To my big surprise (and pride) I have managed to leave the car in the driveway for the last few days. I have done the shopping on foot, walked to the school and even walked to the various weekly ballet, swimming and gym classes, but today I had to make a journey that was just not do-able by either foot or public transport. So in recognition of the fact that I am not able to completely say goodbye to the car I decided to do a bit of research on green driving.
There are plenty of websites giving hints and tips on how to be more fuel efficient , but I opted to try out some of the tips given by a couple who supposedly managed to drive round the world on only 24 tanks of fuel ( http://uk.cars.yahoo.com/drive-smart/articles/article/19/), you would think they should know a bit about the subject.
Some of the hints I thought rather pointless for the real world, e.g. 'don't drive when you are angry'. So next time I get stuck in traffic with two fighting and screaming kids in the backseat, I will just stop the car and get out - or what?
Anyway most of the tips could be split into 2 categories, the ones that dealt with maintenance of the car, and the ones that were about driving techniques. Most of the ones about maintenance I happily skipped, to be honest I barely know what a spark plug is and getting a mechanic to check all the bits and bops on a regular basis doesn't agree with the bank balance. But I decided to give the suggested driving techniques a go, after all it could make me slightly greener, save me money and it wouldn't require too much effort (thankfully they didn't suggest to push the car in order to save fuel...)
Tip no 1: Get to the highest gear as soon as possible, so change gear before reaching 2000 revs. This actually worked quite well, I found myself checking both my speed and the revs, and it definitely made me change gears a lot sooner. (Please don't tell my husband, he has been nagging me about this for years)
Tip no 2: Drive safe. What can I say - I am a woman driver, so of course I drive safe...
Tip no 3: Keep the windows closed, or you will increase the wind resistance. Well this is Scotland and the likelihood of anybody wanting to open the windows is limited, after all they probably got in the car to avoid the rain in the first place.
Tip no 4: Don't go too fast, the suggestion is to stay 5-10 mph below the limit. Now this one was a bit more tricky as I have always had a tendency towards speeding, but I managed to keep the speed down for some time (maybe I was too busy watching the rev counts?). While I was happily cruising along thinking of my fuel efficiency, I realised that in one strike I had turned myself into one of these extremely annoying drivers who drives a bit too slow and tends to hold up traffic, and who would under normal circumstances make my blood boil. Aaargh! Even worse if all the tips were to be followed then by making other drivers angry I guess I was likely to make them drive less efficiently?
But after due consideration I decided that I can only be held responsible for my own actions, and if other motorists were getting agitated by my green driving, it would be their responsibility to get out of their car until the anger had disappeared. So I stuck to my green promise and duly stayed in the slow lane behind the trucks, while trying to cheer myself up by thinking of the fuel I was saving.
And the end result? I got to my destination in good time and I don't think the journey really took me any longer than it would have normally.
So I have to conclude that greener driving is definitely possible with out too much effort. I now have no excuse for burning excess fuel - I just need to remember to bring a baseball cap in the car to hide my face from all the angry motorists...
Wednesday 26 August 2009
Monday 24 August 2009
Green shopping
Warning! Trying to be green when doing your shopping can cause a major headache. The day even started well, I felt rather smug about walking my daughter to school and being able to do imaginary head shaking at the other parents in their cars (obviously I conveniently ignored the fact that it is quicker for us to walk than to drive).
The smugness was still there as I pushed the buggy down the road to do the shopping on foot, but within 2 minutes of entering the supermarket my smirky grin had completely disappeared. Before starting I had done a mental checklist of certain criteria to green up the shopping:
1. Look for organic produce,
2. Take the version with the least amount of packaging,
3. Think about the food miles, so look for stuff that hasn't travelled half way across the globe
I only made it to the fruit and veg section before realising that I might be on a mission impossible. Standing in front of the mushrooms I first went for the organic option, although the whole organic thing doesn't work very well with the out of money issue, but I decided 20p extra would be OK. Until it dawned on me that these organic mushrooms were placed in a non-recyclable plastic container and then covered in non recyclable clingfilm - completely 'un-green' and contradicting no 2 on my list. So I changed my mind and opted for the individual mushrooms that you choose yourself and then place in a brown paper bag, that way I saved packaging and 20p (and probably got a few chemicals included in the price..). But the BIG question raised was: why can you not buy organic mushrooms in a paper bag? In fact when I quickly toured the whole section ALL the organic produce was packed in some kind of plastic, and no loose weight items were available in the organic version. What is going on?
