Recent Comments

1. Shop locally - 14 Sep 2006

   I have been doing this with increasing commitment since summer of 2004 (when I read Felicity Lawrence’s book Not on the Label – well worth a read if you haven’t yet).

   Used to shop at Tesco for almost everything except Fairtrade items from Oxfam and church stall, now get main shopping through organic veg box delivery (Abel and Cole); my order with them also includes milk, yoghurt, eggs, meat occasionally and some other necessities- tinned tomatoes, Ecover products.

   I top up with occasional visits to the Co-op supermarket, have tried Ocado (the web/home delivery service from Waitrose) and also have been buying from local farmer’s market which has suddenly sprung up just in the past year.

   The change has been fairly easy to make; the difficult bit comes when I am entertaining and suddenly need extra supplies part way through a week. It’s still too easy to dash off to the open-24 hours Tesco in such circumstances, though I do try to restrict myself to buying the organic and fairtrade products if I have to shop there.

2. Turn Off The Tap When Brushing Your Teeth - 12 May 2007

   I’ve only just added this but have been doing it for a couple of years at least – one of the first small steps I took when I began to think about more sustainable living.

3. More tea vicar? (Don't overfill your kettle.) - 12 May 2007

   Have always done this – it was a common sense thing about not having to wait longer than necessary, even before I began to think about wasting energy.

   Living alone i’m used to putting in just enough for one mug. Find it a bit harder to estimate correct amount when making drinks for several at once.

4. Get a water butt! - 12 May 2007

   There is a large one in my new house. Must now remember to use it when watering my newly installed hanging baskets.

5. Calculate your carbon footprint - 20 Jan 2009

   I did a household rather than personal carbon footprint, and it came to a shameful 12 tonnes – the vast majority of this was on heating costs. The difficulty is living as a single person in a large 5 bedroom vicarage. I don’t heat all the rooms, but even so heating is a vast cost.
   I have avoided taking any flights for the past two years – I hate to think what the footprint would be if I added in a long-haul flight or two!

6. Opt-out of receiving phone directories - 11 Mar 2010

   That was easily done!