Category: High impact

Better buses & trains – lobby for a sustainable transport policy

blue and white electric tram on an american street lined with red brick buildings

Why do we need sustainable public transport?

Road transport causes 11.9% of global greenhouse emissions[1], so developing sustainable public transport systems is essential if we are to prevent climate change.

While electric and (eventually) hydrogen-powered vehicles are better than petrol and diesel, they still encourage individual travel, which causes microplastic pollution from tyre wear and creates congestion. We need mass public transport systems that are fit for the future.

Imagine a public transport system that:

  • regularly connects all our villages and housing estates with town centres, employment areas and transport hubs
  • is affordable, maybe even free
  • is powered by renewable energy
  • is reliable
  • is regular enough that you can get rid of your car altogether and still get everything done

It could happen, with political will and significant investment, and it could create a lot of “green” jobs.

How can I help get a sustainable public transport system?

  • Write to your political representative asking for more routes, more frequent services and higher subsidies. (Feel free to use the text above to help compose your email.)
    While one letter won’t change anything, trust that your letter will eventually be one of thousands, evidence of a groundswell of public opinion that they can’t ignore.
  • Encourage other people to write as well.
  • Find out what bus services people in your area want, get actual numbers, and write to your local bus company asking for that route.
  • Set up or join a local on-demand bus service like HertsLynx, which allows anyone to travel anywhere they want to go in North & East Hertfordshire for very little cost.
  • Use it! Public transport routes are closing all the time because the government cut subsidies, so the routes aren’t profitable any more. Nearly-empty buses are loss-making, but full ones can still make a profit, so those routes stay open.
  • Encourage your teens to use the bus instead of Mum/Dad’s taxi service.
  • Encourage anyone with time on their hands to use the bus, to help keep the route open.
  • Find out if your local bus or train company has a user group and join it so you can influence local decision-making.

How can I contact my MP or political representative?

In the UK, you can find out who your MP is and how to contact them on They Work For You.

In the US, you can find out who your representative in Congress is here.

Reference:
[1] Ritchie, H., Roser, M. and Rosado, P. (2020) Emissions by sector. Our World in Data. Available at: https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector (Accessed: March 22, 2023).

Image credit: photo by Flor Nájera on Unsplash

Categories: High impact, Influence, Travel & commuting

How to take climate action – take part in a school strike

children, young people taking part in a climate protest

What are school strikes?

School strikes, inspired by the action taken by Greta Thunberg, are a direct challenge to leadership (teachers, governments and parents). Students are absent from school, usually without permission, and instead go to a public place with placards explaining that they are on strike, and why.

The objective is to make the news, in order to:

  • remind the more complacent members of our society that climate change is a problem
  • remind other campaigners that they’re not alone
  • and make it harder for your government to continue with climate-damaging policies

Not to be taken lightly, school strikes have been proven to be a valuable attention-raising tool in the fight against climate change.

Should I take part in a school strike?

Whether or not to participate in a school strike is not an easy decision to make. It’s a direct challenge to the way things have always been done; you must balance the risk of damaging your education and future work prospects against the risk that your future (as previous generations have known it) is at stake.

Is it worth it? Perhaps it depends on where you are in your school career. If you are approaching your exams, you might take a different view of the risks compared to if you are at a less critical stage in your school career. At all stages, speak to your parents and teachers to explain, and ask the teachers if they would be prepared to send you a copy of the lesson materials so you don’t miss out. Students with good behaviour records, who can explain their actions in a reasoned way and collaborate with teachers to limit the disruption to their education will probably suffer less negative consequences than others might; but ultimately the school will have behaviour standards to uphold and you may well face punishment of some kind.

Ultimately it is a personal decision.

How can I make my school strike effective?

Ideally, do it on the same day as an organised protest to maximise your impact.

Make sure you do your preparation. Make effective, eye-catching placards, prepare your statement so you know what your demands are, prepare a press release and tell your local media so they can arrange to cover the strike.

On the day, take photos to prove it happened, and make sure you take some in landscape (wide) format as this works best on media websites. Of course, take photos and video and share them on TikTok and Instagram too (but you didn’t need us to tell you to do that, right?) You might not be on Facebook, but the audience you need to convince is, so get someone to post your media to Facebook too, and send them to your local newspaper.