Next stop was apples. Obviously it was the same case of organic apples in plastic bags, but this time versus ordinary apples also in plastic bags. The real problem occurred when I reached point 3 on my check list - foodmiles. The organic apples had travelled all the way from New Zealand! Not exactly local produce. And to my horror I realised that none of the apples were in fact British, never mind Scottish. All the apples had been transported from NZ, South Africa or Argentina. Again, all I can say is: what is going on? I don't expect to find British bananas or Scottish pineapples in the supermarkets, but apples aren't exactly exotic fruits and surely there must be British farmers with apple trees?
By this point I was thoroughly disheartened, not to mention that my 2 year old was seriously fed up with my very slow moving shopping, so the rest of the shopping choices were made on the usual speed principal rather than the green principal. Not exactly a green success.
On the walk home I kept asking myself what should I do: should I start a campaign against the supermarkets to get them to take some responsibility, should I extend the vegetable plot in the backgarden to grow all my own stuff and be self sufficient (not a very feasible option, we would all be very hungry), or is the best option to find an organic farm shop in the area, even if it means taking the car for shopping?
It is definitely going to take me some time to figure out how to do green shopping.
The smugness was still there as I pushed the buggy down the road to do the shopping on foot, but within 2 minutes of entering the supermarket my smirky grin had completely disappeared. Before starting I had done a mental checklist of certain criteria to green up the shopping:
1. Look for organic produce,
2. Take the version with the least amount of packaging,
3. Think about the food miles, so look for stuff that hasn't travelled half way across the globe
I only made it to the fruit and veg section before realising that I might be on a mission impossible. Standing in front of the mushrooms I first went for the organic option, although the whole organic thing doesn't work very well with the out of money issue, but I decided 20p extra would be OK. Until it dawned on me that these organic mushrooms were placed in a non-recyclable plastic container and then covered in non recyclable clingfilm - completely 'un-green' and contradicting no 2 on my list. So I changed my mind and opted for the individual mushrooms that you choose yourself and then place in a brown paper bag, that way I saved packaging and 20p (and probably got a few chemicals included in the price..). But the BIG question raised was: why can you not buy organic mushrooms in a paper bag? In fact when I quickly toured the whole section ALL the organic produce was packed in some kind of plastic, and no loose weight items were available in the organic version. What is going on?
Next stop was apples. Obviously it was the same case of organic apples in plastic bags, but this time versus ordinary apples also in plastic bags. The real problem occurred when I reached point 3 on my check list - foodmiles. The organic apples had travelled all the way from New Zealand! Not exactly local produce. And to my horror I realised that none of the apples were in fact British, never mind Scottish. All the apples had been transported from NZ, South Africa or Argentina. Again, all I can say is: what is going on? I don't expect to find British bananas or Scottish pineapples in the supermarkets, but apples aren't exactly exotic fruits and surely there must be British farmers with apple trees?
By this point I was thoroughly disheartened, not to mention that my 2 year old was seriously fed up with my very slow moving shopping, so the rest of the shopping choices were made on the usual speed principal rather than the green principal. Not exactly a green success.
On the walk home I kept asking myself what should I do: should I start a campaign against the supermarkets to get them to take some responsibility, should I extend the vegetable plot in the backgarden to grow all my own stuff and be self sufficient (not a very feasible option, we would all be very hungry), or is the best option to find an organic farm shop in the area, even if it means taking the car for shopping?
It is definitely going to take me some time to figure out how to do green shopping.
Sunday 23 August 2009
First Green Day
Oh, we are off to a spectacularly BAD start!!! Only one day has passed and my green colour is rather dull looking.
At breakfast time I really fancied some nice rolls - it was Saturday after all, so decided to quickly pop round to Sainsbury's. Despite the fact that the shop is less than a 10 minutes walk away I still jumped in the car! Even worse it wasn't until I stopped the engine in the car park that it dawned on me that this was a very bad transport choice for a short journey. Oh, the shame. Which then only grew bigger when I got to the check out and realised I had forgotten to bring my own shopping bag... To top it all off, on the way back the current government radio ad about a quarter of all car journeys being less than 2 miles and a burden to the environment played from the speakers, and frankly made my ears burn!
