecture, or you have some great internal features - you could ‘model’ your home!

Let a photo or TV agency know about it and you could rent your house and garden out for magazines, TV or even movies!

You don’t even have to do anything, they set it all up and then take it all away again - pain free and you won’t be in any of the shots - unless you want to be!

Make some time to go to a show to get some top tips for your eco friendly house and garden!

The whole show doesn’t have to be uber green - just on the right theme, and then you can go and pick out the bits you like and put pressure on the companies that are not offering what you want!

Many tips and tricks for home redecorating or garden landscaping don’t have to be new-fangled and complicated - there are many things that we can do that are eco friendly without even trying!

Also at shows, you get to see products that aren’t found in supermarkets due to their ‘rules’ on listings, like biodegradable toiletries, organic foods and fair trade supplies.  You just won’t find these on the high street - so they bring them to the shows so you can get hands-on experience with them rather than blindly ordering things off the Internet!

1) The National Home Improvement Show - Earls Court, London
With over 18 exhibitors being from energy efficiency companies and talks and seminars from environmentally active lecturers and TV presenters - you know you could be on to a good thing here!

Take your pick from all the departments including renovations, kitchens, bathrooms and gardens as see if you can get some great advice on using the right resources, getting eco friendly appliances and other homewares as well as sustainable produced garden furniture and buildings.

2) The National Wedding Show - NEC, Birmingham
If you are even remotely thinking of getting married - then you must consider a trip to a wedding fair.  Weddings can cost at least £20,000 for a simple affair - so if you are after an eco friendly wedding, then you had better plan in advance to make sure that you get the best products and services booked up in advance - rather than have to settle for second best when you run out of time!

And, there are bound to be things involved with a wedding that you hadn’t really even considered looking in to like car hire and tablecloths!  At a show like this - they have already done all the thinking; just turn up with a notepad and pen and comfy shoes!

3) Mind, Body & Soul 2010 - Olympia, London
Take a day out to unwind from the stresses of life - and try out some of the great relaxation remedies, complementary therapies and practical sessions.

Find yourself surrounded by experts on stress, therapy, yoga and many other well known and well used techniques that could help you realise your potential and make some serious changes in your life, your work or your free time.

Raised Garden

4) Grand Designs Live - NEC, Birmingham
Covering everything from food to flowers, lofts to landscaping and from sash windows to sustainable sheds!

Seriously, it’s not just about buying a plot of land or derilict church and building a massive monstrosity on it like the earlier Grand Design TV Shows - its all about making things better, more eco friendly and long lasting - and not just for 1 home - but for whole communities.  

5) The Baby Show - Earls Court, London
Come here and find out about everything you will need for your little one before they arrive - and for your growing ones who need some new inspiration and equipment - or for yourself to help cope with the new lifestyle that is shaping your every day life.

Not only will your get the chance to try out all the existing products that are new to you - there will also be innovative products and companies out there with something new to the whole world!  Whether it’s a new eco friendly material, new biodegradable toiletries or organic baby foods - you can bet that it is all here!

So, what are you waiting for - make some space in your diary….

Not only will a working smoke alarm save your your life - it will save natural materials!

Imagine the total and utter devastation of a burned-out home.  Imagine all your possessions - gone!

Now think about the tiny little battery that could help prevent that - and all you need to do is press the little ‘TEST’ button every week or so to prevent this waste.

Now let’s not even think about the really personal possessions that will be lost - let’s just think about the rest as well: the sofa, the curtains, kitchen units, beds, wardrobes, carpets, tables, electrical goods, pictures, toys, and everything else you adorn your home - and your life - with.

All gone.

photo credit: Timitrius

Now, think about all those materials that have been needlessly wasted - and which now need to be replaced,  Possibly even your entire house itself is destroyed completely - and maybe even parts of a neighbouring home too.

Yes, if you are insured, the financial costs of replacing it all will be low - but that isn’t what eco friendly living is all about, is it? 

