Eco Friendly House And Garden

There is now a water-saving, carbon-reducing, fuel-efficient, cost-effective and longer-lasting way to keep your windows clean!

Using advanced IT software and a specially designed solution, an established window-cleaning firm in London can now offer you just that. Whether you are a home-owner, tenant, tower block owner - or looking for commercial window cleaning in London - you can make use of their services.

It was quoted that a well known local car firm is now saving over £3000 each year on window cleaning by using this new technology to clean up their showroom!

Who Are They?
They are called NCPM247 and have been trading in the city since 1985. They are aiming to become the most eco friendly and technologically advanced window cleaning company in London.

They have become very aware of the restrictions on water use, the congestion in London, rising fuel costs, environmental issues and carbon emissions and also the ‘working at height’ government regulations and sought to find a way to work within these guidelines and still offer an excellent service. And, with an eye to the future.

They have also taken on board modern IT technology to improve their existing company. By taking advantage of the current rise in the use of and accessibility to satellite imaging software including Google Street View, they are able to offer instant (and exact) customer quotes.

Rather than arranging to drive to the customers property to give an accurate quote, they can offer a full quote while on the ‘phone during the first call, therefore booking the first appointment straight away. No extra journey needed - and no time out of your day to show them around!

What Makes Their Cleaning Different?
Firstly, they offer the ‘quote on the phone’ service as above to save time and money from the very start.

Secondly, they drive through London in their fleet of environmentally friendly cars!

Thirdly, they use their unique hydrophobic cleaning materials to keep your windows cleaner for longer. This ’secret ingredient’ coats your windows in a protective - and eco friendly - layer that actually repels water from it’s surface.

Therefore, when it rains, the rain itself is forced away from the glass and washes off any dust and dirt from the window! It creates virtually ’self-cleaning’ glass.

As a result of this, your windows will stay cleaner for longer - usually about 3 months longer - but can be as long as a year! Thinks of the savings in money with only 4 visits a year - and those reduced visits saving on fuel, time and carbon emissions! Things you won’t find with other greater or central London window cleaners
Check out their website for more information and to get a quote yourself!

Fourthly, the way the windows are cleaned actually uses only a tiny fraction of the water that would normally be used for window cleaning. Treatment of all windows (inside and out) with NCPM247 takes only about 1 litre of pure water for an average 4-Bed house. With standard cleaning techniques this rises to about 25 litres! Virtually unacceptable these days.

Add to this that the same house only needs about 4 visits a year to stay clean - that is only 4 litres of water a year. The same house would need cleaning at least every month with an ordinary window-cleaner - that’s a staggering 300 litres of water!  Not to mention all that driving!

There are many more things that are not eco friendly based that make this company stand out, including fully insured cleaners, security-checked staff, use of protective footwear when cleaning interior windows, abseiling staff for taller buildings, 9 meter cleaning poles to save use of noisy machinery and so much more.

Whether you care about the environment, the cost, or just a great first impression of your business from the street - it’s all in one here. You can’t go wrong!

Window Cleaners, London

Are You Thinking About Creating a Wildlife-Friendly Pond in Your Garden? Well here are a few pointers for you…….

There was a massive reduction in garden ponds and even those on farmlands - and as a result a lot of native mammals have lost their homes! It’s amazing how many animals rely on them not only for living in or breeding around - but as stop-overs on their way somewhere else!

And anyway - why should you just do it for the wildlife - a garden pond is a great place for you to relax yourself after a busy week working. Get yourself a comfortable chair, a drink and a good book and just sit back!

If you are thinking of creating a pond from scratch, then you have an advantage as you can make sure that it is shaped to suit the wildlife you want to see as well making it the safest pond you can and as large as you like! Big is best here.

Where:
A shady site will attract different species to a bright one so check your preferred species with the layout of your garden. If it is shallow and in direct sun you will almost certainly get an algal bloom which can be a nuisance - but could be skimmed off and used for compost!

Smaller ponds may well dry out in sun as they should only be topped up with rainwater. Never be tempted to use tap water to fill up a wildlife pond as you could kill almost everything in it!

A shallow pond will be a favourite for frogs, whereas a deeper one may well attract newts - although the deeper ones are more dangerous for small mammals (and children) and so need an escape route built in to allow creatures to climb out if necessary.

Obviously, a wildlife pond needs to be accessible by these creatures in the first place - so don’t expect your pond to become home to amphibians if it is surrounded by paving or gravel. Make sure tufty grass, lawns and shaded moist ground surround your pond - allowing them to walk or slither in from neighboring gardens or parks.

Safety:
If you have young children, make sure that you fence off the pond, or cover it with a secure metal grid. Ponds can be great fun, but they must be safe.

This counts for mammals too.

When:
If starting from scratch, start digging in the fall, when the ground is softer and the weather is bad (as this will allow it to fill up with rainwater. Make sure the bottom is filled with clay or clean sand rather than topsoil and make sure you have gently sloping sides leading in to it on at least one side. Ideally let this edge have direct contact with an unchecked lawn, allowing the marginal water plants move out onto the lawn a bit to help the transition.

The pond needn’t be over 50cms at it’s deepest - and this is safest for young children - although if over 75cm deep you may well avoid the whole thing freezing solid in a bad winter!

If your garden pond is built in direct sunlight, make sure that taller plants are around the edge to help keep the water cooler and a bit shaded. It’s not a problem to let the water level drop a bit in summer as the wet mud on the ledges will be great for invertebrates!

Fall is a great time to clean out your pond too. Amphibians have completed their life-cycles, the water in the pond will be a bit lower to make your job easier - but make sure that you don’t leave too much open water as this can be unattractive to many species. Offer up-rooted plants to your neighbors or compost them. Ideally you wouldn’t throw them into the ‘wild’ as they may contain invasive or non-native species imported in to the nursery you brought them from!

