Polynomial

10:10 campaign bracelets coming out of the machine that is recycling them from an old 747.

10:10, a campaign to get individuals and organisations to reduce their emissions by 10% in 2010, was launched on 1st September 2009. The idea is simple and has proved surprisingly easy to communicate so far. Of course it has helped that the human tornado Franny Armstrong has been pushing it…

Here, at home and work, we’ve taken several steps to fulfilling this pledge… No doubt all of these steps will easily carve off 60% of our CO₂ emissions, allowing us to surpass the 10:10 requirement. But we’ve given it much time and thought, and feel that, if we have the time and finances to do it all in one go, then it is better to get it done as soon as possible to make that little bit bigger difference, rather than doing it all in small steps. So… Here are ten of the ideas that we felt were most important to reducing our carbon foot print:

1. We’ve planted two apple trees… AND we’ve dug three vegetable patches, in which we’re now growing “seasonal” vegetables.

The three vegetable patches and the two Ballerina apple trees. You can even see the rain water butt by the wall there...

This essentially this means we’re almost able to completely remove all the supermarket tucker we used to usually buy… Which is a very good thing for many reasosn:

i) supermarkets tend to source a lot of vegetables out of season, importing them in from countries that usually grow in ways that are harmful to the environment. For example, any out of season Strawberries (April to July/August) that you usually see on supermarket shelves usually come from Israel, a country that is too hot to usually grow strawberries. This means excessive watering…

ii) transport uses large amounts of fuel. For example, the apples I’ve seen on supermarket shelves come from the other side of the globe “par avion”, which uses fuel like “there was no tomorrow.” And as we’re working for a greener, brighter, cleaner way of living for tomorrow, it totally defeats the point.

iii) Also the plants we’re growing will be using up some of the CO₂ that we’ll be producing in our daily lives.

If you don’t have any garden space… You can always check with your local council and find out how to apply for one. Not to mention there are many handy websites on allotments in general:

a) Allotments UK

b) National Society Of Allotment And Leisure Gardeners

c) Allotment Vegetable Growing

2. Any produce that we do buy, we buy from local farms that either grow their own OR source nearby. This means that transport emissions of the produce you buy are kept to a minimum… And it also means that we’re putting money back into our local farmers hands. Something that we haven’t being doing a lot of recently what with the advent of supermarket chains.

Here there are two options…

i) If you’ve been really good and got rid of your car… Or you just don’t have the time to drive that far out of town… You can find companies on-line who will deliver fresh vegetable produce that was grown here in the UK.

For example… Riverford Organic will deliver quality produce to your front door step once a week. We use them and have found that we’ve made savings already in our shopping bill! Not to mention its really good quality fruit, veg and even meat. Food for thought… Or is that thought for food!?

ii) Or you can find your local farms by using a website like Dig For Victory local food, which allows you to discover shops, market, restaurants, cafes and pick-your-own establishments that source their produce (or even grow their own) locally. All you have to do is simply enter your postcode and hit “Search.”

Just as a note… We presently use Lynne’s Organic Farm to get a locally grown organic selection of fresh fruit and vegetables delivered right to our front door every week. Lynne’s Organic Farm is a shinning example of how we can all, given the right inclination, live in a fully self-sustaining and environmentally friendly manner i.e. using only self generated/collected, fully sustainable sources of power and water.

3. Recycle! It’s as easy as that… If you don’t have a car to take your recycling down to the recycling bins, then do check the Recycle Now website to see if your council already provides a collection service for recycling. Most places do, and as you pay for it out of your council tax, you might as well make use of it.

Most things from glass to plastic bottles, paper, cardboard and even garden waste can be recycled.

And bearing in mind… What with the 7 billion people on the earth’s surface currently, all engrossed in a consumerist global society… Well. I think you get the picture??? If not, then check out the BBC’s program “Future Of Food” to understand how resources across the world are being placed under immense strain.

And bearing in mind how much plastic and cardboard everything we buy comes wrapped in… Can it go on forever like this??? Erm… That’s a big NO!

4. All left-overs are placed into our garden composter… Anything that we have left over we now compost. This will go towards producing fertile mulch for the veggies that we are growing. Plus it saves SO much space in our bins… I used to empty the kitchen bin once or twice every week. However, since we’ve started composting, we’ve noticed that, as the bin only has wrappings and packaging in now, we don’t fill the bin up for a whole month!!! Manky as it may sound, because we don’t place any food in it the bin just never smells anymore… Plus you can compress it without worrying that you’ll place your hands on some of last night’s dinner left overs…

So… One rubbish bag for every calendar month is what we now use… Compared to EIGHT before we started composting!!! How’s that for clean, conscious living??? It’s bloody easy… That’s what it is!!!

5. Use a rainwater collection system… This can be done on several scales:

i) For the home. We haven’t really looked into this much, as we’ve had no reason to… But if you’re curious, you can click here to find out more.

ii) For the garden or allotment. This really comes in handy if you are keen gardner, or are growing your vegetables on an allotment which is away from a water source. Basically, you attach the water butt to a drain pipe. This then effectively manages to capture a large proportion of the rain water that roles off your roof and down the drain. Not to mention that in the UK, this ca be quite a considerable amount. So every time it rains, the rain water collects in a water butt… And when you need it, you simply tap it into your watering can. Easy…

This is obviously good because we then use less mains water, which actually undergoes quite a complex and high emission process before it comes out of our taps. To find out more on this process, click here. Not to mention it beats the hosepipe bans that we sometimes experience here in the hot UK summers.

6. We’ve switched over all our light bulbs in the house to the energy saving type… As we get our bill quarterly, we’ve already noticed that it’s a substantial amount less than it used to be. Plus, and this is a trick I learnt from a friend, we now switch all our appliances that are on standby off.

