Eco or Squeako?

[riab]

Are you eco green or squeaky clean?

what are your eco sins and halo's?

Here's a list of the a reasi found on a carbon footprint site:

Transport - daily
Transport - holidays
Airflights

Clothing (sweatshop/organic/local)
Food (organic/ airmiles)

Packaging

recycling

Products bought (useless bits of stuff/guilt trip 'eco products you don't need, over consuming)

Heating and light

water

House insulation/passive solar

Energy saving devices

Eating Habits

Jobs

oh,
riab, I'd like to think I am green but ...
Transport - daily ~ public transport (but am learning to drive!)
Transport - holidays ~ public transport (but see above)
Airflights (few and far between)

Clothing (sweatshop/organic/local) make do and mend! charity shops mostly but some sweatshop stuff undoubtedly & small amount of organic

Food (organic/ airmiles) ~ fruit & veg box inc fruit that has no air miles. Mainly organic and /or local. Always buy fairtrade luxury items like choc, bananas, sugar, coffee etc

Packaging ~ as little as possible. Compost cardboard

recycling ~ recycle as much as is humanly possible

Products bought (useless bits of stuff/guilt trip 'eco products you don't need, over consuming) really don't think I over consume as I buy bare essentials and occassional treat (treats tend to be things for the house/piece of clothing that will last for years.

Heating and light ~ energy saving lightbulbs. I want to switch provider but have clause in tenancy agreement which means I can't

water ~ am efficient except for daily bath is probably over filled

House insulation/passive solar ~ none

Energy saving devices ~ ?

Eating Habits ~ eat too much, exercise too little def room for improvement (something I think about regularly in regards to ethics )

Jobs ~ I work for a charity so I am not sure where that puts me

Here's mine:

Transport - daily Bike or bus or walk (me) Walk (DH) company pool car if going to next city (about 2 days a week)
Transport - holidays car, hired or borrowed, usually 4 or 5 times a year to visit rellies etc
Airflights About one a year

Clothing (sweatshop/organic/local) cheap and cheerful or more expensive but lovely, don't care about anything else!
Food (organic/ airmiles) Buy local if feasible, no farmers makret within 30 miles, organic selection is expensive, flown in and limp.

Packaging recycle where possible but don't try to minimize in other ways,

recycling newspaper bin gets every scrap of paper except bills, Only get one weekend paper.
Recycle glass, cans and plastic in council box, recycle packaging for ebay sells. buy second hand, use freecycle local branch, buy and sell on ebay. Don't do compost.

Products bought (useless bits of stuff/guilt trip 'eco products you don't need, over consuming)
one area i'm reasonable at if you leave otu clothes and books! Certianly avoid buying yet another embroderied little bag simply because its made by indian village women from organic cotton - do i need the bloody thing?
Heating and light

water
Rainbut, showers, 2x washing a day, drought garden in south facing strip

House insulation/passive solar
double glazing but plenty of natural 'airgaps!' for ventilation.
Passive solar - only in that house aspect is favourable.
loft lagged
wear an extra jumper instead of putting heating on
need to put foil behind radiators

Energy saving devices
Energy saving bulbs in 3 rooms
TV turned off not on standby (deliberatly failed to replace remote so you have to turn it off)
No PC's left on overnight

Eating Habits
light meat eater

Jobs
Me - used to be in community regeneration til 3 months ago. owkred my whole life in environmental/communiy not for profit sector and have taken on average a £5 paycut each year to do so.
DH, used to do community/art based stuff, now has a 'suit' job with a non green company!

Transport - daily - DH isn't 'green' at all - but that's due to his job - he has no option but to drive. I walk everywhere - get a taxi once a week to do my big grocery shop (shop at Morrisons and they don't do "online"

Transport - holidays - Usually fly - but we rarely go on holiday.
Airflights - only rare longhaul (to see DH's family in Zimbabwe).

Clothing (sweatshop/organic/local) - cheap I'mm afraid.
Food (organic/ airmiles)

Packaging - as little as possible, I buy loose fruit and veg where possible.

recycling - recycle anything recyclable - even bring home all the old hymn sheet lists from church for the DS's to use for drawing, and DH uses the blank bits off his work stuff for the boys for the same purpose.

Products bought (useless bits of stuff/guilt trip 'eco products you don't need, over consuming) - if we don't need it I probably don't buy it - can't afford to!

Heating and light - all light fitting that the energy saving bulbs can fit in have them, switch all lights off that aren't needed on. Heating is gas

water - DH and I shower - boys have baths - but only everyother day and they share one.

House insulation/passive solar - not as good as it could be - when we can finally afford it we'll have the 3rd bedroom insulated - but it's not cavity wall so it's going ot cost a lot of money. Loft is well insulated though.

Energy saving devices - energy saving bulbs in most rooms, wash 99% of washing on the coldest wash my machine can do (40degrees).