How can I support school strikes responsibly?

Supporting school strikes as a student leader

If you are a student leader (e.g. a class representative, head of house, or head girl/boy) take advantage of your role and speak to the school’s senior leadership team. A well-argued case could change the whole school’s policy. Maybe a compromise could be reached, e.g. a lunchtime protest. This could still make the news – local newspapers are desperate for stories – so you will have achieved your objective of bringing the climate crisis to people’s attention, while not losing any study time.

Supporting school strikes as a teacher, governor or member of the school leadership team

If you are a teacher, a governor or a member of the school’s leadership team, talk to each other about whether the school policy should be to support strikes, and how the effect on learning could be minimised, while maximising the effectiveness of the strike. Pro-active leadership, demonstrating that you care about both the climate and education could be more effective than attempting to manage rebellion (particularly as those rebelling may well be your most caring, thoughtful and high-achieving pupils).

If you teach art, tech or graphic design, help your students design and create posters and placards.

If you teach English, media studies, or business studies, help your students prepare a press release and rehearse press interviews.

If you teach science, make sure your students understand the environmental chemistry and biology that’s relevant to their protest so they are well informed.

If you teach maths, help your students with any statistics they are interpreting or quoting so they don’t accidentally make false claims.

If you teach history, geography or sociology, teach your students about the historic and current inequities that have contributed to the unfair burden of climate change experienced by the global South; and strategies that go towards making that right, like targeted assistance for developing countries, and respecting indigenous rights.

Supporting school strikes as a parent

As a parent, talk to your child about school strikes, and how they could participate safely and avoid damage to their education. Help them to make good choices regarding which strikes to support and when.

Image credit: photo by Callum Shaw on Unsplash

Categories: Community & action, High impact, Influence

How to take climate action – plant a lot of trees

rainforest trees in sunlight

Why should I plant trees?

Trees absorb and lock away carbon – on average about 22kg of CO2 per year[1] – so it’s horrifying that human activity has already cleared about half of the Earth’s tropical forests[2] and a further 7.3 million hectares are destroyed every year.[2] That’s the same as about 10.5 million football (soccer) pitches or 13.7 million NFL football fields.

Research shows that planting billions of trees is the simplest and cheapest way to help tackle the climate crisis[3]. The study’s authors calculated that it should be possible to increase tree cover by 25%. When mature, the extra forested areas would be capable of locking away 200 gigatonnes of carbon (25% of current atmospheric carbon)[3].

While we absolutely must reduce emissions as well, planting trees is a quick, easy win, because it doesn’t require political will or rely on technology that hasn’t been invented yet. It’s a low-tech, cheap solution that can be started right now by anyone, anywhere.

In addition to capturing carbon, responsible reforestation also:

  • prevents soil erosion
  • improves soil health
  • prevents flooding by improving groundwater recharge (the process by which water returns to the water table)
  • supports native plants and animals
  • regulates local temperatures (e.g. cooling cities naturally)
  • and provides work for local communities

Where does tree planting have the most effect?

Trees planted in tropical areas were long believed to have the most impact[4]. So, on a global scale, it’s good to support a scheme that aims to plant millions of trees in equatorial areas, like Earth Day’s Canopy Project. Alongside many other campaigns, they plant trees in areas most at risk from climate change and after environmental disasters.

However, more recent evidence indicates that the UK’s older trees lock away twice as much carbon as previously thought – so really there’s no bad place to plant a tree, so long as it’s a native tree, and not in a monoculture (i.e. not a huge area all planted with the same type of tree).

Here are some great examples of international tree planting.

How can I plant more trees in my area?

close up of two red and green eating apples on an apple tree. On the left, the blurred background gives the impression of more apple trees

If you’re in charge of a lot of land (e.g. managing an estate, a park, a school or looking after community-owned land), check out the Woodland Trust’s tree planting scheme. They can help with access to grants and funding schemes and suggest which trees you should plant. They can even supply free trees to schools and communities. Applications open in spring for autumn delivery, because it’s best to plant trees in late autumn/winter.

In your area, support schemes to plant native trees in public spaces, or plans to plant locally-appropriate woodland and forests, and support campaigns to replant forests that have been destroyed by farming and mining. Support these schemes even if they change your local landscape so it looks unfamiliar to you.