7. Installing solar heating tubes on the roof… Admittedly, during these tight times, not everyone will be able to do this. However, we’re selling our car and using the cash to install the solar tubes… And, with the remainder of the wonga, we’re gonna buy some cheap bicycles to get around on.

Do note… You can get help financial help from the government with this. Just click here to find out more. Or if you live in the South East of the UK then check out “Domestic Renewable Energy Investments & Grants”, as they have some very good advise to give on grants, loans (interest free ones!!!) and provide other very useful links depending on which renewable/greener alternative you decide is best for you and your needs/home/lifestyle.

HOWEVER… If you’re not in an area that allows for sunlit space… You can still consider changing over to a more economical and “greener” alternative to heating your home and water… One method in particular that caught my attention is a Biomass boiler that uses renewable-energy sources i.e. wood chip and pellets, which are readily available by means of waste material from the “chippie” industry (or Carpenter trade).

Bear in mind though that many of these boiler systems still require electricity to run with… And in the event of power cut, you will not be able to heat your home. So… If you’d like to go totally the way of the minimalist… You can use a Wood Burning Stove for all of your hot water needs. But you’ll need to bear in mind some important things:

i) Wood Burning Stoves generate a lot of heat… And if you rely solely on this method to heat your hot water, try to keep it in a room where you’ve got a good amount of ventilation during the hot summer months i.e. French doors or many windows, to allow the heat to dissipate easily.

ii) Also… This type of heating method is a continual heat source i.e. you can’t just switch it on and off like gas… So you’ll need to consider using a “Heat Sink Radiator” which can easily dissipate heat and prevent pressure build-ups, over-heating, etc…

iii) Wood storage… Wood cannot be burnt when it is wet – when wet or moist it burns very in-efficiently. So you’ll need to season it well before hand and keep it as dry as possible. This requires sheltered storage.

8. Get the recommended 270mm insulation into that loft space… It’s actually very surprising how many homes don’t have the recommended 270mm insulation in their attics/roof spaces!!! We certainly didn’t… Not to mention we were actually worried it was gonna cost a wee bit to do this.

However, we were nicely surprised when we found out it was only £200 to bring the house up to scratch. And we got it done through British Gas, would you believe… Looking forward to seeing the difference this makes in the winter time!?

9. Power Consumption Aware!!! It’s always good to understand what, why and how much power you’re using in everyday homely and work-based activities. For example:

i) Don’t fill the kettle right up to the brim for just one cuppa… Heating all that extra water really does use up quite a bit of extra power. The specific heat capacity of water is one of the highest of the every day compounds that we use here on earth. Check this table out if you don’t believe me…

ii) If you’re a smart phone junkie like me, you probably will want to check this site out. It has some handy facts and figures that are good pointers towards making one aware of the nature of these power hungry devices.

iii) As physics has show us… You can’t be in two places at once. Well… Unless you’re an electron, of course. But no doubt we humans will have hard time emulating this quantum ideal. So… If the Uncertainty Principle hasn’t got you in a state wondering where you’re at… Do remember to switch off the lights in the rooms that you aren’t in… Really simple idea, I know… And one that I’m sure you’re all aware of. But I’m still so surprised to find that not many people that I know do it.

iv) Rather than keeping your house warm as summer in the winter… Dress up and keep warm!!! If you can walk around your home in Bermuda shorts, then you’re probably over heating your home, which is very much like living out of season… Very comparable to eating out of season. No house will be 100% insulated… And if a home is 28 degrees C in winter, there will be a lot more heat escaping than if it were a simple 22 degrees C. The less energy used to heat your home, the lower your carbon footprint.

10. I’ve given up the idea of having any biological children of my own… I mean… Why have your own when there are so many orphaned children out there? Is it the “selfish gene” speaking? Think about it…

Undoubtedly this is a very touchy issue with all of us, as reproduction is part of a strong natural instinct that we all feel… And to deny a natural yearning as strong as this, something that is very much an Life propagating aspect of ourselves, is really is a tricky thing to come to grips with. This is probably the reason why most of my friends are in shock and disbelief about this. I should add though, that the main driving impetus behind my decision is not solely the 10:10 campaign! No doubt it played a part in my decision, but only about 10%…

But more importantly… The way I see it now… What with the 7 billion people mark having just been reached here on earth, see the New Scientist article entitled “Population: Enough Of Us Now,” we as a species are now pretty well ‘stocked.’ In fact we’re so well stocked that we are beginning to place a great strain on our food chain. This is something I’ll go into in depth after my next blog…

That just about sums up the action we’re taking here at home… Do feel free to add you’re own ideas in the comments section below. Sharing is part of the game!

If you’re not quite as keen as us, or don’t know quite what to make of all this climate change business… No worries. At least think about… Have a read about it. As I always ask everyone to do… Make up your own mind on something. Don’t listen to others just because the crowd is doing it. Find your own reasons for doing something… And you’ll find you do it a lot better.

If you’re fancying more info, then check out Chris Goodall’s web blog here, as he sheds some light over the common-sense behind the 10:10 campaign… Hell, he even gives some great ideas as to how you can begin taking those step to reach that 10% reduction in your emissions by 2010.

Then there are the Government websites advising what you can do and how you can do it:

i) Energy Saving Trust

ii) The Renewable Energy Center

iii) Act On CO₂

SO… If you’re feeling like you want to help the cause, save yourself some money, show Gaia that you really care, or even fancy yourself as a bit of an altruistic meme-machine… Join 10:10 today and make that pledge now… It’s never too late to play a part in making that change!