If you are taking actions to reduce climate change - thread to share ideas

[HappyWinter]

Inspired by several threads on climate change this weekend and the IPCC report released yesterday, I'm starting this thread so anyone who is interested can share what they are doing and any ideas.

I'm definitely not perfect and have a very long way to go! I know individually we can't do much, we have to start somewhere. It isn't all or nothing, for example flying less rather than giving it up completely is better than nothing.

So far:
Green electricity tariff
Trying not to drive as much
Eating less meat and dairy - reducing rather than becoming vegan
Fly less in the future - once every 3/4 years rather than every year
Buying less stuff
Insulating the house
More plants into the garden

I'm going to pick two or three things to focus on each month, this months are reducing food waste and buying less carbon intensive food by reducing meat (especially red meat) and dairy, and thinking about lobbying my MP etc.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/10/climate-crisis-what-can-individuals-do-to-make-a-difference-in-the-uk

Great idea

Setting the washing machine on as low a temp as possible
Eating locally sourced food to save food miles
Using Earth Breeze laundry detergent sheets to cut down on plastic use

Also, working from home more to reduce the car usage especially in summer when I wont need the heating.

green electricity (proper green, not greenwash)
eco cycles washer/dishwasher
no tumble dryer
no car

switch to oat milk instead of dairy milk. limit yoghurt
meat/fish once a week rest of meals vegetarian, meat is low co2, like poultry

we are looking at replacing the gas boiler with an air source heat pump.
when re-roofing looking at solar panels.
double or tripple glazing.

Thanks for the link @MondayYogurt

This one is useful too: www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/05/climate-change-behaviour-impact-survey/

I'm reducing meat and dairy and also cutting down on food waste. I've just started using Kitche, an app which reminds me when I need to use up food. It also collates how much food I've wasted each week, which is shaming me into being more careful. This is also saving me money.

I'm doing my best to cut down on plastic packaging, but it's really difficult to do that if you shop in supermarkets. Whenever I order a veg box I end up throwing half of it away, so that's not good either. It's all small steps, though. I've just stopped using toothpaste and use Dentitabs that come in glass jars instead.

We already use a green tariff. And we've decided that our next car will be electric, once we've worn this one out.

We rarely fly.

Oh, and we've planted lots of wildflowers in our tiny garden for the bees to enjoy. I much prefer a wild country garden look to a manicured-style garden anyway.

It all feels a bit hopeless when I read about the new IPCC report, but it feels better to be doing something positive rather than despairing.

Grow a lot of our own vegetables from seed
Have heat pumps around the house and a wetback ( creates hot water) fire ( also sometimes cook on the fire stove top)
We are low user for electric and buy efficient ( more expensive) white ware when it needs replacing
We have large garage and large spare room and store homemade jams and chutneys from our own trees ( only jam in this house is homemade plum or marmalade) we store preserved food tomato relish, purée from our own tomatoes
Never use my dryer ( have covered outside space for drying clothes)
Fully insulated home
We don’t drive very much ( to be fair DH now cannot drive due to illness and we are considering getting rid of the small Corsa that I’ve had for years, leaving us with 1 car)
Swap food with neighbours, elderly neighbours are proficient gardeners and go fishing and will swap plum jam for fish ( elderly male neighbour fillets fish and we have it cooked that night I no longer like supermarket fish) cauliflowers for baby potatoes etc etc we often chat about what each other are growing and grow enough for each other/ try new varieties ( purple cauliflower etc… I’m new to gardening 3 years in and inherited a fabulously productive garden and bespoke raised beds and just enjoy it)
I have built a large rainwater collection system so watering is free and not draining resources during our fairly hot summers

God we sound revolting…. We didn’t massively plan it, it just happened

I'm planning on personally becoming a bit more ascetic, trying hard to pare life back to what's really essential rather than purely trying to replace all our existing choices with greener ones. But I have 2 teenagers so it'll be interesting trying to convince them that less is more!

I dry my washing on the washing line.
I recycle old pallets into kindling
I have two recycling wheelie bins which I fill every two weeks.
I take old clothes to charity shop.
I replaced old inefficient oil boiler with a new efficient one ( drastic reduction in oil used)
Never boil a full kettle
Use a dishwasher instead of hand washing .