If you have room at home, plant a native and appropriately-sized tree. Research how big it will grow, or ask a tree specialist, so you don’t cut out all your light and damage your home’s foundations. If you plant a fruit tree, you can also have a free seasonal supply of apples, pears or other fruit.

If you have less space, planting any leafy plant will help. Consider planting fruit bushes, or something that flowers in the winter, like viburnum, to provide early or out-of-season food for beneficial insects like bees.

If you have no outdoor space at all, even indoor plants will help. They’ll remove CO2 from the air, and they’ll also help remove volatile organic compounds (given off by furnishings and paint) from your home. Good Housekeeping, quoting a study by NASA, recommends aloe vera, areca palm and snake plant, among others.

[1] Urbanforestrynetwork.org. (2019). Trees Improve Our Air Quality. [online] Available at: http://urbanforestrynetwork.org/benefits/air%20quality.htm [Accessed 27 Jul. 2019]

[2] Earth Day. n.d. The Canopy Project | Earth Day. [online] Available at: <https://www.earthday.org/campaign/the-canopy-project/> [Accessed 14 February 2021].

[3] “The restoration of forested land at a global scale could help capture atmospheric carbon and mitigate climate change.”) Bastin et al (2019). The global tree restoration potential. Science, [online] 365(6448), pp.76-79. Available at: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6448/76.

[4] Carrington, D., 2019. Tree planting ‘has mind-blowing potential’ to tackle climate crisis. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/04/planting-billions-trees-best-tackle-climate-crisis-scientists-canopy-emissions> [Accessed 14 February 2021].

[5] Gill, V. (2022) UK’s old trees critical to climate change fight, BBC News. BBC. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64028694 (Accessed: February 5, 2023).

Image credits:
Rainforest: photo by Alenka Skvarc on Unsplash
Apples on a tree: photo by Sokmean Nou on Unsplash

Categories: Carbon absorption, Community & action, Gardening, High impact, Uncategorized

How to take climate action – live minimally

minimalist white living room with wooden floor, yellow chair and modern art

Well-made, purposefully chosen, useful things are at the heart of the minimalist movement, which ties in well with the green movement.

Living minimally is about:

  • clearing out what’s holding you back
  • appreciating the things you’ve chosen to keep
  • only choosing to buy things you really need

Why live minimally?

Buying less, but better quality, helps the Earth’s resources go further and reduces transport and manufacturing emissions. In the long run, it should also save money too.

Simply having less “stuff” frees up space, so there is room to do the things that are more important to us – like having people over, a place to enjoy a hobby, space to work from home, or simply a quiet area to ourselves.

How to use green motivation to overcome your hoarding instinct

Moving towards minimalism can be challenging for some of us.

Maybe we hang on to things because:

  • we might need them again one day
  • money has been tight in the past, or is tight now
  • we don’t want to waste money buying a replacement
  • we don’t want to waste resources buying something a second time
  • we hoard things we wish we had time to do, e.g. hobbies we want to take up, or that we used to enjoy
  • we hoard things because of the memories they hold
  • we haven’t got time to get rid of them in a sustainable way

I’m guilty of literally all of those things.

Here’s how to fight those thoughts that hold us back.

“I might need it again one day”

Well, someone else needs it right now. Give it to them via Freegle or Freecycle, sell it on eBay, donate it to a “Library of Things” or a charity shop. If you ever find yourself needing it again, ask on the same sites, or borrow it from a friend or a Library of Things.

“I don’t want to waste money on a replacement” or “I’m worried I won’t be able to afford a replacement”

This one is particularly hard if money is scarce, or has been scarce in the past.

Ask yourself how many times you’ve used the object in the last five years, and how many of them you own, before deciding whether or not to part with it. For example, I had five inflatable mattresses from the days when my children often had sleepovers. They used to be essential, but they aren’t any more. Someone else will enjoy them more now.

“I don’t want to waste resources buying something a second time”

Someone else needs it right now, and resources are already being used to make theirs.

Maybe you’ll never need it again anyway, and if you do, you might be able to get it second-hand. If you really don’t want to let it go, you could loan it to a “Library of Things”.

Remember, if you have to buy it again in the future, the total amount of resources used is no worse than if “someone else” had bought it now. And by the time you need it again, there may be a more environmentally-friendly alternative available.