Why Bother Then?
And, I’m not trying to say here that these material things are more important than human lives - but it is yet another reason to check (or buy) a decent smoke alarm for your home!

And yes, I am well aware that a smoke alarm might not be able to save everything in your home - but it gives you the chance to save most of it.

It is really time that we started to value our possessions as more longer term investments., rather than just acting like they are ‘fashion accesories’ that can be replaced whenever we want.

Value Isn’t Always In Money!
We need to start valuing our homes and their contents as though they are as valuable as the natural resources we are plundering to make them.  Your curtains could be made from materials that were grown in a hillside farm in Asia, your table from a forest in South America and your electrical goods from a mine in Africa.

You wouldn’t be so quick to replace them if you could see where they came from, the things that were done to retrieve them and all the natural materials used to get them to you in the first place.

Furniture and the like should be valued at their entire cost - from source to your home - not just their financial cost from the store.

I bet a table made by your grandfather and given to you for nothing would be far more valuable to you than a table you paid £1000 for from a store!  Even though someone elses family has made it for you instead!

We need to start thinking about everything as more valuable these days - and you can start by checking your smoke alarm!

National Family Week (UK) runs from May 31st to June 6th - but make yours and eco friendly one!

The event is all about celebrating Family and your time together - either indoors surrounded by books and films or outside knee-deep in grass and surrounded by bird song!

But there is no reason why your events can’t be green, local and without creating enough waste to fill your entire bin!

There are many events being held around the country that are on the official website, but why not use their guide to make a week of eco friendly fun for yourself your family and your friends.

The weeks events are running along a sort of ’schedule’ to help give people a rough plan if the week, and you can do as little or as much as you like - or create your own eco fun, but the week is as follows:

Monday - Eco Friendly Picnic:
Why can’t you arrange an event where you make an old fashioned outdoor feast, with local or organic produce brought in bulk - rather than everything in it’s own tiny bottle or individual wrapping.  Why not get one person to bake an enormous cake, one to bake a loaf of fresh bread, one to chop homegrown salad and bring home-laid hard-boiled eggs for the filling. 

Buy huge bumper packs of crisp and nibbles to share out and bring all fully reusable plastic plates and bowls to take home after.  And don’t forget some tubs to collect wild blackcurrants or fallen apples in!

Tuesday - Family Film Day:
Why not extend the picnic theme indoors with a great matinee of one or two of the families favourite films - make sure one is a classic musical to get everyone singing and dancing.  Before the first film, maybe all spend time in the kitchen mixing pastry and cakes so that when the film is over there is plenty of home-made food for everyone to tuck into before the next film!

Wednesday - Great Story Telling Day:
Rather than read other peoples stories - why not spend this day surrounded by scissors, glue and old magazines with a selection of pens and string - and have everyone create their own great adventure story from all your old magazines and bits of the outdoors like pressed flowers and leaves!  Something they can take away and keep.

Thursday - Green Road Trip:
Car or minibus, it doesn’t matter - but if there is an adventure to be had getting there is half the fun.  Rather than take the straight route - why not find the country lanes that go through tiny villages, steepled churches and fields of cows and horses.  Maybe even take in a ruined castle or 2 on the way as well - and don’t forget the camera and a tasty home-made packed lunch!

Friday - Eco Friendly House Party:
Anything goes here - whether it’s literally a party that goes on all night (without annoying the neighbours of course) or whether it’s a day-time party where people bring their family and some tasty goodies to share.  Or maybe help out with some spring cleaning or reducing and recycling.

Take one room of your home that really needs a sort out and get everyone involved. Whether it’s taking stuff to the recycling centre, community furniture project or around a friends - many hands make light work! Maybe get together to help an elderly relative or neighbour - or just your own home and ring some green changes!