Eating Habits

Jobs

I'm definitely not very good. Most of my eco halos are to do with no money, not good intentions...

Transport - daily, Walking or public transport but only because we can't afford a car

Transport - holidays, public (see above)

Airflights - no more than one return a year but all Europe/short haul so could deffo travel by more environmentally friendly means

Clothing (sweatshop/organic/local) - BAD Primark/Asda etc habit so very sweatshop & not organic

Food (organic/ airmiles) - Do buy some local produce but mainly cheap supermarket shop so very bad again

Packaging - reuseable carriers...that's as good as I get

recycling - recycle glass & newspapers. Live in a city centre tenement and the council hasn't got to grips with recycling (and there's no way my neighbours would abide by different bins anyway as most of them find it too much trouble to put their rubbish in the existing bins )

Products bought (useless bits of stuff/guilt trip 'eco products you don't need, over consuming) - Not too bad here as trying to cut down on spending generally

Heating and light - No central heating & very miserly with the heaters which have thermostats. Top floor so take advantage of neighbours' heat and we really only need heating on about 6 weeks a year. Some energy saving bulbs but could do better.

water - Well, I live in Scotland so don't feel too bad about water consumption and don't use much as live in a flat. Water heating is expensive and inefficient as we use an immersion heater.

House insulation/passive solar - very old building so I would say it was quite efficiently insulated by construction but nothing extra.

Energy saving devices - nothing special

Eating Habits - Can be very wasteful but we try to eat cheap & freshly prepared and don't eat a huge amount of meat.

Jobs - Not sure I understand this one... work for the NHS and they are not very environmentally friendly though.

so what are your bests tips for dealing with modern life/ clean house versus eco green?

Mine would be;
1 don't have a car
2 recycle, reuse whereever possible, join your local freecycle group and use charity shops.
3 Try to do some work that makes a difference, join a local environmental group, work in the not for profit sector, persude your boss to install a bike shelter.
4 don't feel guilty, think of all the energy you waste!
5 do things that make you / other people smile!

Use traditional alternative cleaning methods, white vinegar instead of disinfectant anti- bacterial, bicarbonate of soda and essential oils like lavendar, not dangerous cleaners for the little ones and not very expensive and green.

Central Heating - woodburning stoves

Food - Game, seasonal and local

Water - natural spring

Hoping to go off grid altogether, solar and geo thermal, pricing and planning atm

weakness - bleach and commuting although downsized cars to more economical ones (note plural)

Oh and some more..
I re-use, everything I can
Old clothes - rags
bottles - (make own booze - i.e. sloe gin, elderflower champagne)
Jars - make own chutney from wild fruit/apples
Cook from scratch - dead easy
Eat fresh local meat only
Grow own veg (can do minature veg between flowers)Doesn't have to be large scale
Furniture, make own or renovate
Make own curtains and fabrics from vintage materials

Transport - daily = car
Transport - holidays = car/ferry
Airflights = not for a while

Clothing (sweatshop/organic/local) = probably sweatshop, though rarely buy them.
Food (organic/ airmiles) = supermarket and local foor fruit/veg

Packaging = try to recycle

recycling = everything we can

Products bought (useless bits of stuff/guilt trip 'eco products you don't need, over consuming) = try to only buy what I need.

Heating and light - rarely put on heating and if do, I put it on as low as possible. Majority of light bulbs are energy efficient and we don't tend to have lights on unless we are in room.

water = use shower not bath majority of time. HAve dishwasher so probably lose on that.

House insulation/passive solar = house is very well insulated (did it a couple of years ago).

Energy saving devices - all white appliances are aa rated for energy efficiency.

Eating Habits - ?

Jobs -?

My drivers in priority are

1. health
2. money
3. green

Transport - - bus there and walk back (school). I would walk both ways, but too far for children. dh takes the train.
Transport - holidays - we fly when we can afford it.
Airflights

Clothing (sweatshop/organic/local) try to avoid sweatshop, have some organic, but other than that, not high on my list of priorities.
Food (organic/ airmiles) buy organic, try to buy in season, but I use a supermarket.

Packaging - son't buy much at the moment, and recycle what I do buy

recycling - obsessive about putting stuff in the recycling box. Also go to tip about once a month

Products bought (useless bits of stuff/guilt trip 'eco products you don't need, over consuming) - guilty of over consuming. but buy eco stuff and use reusable nappies.

Heating and light - trying to save money so don't use much heating. Have the eco light bulbs (but they are crap).

water - on a water meter, so watch this carefully. don't garden.

House insulation/passive solar - crap

Energy saving devices - none

Eating Habits -organic, cook from scratch.

Jobs - none.

hooray another cook from scratcher

My MIL thinks I'm bonkers, she still serves packet soup for lunch. Yay she's coming for Christmas..