“I’m saving it for when I have time to use it”

If you can see that time is coming soon, by all means keep it, and enjoy it when the time comes.

But if you can’t see yourself having time in the future, it’s time to ask yourself some questions about your priorities. Maybe that new hobby isn’t that important to you after all? If so, give the kit away or sell it.

Or maybe it is important to you, but you have too many responsibilities. Ask for help, or resign from community roles that aren’t so important to you any more. Remember, everyone deserves a break.

“I’m keeping it because it reminds me of…”

I’m certainly not going to encourage you to get rid of something that means a lot to you.

But consider whether a photograph of the object might hold the memory for you just as well, or whether the object could be turned into something more useful or decorative? For example, have a blanket or cushion made from meaningful fabric; a piece of art made from special greetings cards; or display photos of children’s artwork shuffled on a screensaver, instead of hidden away in boxes where you never see them.

“I haven’t got time to get rid of them in a sustainable way”

You don’t have to do it all at once. Try choosing one thing a day, and put it in a box labelled “charity shop”, “Vinted”, “recycling centre” or “metal for the scrap yard” (or wherever you want it to go). If it helps, keep a list of what you’ve got rid of so you can see your progress. If you feel in the mood, do a whole area (like a drawer, or a Difficult Box). Don’t expect to ever find the time to do a Whole Room in one go. That won’t happen.

Ask other people to help. Maybe your partner doesn’t feel qualified to decide what stays or goes, but they’d be happy to take your sorted boxes to their destinations. Tech-savvy and responsible teens could do a great job of selling your stuff on Vinted or Depop. Your mum or friend might take a bag to the charity shop next time they go to town.

Put things on your local Facebook free stuff groups. For very little of your own effort, people will come and take things away.

Always remember why you’re doing it, and it will become easier as you get rid of things and start to see progress.

Good luck!

Photo credit: Kam Idris on Unsplash

Categories: Consumption, High impact, In Lockdown

How to stop unnecessary flights – campaign for a frequent flyer tax

sad business people on plane

What is a frequent flyer tax?

A frequent flyer tax (also known as a frequent flyer levy) is an additional tax on people who take a lot of flights (or the businesses that make them take the flights). This makes the flights more expensive, which discourages unnecessary travel.

A frequent flier tax wouldn’t have any effect on people taking an occasional holiday or making infrequent trips to visit loved ones in other countries (although we would encourage you to think about taking more sustainable holidays instead of flying – see our travel page for ideas).

How would a frequent flyer tax help reduce emissions?

Flying is expected to be the biggest source of the UK’s emissions by 2050 [1], and just 15% of people are responsible for 70% of UK flights [2]. A frequent flyer tax could therefore significantly reduce emissions by discouraging a small-ish number of people (or the people who tell them what to do) from flying as often.

An important point is that the frequent flyer tax would need to be levied on businesses, not just individuals. That’s to prevent companies from avoiding the tax by sending a different person each time.

What can I do to help get a frequent flier tax introduced?

Lobby your political representative to introduce a frequent flyer tax. While one letter won’t change anything, trust that your letter will eventually be one of thousands, evidence of a change in public opinion that they can’t ignore.

Here are some useful facts from GreenWorld, the Green Party’s membership publication:

  • Introducing a frequent flyer tax would force frequent fliers to think more about their aerial carbon footprint and give them a financial incentive to lower it
  • Aviation contributes to about 2.5 per cent of global carbon emissions; this rises to 5% when all greenhouse gases, not just carbon, are taken into account
  • As more people reach the global middle class more people want to fly, so passenger numbers are expected to increase substantially in the coming decades
  • In the UK, just 15% of people take 70% of flights.
    1% of people in the UK are responsible for about 20% of flights!
    Meanwhile, more than half of the people in the UK don’t fly at all
  • The Green Party’s proposals would allow people to take one return flight a year, with no extra tax, so people could go on annual holidays and visit any family they may have abroad
  • Businesses and frequent fliers can and will have to adapt – trains can be used to get to Continental Europe instead of planes. Video conferencing can be done online. Longer stays at destinations can be arranged so multiple visits aren’t necessary
  • When properly explained, the public should be fully behind a frequent flyer tax because voters are keen on policies which follow well-established climate science but don’t make them change their own behaviour! 