Saturday - Eco Garden Fun:
Maybe this one could be an eco garden house party, where you all take it in turns to attack someones garden for the better, laying hedges, creating a wildlife pond, a bug corner, putting up bird feeders or just planting some veg! Things you never really get round to yourself - especially with the kids under your feet! Imagine to things you could achieve with 10 people instead of just you and your mum!

Whatever you choose to do, I hope you have fun - and maybe send in some photos!
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Is the old-fashioned paper magazine got to go if you are trying to create an eco friendly house?

Well, This is one that even I struggle with, as I love to hold things in my hand when I read them - especially if it about something that I am passionate about.

But should I feel guilty about all that paper, all that ink and all that postage?  Should I be scrolling down on my computer instead?

So, to help you decide, I am giving you the green versions of all the problems along the way - and why paper doesn’t have to be physically recycled to be eco friendly!

The Paper:
No longer does a magazine have to be made with illegally or unsustainably ‘farmed’ virgin pulp from the rainforests of the Amazon or Borneo.  It can be made from either recycled paper, or from FSC certified wood.

The first option means that you are actively making all your other recycling worth while as you are creating a market for used goods - and the more people that buy recycled goods, the more recycling we will see as a whole.

The FSC certified paper will mean that the paper you are reading has not been sourced from anywhere that is damaging the environment or the habitat that it came from.  And as new trees are planted all the time to keep the woodlands balanced, more carbon is absorbed from the atmosphere than if the existing ‘older’ forest remained intact.

The Ink:
There are many different inks available today that are less polluting than existing versions, and those that are made with vegetable oils are becoming much more common.  This trend means that the components of the ink are now naturally degradable rather than releasing man-made chemicals into the environment.

There are also techniques that mean that less ink is used per letter typed, therefore reducing the volume or ink used per magazine.

The Postage:
Many magazines are now packaged in biodegradable clear packaging - which will clearly state how to dispose of it - but there are many that are not - so you may need to write to them and ask why?

Also, many magazines (even those in biodegradable wrapping) and those who write about global issues, still fill their magazines with advertising material, which ultimately weighs down the overall package. 

Not only are these ‘leaflets’ making the postal service use more fuel to transport them (imagine 10,000 people all getting sent the same 3 leaflets extra - it soon adds up for more fuel), but they will no doubt get put straight into the recycling bin, as most people just want to read the magazine, not read about greener grass or an over 50’s health plan!

The Opposition:
So, should we all read our magazines online instead?  With no paper, ink, postage or deforestation to worry about it should be an easy decision, right?

One clear benefit will be financial - but not for you and your friends. If you can’t pass on your old magazines to your friends and family anymore, then they will all have to buy their own copy - which will mean that ‘real’ eco magazines will get 1000’s more £’s or $’s to put towards their green causes!

But on the not-so-positive side - well, lets just think about this first:  How green is the computer, laptop, e-reader or smart phone you are reading your online magazine on?

Now I know that there are many computers involved in the making of the paper magazine these days, but that’s where it stops.  So unless you have an eco friendly branded electronic device - how many rare minerals and toxic compounds have been used to create your ‘online magazine’?

And, are you charging your laptop or ‘phone with renewable green energy - or are you still using the uber polluting coal-fired electricity to keep your devices going?

And one final point is what will I read in my doctors waiting room if all magazines are online only?  Will the surgery need to provide e-readers for us all?  Or will we have to bring our own?

A Life Stripped Bare: tiptoeing through the ethical minefield - Leo Hickman

I read a lot of books and magazines about the environment and ways to become more eco friendly, but I have at last found one that is really down to earth about the whole thing.  It is full of interesting facts and figures - but entertaining at the same time.

The reasons he gives for his actions and the changes he does and doesn’t make are so ‘real’ that it offers us all a chance to see where we too are choosing how ‘green’ we think we can be - or how ‘green’ we actually want to be!

He shows that you don’t have to go without things or scrimp and save all the time, but that it can be a viable option depending on your life style.  For example, working in a formal environment and having a baby can mean a different set of criteria to those working on a small holding without a family.