I’ve given up using shampoo, I just wash my hair with soft water (rain/dehumidifier). Also given up almost all toiletries and beauty products. The only toiletries I now use are bar soap, value toothpaste, toothbrush, floss and a dab of bicarb for deodorant.

Only buy meat from the butchers (which is local and pastured) and take my own containers. I used to be vegan, and looking back I realise my mental, metabolic and digestive health were appalling. Grains and legumes are high sugar/starch and not nutritionally fungible with meat… there’s several missing nutrients. Animals on 100% pasture are carbon neutral/even carbon negative, unlike annual monocrops like corn, soya and wheat, which require huge quantities of haber-bosch fossil fuel based fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, destroy the integrity of topsoils which can hold tons of carbon per acre when used as permanent pasture. We need non-industrial, non-processed regenerative food systems, not soya milk, oat cream and TVP burgers.

Interesting podcast: sustainabledish.com/podcasts/sustainable-dish-episode-151/

Mainly buy locally produced veg from the organic stall at the market, and take my own produce bags.

Milk in glass bottles from local organic dairy farmer/milkman. Also get eggs and yoghurt from him, and eggs boxes get reused.

Cook almost everything from scratch and buy very minimally from the supermarkets, don’t buy any snack food/sweet treats for myself.

Grow our own fruit, and pick blackberries.

Given up buying any clothes (including second hand) until my current stuff properly wears out. I use a darning mushroom to mend holes and patch jeans etc to extend their life.

Cutting right down on social media use, and deleting and unsubscribing from email lists. Deleting photos from the cloud… all those servers that power the internet are a huge hog of global energy supplies.

Thank you for all the ideas. I'm trying to simplify everything and buy less things. I'm starting to question whether house decor that I'd been looking to replace in the next couple of years really needs it and whether I can find simpler and more environmentally friendly solutions.

I've found this thread, I didn't see it before I posted:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4318819-Would-anyone-be-interested-in-trying-to-do-one-small-thing-each-week-to-tackle-climate-change

Hardly ever fly, though tbh DH is terrified of flying so never had the chance!
Reducing plastic etc eg. for household dirty jobs I bought gloves made from sugar cane so are biodegradable.
Rarely drive as WFH.
Walking or cycling now rather than bus if poss.
Line drying clothes or airer if poss.
Planting more in garden.
(Future plans - would love a compost bin and water butt.)
Recycle stuff, mend clothes.
Turn off appliances/lights when not in use.
Aim to buy an electric car when current one packs in.

I applaud BahHumbygge giving up shampoo and other toiletries, that takes some doing, Bravo!

Buy fewer clothes, and only wash when they're actually dirty/smelly (so it's really only undies that are single wear before wash).

Do the washing on dry/windy days and line dry whenever possible.

Avoid upgrades just because they become available - wait until something is beyond repair before replacing.

Always check to see if something can be had secondhand before buying new

Errands on foot or public transport whenever possible

Minimum to landfill - recycle or donate

Turn the heating down in winter - wear an extra layer, snuggle under blankets on the sofa and use hot water bottles

Only buy the food you're really going to eat, and cut out as much highly processed food as possible (better for your health)

And for many things, buy the best you can afford and make them last - my DMum in her 90s is still using things she had as a newly wed

Found a company to do an energy survey of our house, report lists everything that could be done from changing lightbulbs to external wall insulation and what order to do them in.
Don't have the cash for big things now but I wanted a ten-twenty year plan/some idea of what we're looking at to get towards net zero.

Deciding to stay in a smaller house forever- you know how lots of us dream of bigger homes one day, I realised better to avoid all the extra environmental impact and work with what we have.

Great ideas, thank you. @SiulaGrande I'm not moving anywhere bigger either and staying in a smaller house. It's very nice to have more space and a bigger garden, but it's not essential.

Trying to minimise food waste this week by giving the kids smaller portions to start off with and adding more if they want it. They don't eat half of what I give them and it ends up in the recycling, it feels like a waste.