How can I contact my MP or political representative?

In the UK, you can find out who your MP is and how to contact them on They Work For You.

In the US, you can find out who your representative in Congress is here.

[1] BBC News. 2019. Introduce frequent flyer levy to fight emissions, government told. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49808258> [Accessed 7 February 2021].

[2] Full Fact. 2016. Do 15% of people take 70% of flights?. [online] Available at: <https://fullfact.org/economy/do-15-people-take-70-flights/> [Accessed 7 February 2021].

Photo credit:  Hanson Lu on Unsplash

Categories: Free, High impact, Influence, Quick & easy, Travel & commuting

How to take climate action – use your vote!

I voted sticker

Actions taken by individuals are important but – let’s be honest – the effect is tiny compared to the impact of actions taken by governments.

We urgently need strong environmental action from our governments, so use your vote to support national and local politicians who put the environment at the heart of their economic and international policies.

Why should I bother to vote?

Many of our current politicians do not seem to care about climate breakdown at all – their promises are as empty as their pockets are full. Voting can feel pointless, particularly if you live in an area that votes overwhelmingly in the opposite direction to you.

But it’s always worth voting.

  • Even safe seats can be overturned, sometimes quite spectacularly
  • Winning parties will be keeping a close eye on the policies and popularity of their rivals
  • The incredibly close Brexit vote showed that literally, every vote counts
  • For women, our right to vote is comparatively recent and hard-won, and we have a duty to the campaigners who fought for our rights – particularly as the overturning of Roe-vs-Wade in the US has shown how easily women’s rights can be taken away
  • Our votes matter just as much in local elections, with the added benefit that you can often vote with your heart as well as your head and get a Green candidate elected

Don’t hold out for a perfect candidate – there isn’t one! Choose the one whose values and policies most closely match yours, because someone else is guaranteed to be voting for someone terrible, and at least your vote can cancel theirs out.

So, encourage everyone you know to use their vote – particularly younger people, who tend to be more progressive overall, but turn out to vote less than older people do. (The BBC states that in the UK 2015 general election, only 43% of 18-24-year-olds voted, compared with 78% of people aged 65 or over [1].)

Younger people’s failure to vote isn’t necessarily due to apathy. It could be because they aren’t sure how to register, or because they haven’t got the time to queue at a polling station while juggling work, children and/or study[2]. From 2023, it could also be because some younger people lack the forms of ID necessary to cast a vote in person. The rules on what ID is allowable discriminate against younger people, people who haven’t got passports or driving licences, and people who move addresses frequently, thereby giving an advantage to the party which is supported by more older voters (you know which party I mean).

How can I get more people to vote?

  • Talk to people, particularly young people, about the importance of voting. Fight apathy with recent examples of supposedly safe seats being overturned
  • Use your knowledge of the system, or your free time, to help people register to vote
  • Use your free time to help them actually vote (e.g. driving them to the polling station or babysitting)
  • Explain that there are new rules about voter ID from 2023, and ask them to make sure they have got the forms of ID necessary to cast a vote in person
  • For busy people, help them arrange a postal vote.
    Literally, everyone has time to vote by post
  • When people say all politicians are as bad as each other, list all the recent scandals you can find on the BBC news website in order of “badness”, and see which party comes up worse
  • Volunteer to support your local Green Party candidate (or whichever candidate they are stepping aside for)
  • Talk to your children about politics, sustainability and social justice
  • While they can’t actually vote yet, young people can register to vote from the age of 16 in England, and from the age of 14 in Scotland and Wales. Encourage/help them to register early, so they are ready if they are old enough to vote when the next election is called (remember, elections can often be called at short notice)

How do I register to vote?

In the UK, you can register to vote here.

When you’ve registered to vote, you can request a postal vote here.

Anyone can have a postal vote and you don’t need to give a reason.

In the US, you can find out how to register here:
Find out how to register (scroll down to the “States With Online Voter Registration” table)
Find out if you’re already registered.

And if you are a US citizen abroad, find out how to vote from overseas here. Please use your vote because the rest of the world really cares who’s in charge in the US, but has no influence over it!

Can I get a postal vote?