So I spent much of the day evaluating all my actions and realised that not only is there big room for small improvements, but to be truly green is going to demand quite an effort...
I see a few stumbling blocks along my way. Big ones like how do I use my car less, especially in this country of constant rain; and smaller ones like how do I get my 2 year old to understand that switching all bedside lamps on in the house is bad, even if he is very proud he has figured out how to do it.
I am also realising that the whole effort and money thing is even more complicated than I first thought. We are having a BBQ next Saturday (God knows what possessed me to think the weather would be dry at the end of August in Scotland!), and we were in the garden trying to make it look decent. While cutting the grass with the Flymo, I realised that using an electric lawn mover is probably not the best green solution, but changing it wouldn't be easy. First of all changing it for a muscle powered one would cost money - of which we have none. Secondly trying to convince my husband that the green project extends to chores like cutting the grass and we should therefore make lawn moving harder for ourselves, could be a very tricky job.
I proceeded to attempt a quick stock take of the situation, in the hope of finding some good news. So on the good side:
All our appliances are A rated, we did take this into consideration when buying them for the new house
We have managed to change 2/3 of the lighting to energy saving versions. (The last third is a bit more difficult, the previous owners of this house had a love for halogen spot lights, and combined with some funny fittings it will take both effort and money to get them changed).
I have a compost converter. This was one of my first investments for the new garden and thanks to the Waste Aware Scotland project I only paid £10 for it, the rest is subsidised by the Scottish Government - fantastic deal. (www.recyclenow.com)
The washing powder and the majority of the cleaning products in the cupboard have a green eco label on them, which is good, but I have a sneaky suspicion that I am soon going to realise that there is an even greener option...
We are quite efficient at sorting our refuse and making sure it gets reused or recycled, but we probably still need to work on minimising the amount of waste in the first place.
We try our best to switch lights off and not leave anything on stand by.
We have a laptop rather than a PC, not just for convenience but also because they are far more energy efficient.
In general nothing spectacular. On the other hand the list of things still to improve is exceptionally long, far to long to mention- my green credentials are quickly fading. A bit more effort is needed!
At breakfast time I really fancied some nice rolls - it was Saturday after all, so decided to quickly pop round to Sainsbury's. Despite the fact that the shop is less than a 10 minutes walk away I still jumped in the car! Even worse it wasn't until I stopped the engine in the car park that it dawned on me that this was a very bad transport choice for a short journey. Oh, the shame. Which then only grew bigger when I got to the check out and realised I had forgotten to bring my own shopping bag... To top it all off, on the way back the current government radio ad about a quarter of all car journeys being less than 2 miles and a burden to the environment played from the speakers, and frankly made my ears burn!
So I spent much of the day evaluating all my actions and realised that not only is there big room for small improvements, but to be truly green is going to demand quite an effort...
I see a few stumbling blocks along my way. Big ones like how do I use my car less, especially in this country of constant rain; and smaller ones like how do I get my 2 year old to understand that switching all bedside lamps on in the house is bad, even if he is very proud he has figured out how to do it.
I am also realising that the whole effort and money thing is even more complicated than I first thought. We are having a BBQ next Saturday (God knows what possessed me to think the weather would be dry at the end of August in Scotland!), and we were in the garden trying to make it look decent. While cutting the grass with the Flymo, I realised that using an electric lawn mover is probably not the best green solution, but changing it wouldn't be easy. First of all changing it for a muscle powered one would cost money - of which we have none. Secondly trying to convince my husband that the green project extends to chores like cutting the grass and we should therefore make lawn moving harder for ourselves, could be a very tricky job.
I proceeded to attempt a quick stock take of the situation, in the hope of finding some good news. So on the good side:
All our appliances are A rated, we did take this into consideration when buying them for the new house
We have managed to change 2/3 of the lighting to energy saving versions. (The last third is a bit more difficult, the previous owners of this house had a love for halogen spot lights, and combined with some funny fittings it will take both effort and money to get them changed).
I have a compost converter. This was one of my first investments for the new garden and thanks to the Waste Aware Scotland project I only paid £10 for it, the rest is subsidised by the Scottish Government - fantastic deal. (www.recyclenow.com)
The washing powder and the majority of the cleaning products in the cupboard have a green eco label on them, which is good, but I have a sneaky suspicion that I am soon going to realise that there is an even greener option...