Could you really go to work in central London if you hadn’t shaved your chin for a week or were trying to wash your suits less and your whites weren’t that white?

What’s It About?
Well, the author Leo Hickman, has decided to find out how he could become ‘green’ and make his house more eco friendly.  He has recently moved to a new property and has a small baby, but generally he is just like any other average person in terms of ethical living.

He invites 3 specialists in to his home and life to find out what he has achieved so far, where he has gone wrong and what he can do in the future.

The result is a totally truthful account of his life and thoughts - as well as those of his not-so-convinced wife!

He covers everything from holidays to worms, nappies to the NHS, kitchen cleaners to lemon juice - and will have you in stitches along the way.

Why Is It Good?
Well, it allows you to see for yourself how eco friendly your own home is and more importantly - how you judge the actions of others.

There are many things he isn’t doing (or won’t do) that I find quite acceptable - and some things he decided were ‘ok’ that I found myself shocked at.  But basically it’s all about levels of green - as I must shock people who are ‘more green’ than I am with some of the things I think are quite acceptable.

He also gets letters from random people (he writes for The Guardian newspaper) who are what I would call extreme!  There is 1 lady who ‘washes only her stinky bits’ to save water and brushes her teeth with what she herself describes as a foul tasting concoction of salt and bicarbonate of soda to avoid chemicals!

Where do you sit on the green-scale?

How It Made Me Feel:
In general, his words certainly made me feel that I was lacking in certain areas and could really try a bit harder - but I also tended to agree with his comments regarding how ‘little’ it all feels in the whole global picture.

When you hear of all the disasters on the planet and how governments of the world seem to be trying their best to cut down forests, kill off species and pollute the atmosphere - you wonder if washing out your milk carton for recycling or watering your garden with bath-water is really going to stop the planet from falling to pieces?

Leo’s story just makes me feel like the little things do help and that my efforts are not being wasted.  It also tells me that there are many, many, many other people out there doing the same - or better - to help us curb our wasteful habits and make a difference for the future.

More Eco Friendly?
If you do fancy reading this book - make sure that you get this book from your local library to save a whole new one being made - and while you are there check out their noticeboard for some local events you can attend to support your local community!

If you do want your own copy for reference, then check online (there are usually free Internet computers at libraries) for a second-hand one on many of the book trading sites like Amazon, eBay, or Freecycle or search for another site. 

Let me know what you think!

I Checked My Own Toiletries Products To Prove I was Below Average……..

……and the results were a shock to me!

Now, I hardly use any toiletries on a daily basis.  By this I mean that I don’t wear perfume, style my hair or wear make-up every day.  It’s rare to do these things once a month even - but I was still amazed at my chemical usage!

After writing my recent article: 7 Tips For Eco Friendly Health & Beauty, I went to bed as usual and actually remembered to put some night cream on my face (not something I do every night - but that night, I looked at the ingredients:

41 there were in total!  In 1 tiny product.

That is almost unbelievable for what I thought was a simple anti-wrinkle face cream - so I took a good look at everything else toiletries-wise that I had used that day:

Shower Gel:             19
Anti-Perspirant        10
Dandruff Shampoo  35
Sore Neck Cream      13
Hand Soap               28
Night Cream             41

Total:                    136 ingredients!!!!!!

10 more than the average!  I dread to think what my friends use, what with nail varnish, make-up, hair care products, perfumes, body lotions, shaving creams and cleansing products!

Surely, we are just too accepting of the advertising or the packaging on the shelf.  Why have I never wondered why these products need so many components?

I have often wondered why the food I eat - like flavoured crisps or cakes - have so many added ingredients, but never my toiletries which ultimately enter my body through my skin.  And here I haven’t included toothpaste (16) and washing up liquid (10) or the washing powder I use that stays on my clothes (15) amongst others.