The short answer is YES – anyone who is registered to vote in the UK can get a postal vote, and you don’t have to give a reason.

Postal votes are great if you’re short of time, forgetful, or just don’t like queuing. It means last-minute problems can’t prevent you from casting your vote. And it’s super-useful for people who work full time, have kids to put to bed, have to prepare dinner, have limited mobility, have evening classes to attend, feel vulnerable walking at night, or just don’t like queuing in the rain… which is just about everyone.

I’ll say it again – in the UK, anyone who’s registered to vote can request a postal vote here. You don’t need to give a reason.

So the steps are:

  1. Start early
  2. If you plan to vote in person, make sure you have one of the accepted forms of voter ID
  3. Register to vote here
  4. When you’ve registered to vote, request a postal vote here
  5. Use your vote

In the US, some states automatically send mail-in ballots to everyone who’s registered to vote, but in other states, you have to request them. Find out what your state’s rules are here (scroll down to the “States With Online Voter Registration” table).

References:
[1] BBC News. (2020). Election 2017: If more young people actually voted, would it change everything? [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-39965925 [Accessed 8 Mar. 2020].

[2] BBC News. (2020). Why don’t more young people vote? [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51763333 [Accessed 8 Mar. 2020].

Photo credit:  Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Categories: Free, High impact, In Lockdown, Influence

Climate action – how to use a zero-waste shop

dry goods bins at a zero waste shop

How do zero-waste shops work?

Zero-waste shops sell everyday items, like groceries, cleaning products, personal care items and gifts, without plastic packaging. But, because they’re all about reducing packaging, they don’t work like normal shops!

You can bring your own containers, or buy reusable containers from them the first time you buy something. They’ll write the weight of the container on the bottom, and deduct it when they weigh your goods, so you don’t end up paying for the weight of the container!

Dry goods like pasta, flour and muesli are usually stored in gravity bin dispensers. You simply put your container underneath, open the door at the bottom, fill your container, and close the door again. Wide-necked containers are best otherwise you will make a mess… but they’ll have a dustpan and brush handy.

Spices are usually stored in Kilner jars, with a spoon nearby so you can measure out how much you need.

Cleaning products like washing up liquid, laundry detergent, and fabric conditioner will be stored in large plastic tubs. They’ll either have a pump, or a tap and a spout at the bottom. You put the spout into the neck of your reusable bottle, then pump to fill your bottle, or open the tap. Keep an eye on the spout, particularly when pumping!

I have lost count of the number of times I’ve been distracted talking to the owner and spilt laundry detergent on the carpet. Fortunately, they are very forgiving and have towels ready to use.

What other things do zero-waste shops sell?

One lovely thing about zero-waste shops is they are often local owner-managed businesses, so they’ll all be different.
Our local shop sells all sorts of environmentally friendly products like beeswax wraps, reusable period products, cleaning brushes, and tooth-cleaning products. They’ve also got a coffee grinder and a “Notella” machine, which grinds hazelnuts and chocolate nibs into a palm-oil-free Nutella substitute.

More good reasons to use a zero-waste shop

  • Zero-waste shops are great places to meet like-minded people so you don’t feel like you’re doing this all on your own
  • They might be a local Terracycle collection point, so you can recycle your crisp packets and chocolate wrappers when you go in
  • Zero-waste shop staff will probably know all about local seed swaps, have the contact details for joining your local Extinction Rebellion group, or know who to speak to about getting a seat on a coach to a protest
  • Together, staff and customers form a local knowledge bank to help solve problems. If you’re thinking of investing in a major green project, they’ll probably know someone who’s already done it. Or if you want to know how to freshen up your washing machine without commercial products, they can tell you how to do that too
  • Using your local zero-waste shop helps keep the High Street alive and supports local small businesses
  • And of course, it means less packaging waste is produced. The amount of packaging used for bulk delivery of stock is much less than the amount needed to pack the same items individually

How can I find my nearest zero-waste shop?

Easy – google “zero waste (your town’s name) or use this map to find your nearest zero-waste shop (but check your local store’s website before you go, for opening hours, and to make sure it’s still running).

Photo credit: Benjamin Brunner on Unsplash

Categories: Food, High impact, In Lockdown, Waste

How to get your favourite brands to stop using plastic

woman in green top with coffee and laptop in a cafe

Why should I ask my favourite brands to stop using plastic?