Transport - daily - 3 day a week commute 50 mile round trip, DH is on the road a lot and does 35K+ miles per year , go out for days quite a bit and because DH has company fuel allowance no incentive to use public transport, always walk the kids to school when not working (other days he is taken by CM).
Transport - holidays - last two years have gone to France (from Yorkshire) by car and ferry
Airflights - not been abroad since Tenerife in 2003, DH flies to Germany for work about once every 2 years

Clothing (sweatshop/organic/local) - very much sweatshop - Asda, Next to Nothing, New Look, H&M etc
Food (organic/ airmiles) - don't buy organic veg, buy freerange eggs/chicken, don't pay attention to airmiles

Packaging - avoid getting carriers where I don't need them, ie it will fit in my handbag or a bag from another shop but don't try very hard. Don't buy ready meals etc. Often buy value brand which is less packaged generally

recycling - green recycle bin full to brim every month, have compost heap, shred all household paper onto this, started reusing jam jars to make own chutney, do throw things away sometimes if bin is full

Products bought (useless bits of stuff/guilt trip 'eco products you don't need, over consuming) - buy lots of cheap clothes which is bad, no ready meals, make my own cheapo cleaning products and reuse containers I had previously, only use half quantity of detergent, cut dishwasher tabs in half

Heating and light - try not to have CH on too much, have a couple of energy saving bulbs, turn lights off, turn TV off at night and more in the day as well these days

water - DCs share a bath, I make them turn the tap off when cleaning teeth, otherwise not very good, I would like a water butt but locating it is a problem

House insulation/passive solar - house is very well insulated (read stuffy) but front door fits badly - have a curtain for it though which helps enormously

Energy saving devices - just a couple of bulbs

Eating Habits - cook from scratch, eat small quantities of meat, but do eat out also

Jobs - IT in a huge office, temp controlled by a dodgy a/c system, DH some days working from home, which is v. ecofriendly, other days driving to the other end of the country alone.

Just thought of another - I am a mooncup user. How could you forget that califrau?

my friend swears by hers, i'm not so keen.

Are you eco green or squeaky clean?

what are your eco sins and halo's?

Here's a list of the a reasi found on a carbon footprint site:

Transport - daily
No car [halo emoticon] - we walk or take the bus. Train to the nearest city.

Transport - holidays
Train or hire car - rarely fly as we only ever 'holiday' in Germany and visit UK occasionally.

Airflights
One short-haul a year on ave.

Clothing (sweatshop/organic/local)
ds's clothes are almost all 2nd hand (given/lent by friends). dh and I rarely buy new clothes - when we do it's usually h&M, sadly, as we're not well-off.

Food (organic/ airmiles)
We get an organic veg box - do use supermarkets for some things, but try and use small local shops too.

Packaging
We try to avoid unnecessary packaging.

recycling
Compulsory in Germany. We recycle packaging, tins, glass, compost, paper - makes 5 bins (one for household waste too) in our tiny kitchen.

Products bought (useless bits of stuff/guilt trip 'eco products you don't need, over consuming)
Not much - no spare cash really. I do have a weakness for Starbucks though, which I indulge whenever I get to the nearest city.

Heating and light
Central heating. Use energy saving bulbs in main room lights. Nightlight on in bedroom at night (for me not ds )

water
I leave plug in when I shower and dh has his bath in my water. No dishwasher.

House insulation/passive solar
Not sure - we rent a flat in a house with 11 flats in.

Energy saving devices
Bulbs, economy cycle on washing machine

Eating Habits
Vegetarian, largely organic. ds (17 months) has breastmilk (obv other food too)

Jobs
Live within walking distance of work. Work in the public sector (academia)

Transport - daily
I walk, kids walk, DH drives but only because there IS no public transport (why would there be, he is the only one on a large trading estate finishing at 5 am ) and 60 miles down the M-Way is just too far to walk or cycle. Has tried to get local work, still trying.

Transport - holidays
car, camping holidays in the UK

Clothing (sweatshop/organic/local)
Usually secondhand nice stuff - recycling!!! with occasional treats

Food (organic/ airmiles)
Some of it is necessarily bad eco, as DS has food intolerances and needs specialist foods; otherwise we do the veg box thing

Packaging
As little as possible

recycling
Everything we can possible recycle, plus we use freecycle

Products bought (useless bits of stuff/guilt trip 'eco products you don't need, over consuming)
Can't afford to LOL!

Heating and light
Lights all low energy and out when not is use, don't use stand by on TV. Heating provided by landlords so no options available.

water
Use as little as possible. No shower though, again landlord.

House insulation/passive solar
Ancient house with metre thick exterior walls but gappy doors..... agin though, landloed

Energy saving devices
Lightbulbs

Eating Habits
pretty good, fairtrade where we can, lots of veg box stuff, not too many ready meals and if we do we recycle packaging as we can here.

Jobs
Me- student / employed as a mentor by Unbi; Dh (oh dear) haulage industry- but again, has tried to get out, and we have to eat.