But do more eco-friendly products actually have less ingredients, the same number but ‘better’ ingredients, or just less and better ingredients?

The Competition:
Well, I had a peak at some eco friendly products to compare, and here are some of the results:

Ecover Washing Up Liquid: 10
Same number of ingredients but more plant-based ingredients.  But I suppose that even daffodils are toxic to humans, right?

The Body Shop eau de toilette: 5
One of these is water (aqua) anyway, but the first (and therefore the largest) ingredient is described as ‘ethanol which has been rendered toxic!’.  However, we know it wasn’t tested on animals!

Ethical Superstores Lavera Anti-Dandruff Shampoo: 23
Quite a few less, but still quite high I think.  It’s vegan friendly and has some organic ingredients.  All of the ingredients were either plant extracts or not on the ‘dangerous’ list when it comes to chemicals!

Neals Yard Night Cream: 17
Well, it hasn’t got the anti-aging claims of my current face cream - but then I still think I look wrinkly - so maybe it’s not worth all the extra chemicals anyway!  Most of these ingredients are known herbal ingredients to help with skin, etc.  It all looks very nice on the packaging!

Mine has many ingredients that I cannot pronounce and includes a muscle relaxant, several known irritants, an ingredient used in paint solvents, an ingredient used to repair roofs and make basketballs, a lubricating oil and a fuel additive!

Maybe I will think twice when I buy my replacement products!  And a future article will no doubt show my findings on which ingredients to avoid in your own toiletries and cosmetics!

What about you?  What’s your worst product in terms of number of ingredients!  Add up your normal days worth and let us know!

Have you ever wanted to know more about sustainable living, and get advice on converting your house and garden into more energy efficient and chemical-free environments? Well here is your chance.

The Homes For Good show in April this year, is all about offering advice and suggestions for every householder, offering new products and new approaches to old concepts that will make your life more ‘green’.

Why Change?
The choices we make can have a profound effect on the toxins in our home, the environmental impact of our house and garden and the effect on our local community.

Whether you are building a new house, garage, barn or other outbuilding from scratch - or redecorating or modernising an existing room or premises - you can make better choices. However, rather than researching everything from scratch you could always ask the experts, people who have been working in the industry for years.

You will also have the opportunity to talk to others like yourself, who are new to many eco-friendly concepts. We are all here for the same thing, so make sure you are prepared to talk to exhibitors and other visitors to get some answers regarding your concerns or interests.

What’s There?
There will be over 100 exhibitors including Eco Trust (sustainability), Neate (wind turbines), Green Stuff (IT solutions) and many many more covering solar, water, electricity, house-building, architects, conservation of old, lime suppliers and many for the eco garden.

There will also be free demonstrations where you can get your hands on some new and revolutionary technology. There will also be talks from experts and trade workers as well as books for research and products to buy.

All this for only £5 entry fee (£2 for students and senior citizens) and it’s free to anyone under 16 as well!

Check online at www.homesforgood.info for more information and directions.

I’m not a fashion follower and I don’t buy the latest models of everything the minute it changes, but I am planning on buying myself a new laptop.

My current laptop is getting rather tired, and I know that buying new technology can be a waste of resources but I am in a dilemma. I have been using the same piece of equipment for several years now, it is very slow and sometimes doesn’t start up at all! It’s also getting a bit tricky to keep on top of things as often as I’d like.

I don’t want to buy a PC as I don’t really have room for the whole unit and I want flexibility to use it wherever I am - also a PC uses more energy than a laptop AND laptops are designed to run cooler so no need for the great big energy-sapping fans found in desktops.

To send and receive emails, write new articles and research projects and everything else - I need access to the Internet and my current laptop is a bit behind the times. It doesn’t have WiFi, so to become ‘connected’ outside of my home, I would need to buy a 3G stick to replace the cable to my broadband server.

If I use someone elses laptop or PC (and security is not an issue - which it usually is) I already need to use a flash drive (USB stick) to transfer the data back onto mine. My laptop is now so old that it won’t run at all unless it is plugged into the mains, so I am really in the laptop ‘dark ages’.