While plastic can be recycled, it often isn’t, leading to plastic pollution in oceans, rivers, and even our own bodies via the food chain. We need to stop producing and using single-use plastic items, except for where it’s absolutely necessary.

As individuals, we can make better purchasing decisions – but changes made by companies make it easy for everyone to go greener – whether they want to or not! 

So ask your favourite brands why they’re still using plastic in their products or packaging. A single change made by a company can have as much effect as thousands of their customers making the same choice.

Action:
Ask your favourite brands why they haven’t swapped to paper-based or plant-based wrappers for their products, or why they are still using plastic when they don’t need to.

How do I get companies to stop using plastic?

Start by emailing or tweeting and see what kind of answer you get. The company may be enthusiastic – they may already be doing something about it!

Twitter is a good place to put pressure on companies because they don’t like negative publicity. But however you do it, make sure you’ve got your facts right, and be polite – there’s a person at the other end. Feedback from customer services and the social media team can be a valuable mechanism for convincing management to make the change!

If you don’t get anywhere, see if someone else has already created a petition. Change.org and 38 Degrees are good places to start, or, to petition the government, use the UK government petitions site. If a petition already exists, support it by adding your name, writing to the petition target, or offering help to the petition owner.

If no one else is already running a campaign, you could start your own petition on Change.org or a similar site. But to give it the best chance of success, first, ask yourself if you’re committed to following it through. The most powerful petitions are started by people who are really committed and have the time to meet the petition target in the real world and work together for solutions – like the campaign we’ve highlighted below.

Finally, consider getting together with others to organise a boycott of the product or even protest at the organisation’s headquarters or sales outlets.

Cut the plastic – an inspiring example of a great eco campaign

Ella Daish’s campaign to encourage supermarkets to make all their menstrual products plastic-free is a great example of a successful campaign.

Ella was working as a postal worker when she noticed the amount of rubbish on her delivery route. First, she took steps to reduce the amount of waste she produced in her daily life; one of the changes she made was switching to eco-friendly period products. But no one else seemed to be aware of the problem.

She decided to take on the suppliers and started her campaign, on Change.org, in early 2018.

Ella’s petition, which calls on supermarkets and manufacturers to cut the plastic from their period products, now has more than 230,000 signatures. Ella met with decision-makers from Procter & Gamble, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Boots, Morrisons, Aldi, Kotex, Lil-lets, Carefree, Lidl, Bodyform, Asda, Superdrug and the Co-op, and the campaign featured in the national news and international magazines.

As a result of Ella’s campaign:

  • Sainsbury’s, Aldi, and Superdrug stopped producing plastic tampon applicators, which she says has prevented 17 tonnes of plastic from being produced annually
  • Eco-friendly ranges of tampons, pads and reusable products are now available in most supermarkets, giving customers a greater choice
  • Lil-Lets, Superdrug, and Morrisons developed and launched their own eco-friendly ranges

Photo credit: Adam Satria on Unsplash

Categories: High impact, Free, In Lockdown, Influence, Uncategorized, Waste

Reduce, reuse, recycle is dead – here’s how to make a difference

rubbish trash littering a tropical beach

What’s wrong with reduce, reuse, recycle?

Reduce, reuse, recycle… it’s been drummed into us since the 70s. But that old mantra sounds a bit hollow now we’ve learned what some unethical companies are doing with our carefully-separated recyclables.

Containers full of recyclable material are shipped overseas, but once they arrive there’s no guarantee that they will actually be recycled. Our plastic waste ends up on beaches, in rivers, in landfills, or could be incinerated. Burning plastic releases toxic gases which can harm the health of the people living nearby.

So while recycling is good in principle, we can’t just ship it abroad and forget about it. The problem with “reduce, reuse, recycle” is we’ve been focusing too much on the “recycle” bit, forgetting that by far the most important bit is “reducing”, i.e. not causing the plastic to be used in the first place.

How can I reduce plastic use?