Plants:
Be aware that you may need to add some species for pond health - not all pond life can walk or float in the wind! There are lots of choices for plant-life but make your choice well.

Only buy native species when stocking up. Definitely avoid buying foreign species as they may be invasive and overrun the rest of your garden, but native species will be the best for native wildlife. Many animals have evolved to benefit from certain plants and this is true for your ponds.

Encourage a mixture of submerged, floating and emergent plants to your garden pond so they offer shelter and protection for your wildlife, but also a range of habitats for breeding and rearing young. Avoid using chemical to encourage their growth - or to reduce their numbers - as this will no doubt impact the wildlife.

Many water plants are very fast growing, so resist the temptation to make the pond perfect on day 1, and let native species colonise your garden pond over it’s first year and you will get that more natural look - free from invasive species!

Fish:
Ideally, you would not add fish to your wildlife pond as they may well eat all the wildlife that comes to your garden!

I must admit that fish tend to be the reason many people get ponds in the first place, and certain species are better than others, but best leave your new pond to the wild animals if that’s what you and your family want to see.

Humans:
Get a color chart of common garden insects and invertebrates so that you and your kids can easily identify anything that they see.

No need for great big books on the subject - just a page or 2 of the most common creatures. There is nothing better to get a kids imagination going than actually being able to know what things are easily. Things aren’t fun if you can’t get them right time and time again - make sure you brush up on it too so that you can encourage them further.

If they see something in the pond and you can tell them what it is straight away - they will learn about them easily and build on this knowledge. You could even learn a few things yourself!!!

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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!

The Environmental Cost of Cheap Plastic doesn’t make for a great story.

However, there are some people out there who want to make a difference - and a crazy millionaire is about to set sail in a 60ft boat made of plastic bottled stuck together to prove a point!

He is trying highlight the problem of the ever growing ’sea of plastic’ in the Pacific Ocean. This ’sea’ is a place where all floating rubbish from the worlds oceans eventually ends up. It then becomes ‘trapped’ there, stuck together in this one place somewhere between Hawaii and mainland US.

This mass of rubbish floating just under the surface currently weighs an estimated 3.5 tonnes and is around 3 times the size of Japan or larger than Bolivia!

The Problem:
The UN estimates that there are over 45,000 pieces of plastic floating on every square mile of the oceans - devastating the wildlife that depends on it for survival. We are all aware that turtles eat carrier bags thinking they are jellyfish and seabirds collect them from the seas and feed them to their young instead of actual food - dooming them to starvation.

Because it isn’t biodegradable, plastic is with us for ever. Every piece of plastic that has ever been made since it’s invention is still here today. Yes, it’s not all whole pieces - plastic is gradually worn down or crushed by animals and people and much is buried under the earth - but it is all still there, doing nothing but damage.

More frightening is the fact that figures suggest that over 100m tonnes more plastic is being produced each year!!! All because of human demands.

How it’s generated:
Starting with food: Think of all those individual bottles of kids fizzy soda available, all the individually wrapped cheeses rather than fresh chunks off the deli counter. Shrink wrapped vegetables rather than fresh from the farm store!

Then the home: Disposable pens are thrown away, dropped or broken every day. Because they are cheap we don’t really care about them. Like so many modern technologies, it’s cheaper to throw them out than get them repaired. Disposible anything is a disaster waiting to happen - lighters, cups, cutlery, bottles, plates, straws, jewelry, razors and diapers to name a few.

If you buy things that have been designed to be thrown out after a short time or even one single use then you are directly contributing to this environmental disaster. Companies are not going to invest money in making these disposible items recyclable either if you are buying them as a product you know you are not going to use again.

Would you put loads of effort into making your friend an expensive gift if you knew it would be thrown out straight after?

What you can do?
Here is a list of ideas for you to help reduce your plastic use, affect manufacturers and clean up after yourself and others:

1. Never drop litter or expect someone else to take care of your waste.
2. Try to avoid buying over-wrapped products - even if the packaging is recyclable, it still had to be created and who is to say that the person who uses your recycled plastic won’t dump it later.
3. Buy larger containers of your favourite packaged products so that there is more product per outer wrapping. You could even write to the companies to ask if they could reduce their plastic packaging or offer refills rather than whole new products.
4. Let your local stores know that you would rather see less packaged fresh produce by actively buying those products that are currently loose. These include meat, fish, cheese, fruit, vegetables, bread and pastries to name a few. This way the stores sales reports will hightlight customer shopping patterns and improve their service in those areas.
5. Spend that bit extra for technology and office equipment so that it lasts longer. Better quality products will be cheaper in the long run as when maintained they will have a very long shelf life. Think about what you want to buy before you make a purchase so that your technology isn’t overtaken in a month forcing you to upgrade again. If you reduce your demand on manufacturers of cheap appliances, they will have to improve their products to stay in the market.
6. Don’t buy disposable anything. If you plan your time and activities better, you will never just need that one little thing to tide you over - and disposable goods usually come in large pack sizes creating more waste than you needed!
7. Take time to reuse everything plastic you can - use bottles for mini garden cloches, tubs for jams and preserves, to store leftovers, and many more uses.
8. Recycling can sometimes be trickier as many agencies send waste to other regions or other countries to be processed creating more energy waste than necessary - as long as it’s cheaper, it will be done like this. Make sure you know where your waste and recycling is processed and voice you opinions if you aren’t happy about it.
9. Organise a beach-combing or woodland team to collect litter and plastics before they do more harm. Not only are these great fun, they make your own environment look better and improve the health of your wildlife all at the same time. And then you can dispose of the waste more responsibly.

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.