And working online is always going to require certain technologies and securities, so it’s not like I just want a laptop to mess about on occasionally or to show off to my friends - it is part of my life.

So, What Are My Options?
A) Change the way my life is going and try to live a technology-reduced life. This would result in a complete turn-around for my laptop needs (so I wouldn’t rely on the Internet for day to day things) and the old one will be fine.  Although I might aim for this in the future, I’m not really in a position to do so now.

B) Stick with what I have and just put up with everything taking longer and hope that it doesn’t break down and lose all my important data. This means I will need to buy other smaller additions to make up for it’s age and to keep up with the times! However, if I buy upgrades and other USB attachments and it ’stops working in the next 6 months or so - then I will have to buy another old one (see C), or a new one anyway - and have to sell all the now unnecessary attachments!

C) Buy a reconditioned laptop and hope that it has been completely cleared so no sensitive data or damaging viruses are on it. Also without really knowing how much better than mine it is and for how long it will last is this even a very good option?

D) Buy a brand new netpad - a tiny laptop that only runs programs that I use. It comes with guarantee from the manufacturer that they will recycle it when I no longer need it, removing all the toxic materials before disposal and they will reuse any parts they can. Obviously that won’t be anytime soon, but at least the manufacturers now-a-days have to be more responsible!

So, Where Am I?
I’ve been checking out the options for new laptops, and here are some of the things I will be looking out for:

Efficient Running:
I need the technology to determine when my laptop needs to use less energy. Ideally as a result of this, it will adjust the flow into the machine saving my battery and extending it’s running time and reducing my drain on my electricity supply.

Many machines lose energy as heat when being used and this new technology (already in some laptops) claims to make them more than 96% power efficient.

Reduced Chemicals:
There are many hazardous chemicals currently used in laptop technology. Many companies claims to have removed up to 37 hazardous chemicals - including both lead and mercury - from their products. The current WEEE directives only ask for 6 to be removed.

This step would also make sure that discarded computers would pollute less. And of course that their factories are free of these chemicals too - perfect for retaining the health and safety of their employees!

Eco Friendly:
Ideally the company and their suppliers are sticking to green methods as well. I need to know that the long list of components and added ‘ingredients’ used for new technologies and equipment is not harming others along the way to their finished products. Also that foreign companies are not exploiting the environment or the communities that they rely on for raw materials.

Recycling:
I would like to be reassured that manufacturers are designing their products with their dismantling in mind, so that the components can be reused, recycled or discarded individually (rather than the whole lot just being thrown away).

I have also heard of several companies including Asus who have already collected over 5500 unwanted pc’s from their customers and have been reusing the parts where possible and reclaiming the precious metals and technology from machines that cannot be repaired.

They also claim to have donated over 1000 usable computers to local schools in disadvantaged communities as part of their ‘recycling’ package.

The Results:
I know that shoppers need to talk with their money, so I intend to do just that. If I make sure that I buy from a company that is heading in the best direction - this is not just true for laptops and other technologies, but for kitchen appliances, food, clothes and cars to name a few - then I know I am part of the change.

The more people like us that support the efforts of those companies that are trying to make a difference - the more of an impact they can make. If other companies start to see their designs out-sold by such ‘eco-friendly’ companies - they may well start to be more responsible too and clean their own acts up.

If we keep buying products because of the brand rather than the good they do, we can never expect any changes to take place.

So do your bit next time you buy!

First things first here - I am not expecting everyone here to have all the latest inventions for saving energy, composting your waste and producing all your own food and energy!

This article is just focusing on energy to get the ball rolling, and will hopefully offer you tips and ideas for those little steps that can help you save money and help the environment save itself!  Don’t forget, that the planet can do just fine with whatever we throw at it and will still be here long after we have gone and taken all the other plants and animals with us - it will never just disappear - it will just adapt.  Think of the primordial soup.