@Fiercestcalm

Grow a lot of our own vegetables from seed Have heat pumps around the house and a wetback ( creates hot water) fire ( also sometimes cook on the fire stove top) We are low user for electric and buy efficient ( more expensive) white ware when it needs replacing We have large garage and large spare room and store homemade jams and chutneys from our own trees ( only jam in this house is homemade plum or marmalade) we store preserved food tomato relish, purée from our own tomatoes Never use my dryer ( have covered outside space for drying clothes) Fully insulated home We don’t drive very much ( to be fair DH now cannot drive due to illness and we are considering getting rid of the small Corsa that I’ve had for years, leaving us with 1 car) Swap food with neighbours, elderly neighbours are proficient gardeners and go fishing and will swap plum jam for fish ( elderly male neighbour fillets fish and we have it cooked that night I no longer like supermarket fish) cauliflowers for baby potatoes etc etc we often chat about what each other are growing and grow enough for each other/ try new varieties ( purple cauliflower etc… I’m new to gardening 3 years in and inherited a fabulously productive garden and bespoke raised beds and just enjoy it) I have built a large rainwater collection system so watering is free and not draining resources during our fairly hot summers

God we sound revolting…. We didn’t massively plan it, it just happened

I don't think you sound revolting. I think you sound idyllic. I'd love to swap fish and veg with our neighbours.

Email politicians in your area letting them know that the climate crisis is a priority that will be influencing how you vote. And email companies indicating how your shopping choices are influenced.
Once you have the bones of an email you can just tweak it here and there but even sending one a week is worthwhile because we need to be able to make better choices than the ones available.
I know it’s not quite what the thread is about but it’s an easy enough habit to establish.

@thelegohooverer That's a great idea, I was thinking about that type of action and it probably makes a bigger difference than some of the individual behaviour changes.

Inspired by another thread on the go at the moment about bottled water...

Drink the stuff out of the tap.

I'm monitoring the food waste, it's a bit lower. I've found a meat free version of a pie on my online shopping order, I'm going to try a few different ones over the next few weeks.

Ooh, can I join, instead of shouting at people on other non-climate threads?

Already have a green energy supplier, wash on cold, hang dry outside (still trying to get DP to wash clothes less often), buy less, short showers, etc.

This week I switched my pension, my LISA, my S&S ISA and my banks to non-fossil fuel-supporting institutions. We’ve vowed never to fly again and we’re saving towards solar panels and a heat pump, but both are a long way off with our finances.

Some things I do or have started doing, as well as things mentioned in the thread already:

• Get involved on a local level with consultations, eg my council is currently surveying about whether people would use a community-run repair centre and for what goods; or if we want a swap area at the tip
• Seed swapping and plant cutting swapping instead of buying at the garden centre
• Making garden as pollinator-friendly as possible, no weed killer, no fertiliser; mixing bee-friendly flowers in with herbs and vegetables
• Any cardboard packaging we do accumulate (as little as possible) gets used in the garden for weed suppressing rather than recycled, so as not to waste energy (we’re privileged to have a big garden, so have raised beds, multiple compost heaps and grass heaps and leaf mould, and waterbutts)
• Recently went vegetarian; working on a “vegan first” approach
• We’re midway through deplasticking/depackaging the whole house anyway, but now taking a “do we even need a replacement for this or can we do without altogether?” approach
• Olio food waste app and making our own compost. My friend inspired me to play “Chuck the end bits and peelings of vegetables into a big tub in the freezer” - when it gets full you can make into soup. It’s like nose to tail eating but with vegetables!
• Mending clothes. If it can’t be mended (some of my mother’s old socks, which I now wear, are beyond darning), it becomes a cleaning rag. Eventually, fabric recycling. I have more clothes than I’ll ever need (aside from non-nursing bras that actually fit) so won’t be buying again until what I’ve got is rags (but again, I’ve got a sewing machine and space to use it)

I like the idea above of a 10/20 year plan! We have to move this year for work and will approach that with a long-term energy, garden and sustainability plan - I’ve dug out a charity shop copy of The Pauper’s Homemaking handbook and looking forward to decorating entirely secondhand/going back to my 20s houseshare “furniture comes from street corners” roots, freecycling random paint colours, etc

Siulagarde could you share green energy survey company please?
Its good to find this thread. Feeling really pessimistic this week to be honest after the IPCC news this week. I was car free for 12 years, but just had to get a car as for work, have an electric car, my big step forward this week was to work out how to use the timer so can charge it overnight! night electricity is more likely to be renewables I think.
I am now planning now to stop drinking milk and really cut down on meat, although will still buy some for DS.
And I am going to email my MP about climate change.

A question for those who are washing their clothes less. How many times do you wear your clothes before you washing them. If they were not ‘dirty ‘