Eight Easy But Different Ways to be Greener

Books

Books use a colossal amount of paper. Making the paper, printing and binding the books and transporting them uses a lot of resources and energy. Disposing of them can also be a problem. The simplest solution for that (other than to stop reading books!) is to buy a suitable portable device which allows you to read e-books. This can either be a dedicated ereader device or make sure your next phone or MP3 player supports that function. Alternatively, visit your local library, just make sure you walk or cycle there!

Electric Kettles

I have often heard the advice to fill them with no more than the water you need, and that is good advice. But you can take it further by switching off the kettle as soon as the water inside is warm enough. Tea, for example, only needs the water heated to about 90-95°C. Even when you need the water fully boiled you can switch the kettle off as soon as it is bubbling vigorously rather than waiting for the thermostat to respond. The hotplate/element in the kettle doesn’t cool instantly and will continue to heat the water for several seconds after the power is off.

Even saving 20 seconds off the running time of the kettle makes a difference. If you boil the kettle four times a day, saving 20 seconds each time that adds up to 480 minutes (8 hours) of kettle time per year. With the average kettle using 2-3 kilowatts of electricity that makes a clear difference to your electricity consumption.

Early Nights

If you go to bed sooner after it goes dark then you simply won’t need the lights, television etc. on for so many hours. You can always get up a little earlier to compensate for the loss of time but don’t start getting up before dawn or the saving will be reduced.

 Local Produce

Try to eat more local produce. More importantly really try to cut down on those foods you eat which are imported from huge distances away from where you live. The most obvious example of this is eating British lamb instead of New Zealand lamb (assuming you live here in the UK).

Give Cold a Chance

We are kind of spoilt these days by central heating, good insulation and double glazing. During the winter months simply letting yourself acclimatise to the lower temperatures can save a significant amount of heating energy. The easiest way to do this is to choose a particularly cold day and turn down your thermostat 2°C before going outdoors for two or three hours. When you get back inside your house it will still be so much warmer than outdoors that you will not notice that it is actually cooler than before. Obviously you can also wear more clothing to compensate. Within a few days you won’t be able to tell that your house is cooler until you get your next energy bill.

Toilet Paper

If you can use one or two less sheets of toilet paper per day on average, imagine how many less rolls per year that is. If everyone did that imagine how many less lorry loads per year would be needed.

Bottled Water

This one is quite simple – Don’t buy bottled water and absolutely never buy water in plastic bottles.. The transport impact is terrible considering almost the whole of the UK has excellent (and drastically cheaper) drinking water piped to every household. Bottled water is a luxury that almost nobody in the UK needs.

Your Fridge/Freezer

I’ve heard plenty of suggestions to buy a more modern/efficient fridge and freezer but so far I haven’t heard anyone suggest cleaning the radiator on the back. It is wise to do this at least once per year. It gets caked with dust etc. and a quick brush or hoover makes it easier for your fridge/freezer to cool down and thus it uses less energy (up to 25% reduction). As it is one of the few devices you have to leave on continuously reducing it’s power consumption is a good move.

Of course each of the suggestions above will only make a relatively small saving but if you can apply most or all of them then the combined effect will save you a significant amount of money each year and measurably reduce your impact on the planet.