What we are trying to do is save the human race.  We need a planet where the human race can survive, not just an actual planet.  Without certain plants and animals, humans will just fade away.  Without certain weather and environmental factors, humans will not be able to survive.

I know it all sounds a bit dramatic, but science has told us that this is where we are heading, we are destroying the very things we need to survive as we are now.

Your efforts can slow this down, between us we can help reduce our impact on the environment and make the world look a bit less bleak for our children and their children.

Electricity.
Electricity is one of the easiest energy source to save money on.  I know that it is really annoying to lean over the back of the PC or the television to switch everything off, but it all helps.

Valuable resources are used to create the energy you are wasting every time you go away for the weekend and leave appliances in a state where they are drawing electricity - and of course it is costing you money as well.  The energy suppliers don’t give you free electricity to keep the light on you washing machine saying ‘READY’. 

Just because you are not actually using an appliance, it does’t mean it is not using electricity.

Water.
Water is a bit trickier as some people have their certain bathroom routines, and I am the first one to opt for a deep bath, but you are still allowing your wages to flush down the toilet every time you do a full flush for a tiny wee, or leave the tap running for whatever reason (cleaning teeth/rinsing plates or veg/having just filled up the kettle but going over an plugging it it before turning off the water!).  These are just little things but they cost you money.

Gas.
Gas is very wasteful.  Try to avoid all appliances (apart from central heating) that use gas because it just runs up the bills.  I once watched the gas meter when I switched on my gas fire - and rest assured I will never use another in my home - go look at yours!.  I have one tip for saving gas, and that is don’t use it!  

If you are using a gas fire - and creating gas does give off less carbon than the creation of electricity - then make sure that the room it is in is well insulated to retain as much of the warmth as possible (curtains pulled/ door closed/ double glazing/ etc).  That way, whatever heat it gives you is controlled and not wasted.

Appliances.
And it’s not just the energy used to run the appliances that is a concern - what about the energy and resources used to make them in the first place?

Now I know that there are now more energy-efficient products on the market, and you should seriously consider buying these when you next need to buy an appliance, but don’t buy one if your old one is still working well.

The reason?  What are you going to do with the old one?  If you are going to throw it away - that is a complete waste of resources.  The old one will end up discarded on a skip, wasting all the valuable metals and minerals that went into creating it.  By all means give it to a breaker who will be able to reclaim any parts that are still useful and recycle them into other machines.

But you are thinking that you will give it to a charity or another person - and this is the better option, but either way, the machine will still be being used by someone.  It is still going to be using the same amount of energy whoever has it, but you would have spent money (and used further resources) to buy your new one as well. 

And I’m sure that if some mathematician could work out the extra energy you save with your new appliance and compare it to the energy cost of making your new appliance, transporting your new appliance, running your new appliance and the running costs of someone else still using your old appliance - it won’t be a saving.

The message I am trying to pass across here, is that jumping on the band-wagon of eco friendly living before you have eased yourself into the whole ‘circle of eco’ could acutally do you more harm than good.  You may have spent a lot of money or invested a lot of time in a new eco-friendly theory or appliance - possibly having family rows about it all, only to find out from someone else that you could have made a different decision in the first place.

Take your time.
Don’t rush into this whole style of living until you have read up on the issues or have spoken to friends, and have drawn the line about your limits.  Making small, effective changes that suit your lifestyle will last longer and give you more satisfaction than some of the bigger changes that you cannot keep up with and end up giving up on.

For example, if you can easily remember to reuse your shopping bags, do that.  If you don’t have a garden or an allotment it would be pointless to collect your waste food for composting.  If you can easily buy (recycled and/or charity) birthday cards on plain paper with plain envelopes then do so.  If you have 2 or more children however, you probably shouldn’t try to swap your car for bicycles!

Be reasonable to yourself and you will achieve more - and feel better about it too.