We are quite efficient at sorting our refuse and making sure it gets reused or recycled, but we probably still need to work on minimising the amount of waste in the first place.
We try our best to switch lights off and not leave anything on stand by.
We have a laptop rather than a PC, not just for convenience but also because they are far more energy efficient.
In general nothing spectacular. On the other hand the list of things still to improve is exceptionally long, far to long to mention- my green credentials are quickly fading. A bit more effort is needed!
Saturday 22 August 2009
The challenge is on
Is it possible to go green without having a penny to spend on it and still retain a happy family life? That is the challenge I have set myself (and my family) for the next year.
4 months ago we moved to a new house in a small town in the Central belt of Scotland. It is a great house and we absolutely love it here. Before we moved I decided that this would be a good time to implement some changes. We needed to become greener!
Like a lot of people I do worry a bit about the future of our planet and I somehow had visions of me and my family living this green, organic, carbon neutral eco life in some super energy efficient house with solar panels and probably a wind turbine in the back garden...
But reality always returns to hit you on the head! (In this case it feels like a hammering with a baseball bat)
I have had to admit that becoming greener always requires one of two things: either money or effort. And both can be hard to come by.
Some things don’t require too much effort, insulating your house, getting double glazing or changing your boiler for example – You get somebody to come and fit it for you. But all these things require money up front. Obviously it would be an investment which would save you money in the long run, but if you don’t have the money to invest in the first place (or in my case if you have spent all your money sorting out the new house) it becomes slightly difficult.
Lots of green things you can do completely for free, but as a general rule these things require some level of effort. E.g. you have to remember to bring your own shopping bags into the supermarket and not realise at the checkout that you left them in the cupboard at home. You have to sort all you waste for various re-use and recycling, not just the easy stuff the council picks up. Or even worse you have to get your bicycle tyres pumped before you can ride it...
The fact is 4 months down the line the only real change that has happened in our household is me realising that green utopia is exactly that - utopia!
So I started asking myself, what is the matter with us, are we really too lazy to bother about our planet? Is it that difficult for an average family like mine to let go of old habits and settle into some new greener ones? If I can’t do it, how can I expect anybody else to make an effort?
So the challenge is on! Can we (me, my husband, a 5 year old and a 2 year old) over the next year adopt enough changes in our lives to truly call ourselves green - or will we turn into a bunch of miserable grumpy people.
I shall keep you all updated on the highs and lows of going green on a budget.
4 months ago we moved to a new house in a small town in the Central belt of Scotland. It is a great house and we absolutely love it here. Before we moved I decided that this would be a good time to implement some changes. We needed to become greener!
Like a lot of people I do worry a bit about the future of our planet and I somehow had visions of me and my family living this green, organic, carbon neutral eco life in some super energy efficient house with solar panels and probably a wind turbine in the back garden...
But reality always returns to hit you on the head! (In this case it feels like a hammering with a baseball bat)
I have had to admit that becoming greener always requires one of two things: either money or effort. And both can be hard to come by.
Some things don’t require too much effort, insulating your house, getting double glazing or changing your boiler for example – You get somebody to come and fit it for you. But all these things require money up front. Obviously it would be an investment which would save you money in the long run, but if you don’t have the money to invest in the first place (or in my case if you have spent all your money sorting out the new house) it becomes slightly difficult.
Lots of green things you can do completely for free, but as a general rule these things require some level of effort. E.g. you have to remember to bring your own shopping bags into the supermarket and not realise at the checkout that you left them in the cupboard at home. You have to sort all you waste for various re-use and recycling, not just the easy stuff the council picks up. Or even worse you have to get your bicycle tyres pumped before you can ride it...
The fact is 4 months down the line the only real change that has happened in our household is me realising that green utopia is exactly that - utopia!
So I started asking myself, what is the matter with us, are we really too lazy to bother about our planet? Is it that difficult for an average family like mine to let go of old habits and settle into some new greener ones? If I can’t do it, how can I expect anybody else to make an effort?
So the challenge is on! Can we (me, my husband, a 5 year old and a 2 year old) over the next year adopt enough changes in our lives to truly call ourselves green - or will we turn into a bunch of miserable grumpy people.
I shall keep you all updated on the highs and lows of going green on a budget.
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