We need to make plastic reduction central to every decision at work and home. Some good places to start are:

  • Buy less stuff, particularly stuff packaged in plastic
  • At work, look for opportunities to reduce plastic in your products and packaging. Your one decision at work could have the same impact as thousands of individual consumers reaching the same decision
  • Buy loose ingredients from a zero-waste shop, and cook from scratch
  • Use bamboo, jute or organic cotton shopping bags instead of either single-use or plastic bags-for-life
  • Use beeswax wraps instead of cling film or sandwich bags
  • Stop buying plastic junk, e.g. for presents, or for children
  • Use bamboo or closed-loop recycling toothbrush heads instead of plastic toothbrushes
  • Use re-usable sanitary products
  • Make your own sandwiches and coffee. Wrap your sandwiches in a beeswax wrap and put them in a tin. Carry your coffee in a reusable bamboo cup
  • Avoid plastic promotional giveaways, both as a giver and a receiver

There are probably thousands of different alternatives to everyday products available – we’ve listed our favourite eco-friendly swaps here.

But success lies in a change of mindset.

  • Buy less
  • Buy better
  • Avoid plastic in as many purchases as possible
  • Learn to repair what’s broken
  • Borrow
  • Lend
  • Give things away
  • Think “second-hand first”

Photo credit: Dustan Woodhouse on Unsplash

Categories: Consumption, High impact, Waste

The problem with bee-killing pesticides – and how to help

bee on a yellow canola / rapeseed flower

Why are pesticides a problem?

Bees and other insects are essential to pollinate around one-third of the food crops we rely on – but bee populations are in decline due to the use of pesticides called neonicotinoids (neonics), habitat loss and disease.

Neonics were banned by the EU in April 2018, but, according to Greenpeace, at least 67 different emergency authorisations have been granted since that date. Many of these authorisations were granted repeatedly, or without any evidence of an ‘emergency’ situation being provided [1]. Neonic use has also been approved in the UK after Brexit, in certain emergency situations (although it was for a non-flowering crop).

Unfortunately, the next generation of pesticides are also believed to harm bees[2]. Indeed it’s hard to see how any future pesticides will be safe for bees and beneficial insects, given their physiological similarity to the insects the pesticides are intended to kill.

Legislators are under relentless pressure to approve pesticides that are known to cause the collapse of bee populations. This pressure comes from agrochemical giants like Bayer and Monsanto, whose business models are based on creating a reliance on their patented, proprietary seeds and pesticides.

How can I help end the use of bee-killing pesticides?

How can I contact my MP or political representative?

In the UK, you can find out who your MP is and how to contact them on They Work For You.

In the US, you can find out who your representative in Congress is here.

[1] Unearthed – Greenpeace. 2020. Loophole Keeps Bee-Killing Pesticides In Widespread Use, Two Years After EU Ban. [online] Available at: <https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2020/07/08/bees-neonicotinoids-bayer-syngenta-eu-ban-loophole/> [Accessed 25 January 2021].

[2] BBC News. 2018. New Pesticides ‘May Have Risks For Bees’. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45185261> [Accessed 25 January 2021].

Image credit: photo by Tsing Wang on Unsplash

Categories: Bees, insects & rewilding, Chemicals, Free, High impact, Influence, Quick & easy, Uncategorized

Make our roadsides better with bee-friendly wildflowers

poppies and blue wildflowers in a wildflower roadside verge

Why do we need bee-friendly roadside verges?

According to the wildlife charity Plantlife, 97% of the UK’s wildflower meadows have been lost since the 1930s[1]. This habitat loss is one of the reasons bees and other beneficial insects, which pollinate many of our crops, are in decline. The other reasons are pesticide use and disease.

Roadside verges are part of the solution. There are nearly 500,000 km (310,000 miles!) of roadside verges in the UK, and every year councils spend hundreds of thousands of pounds maintaining them[2].

New national guidance (developed by Plantlife together with national highways agencies, industry bodies, Natural England and other environmental groups) recommends that verges should only be cut twice a year, and never before July when most wildflowers are in bloom. Previously, verges were cut four or more times every year.

Less frequent cutting and avoiding pesticides allows verges to act as wildlife havens, helping to spread wildflowers, insects and invertebrates via a network of “corridors” across the country. If this recommendation was adopted throughout the UK, the grassland habitat created would be the same area as London, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh added together![2]

Write to your council about wildflower verges

Fortunately, many councils are keen to follow the example set by Dorset County Council, which estimates it has reduced the cost of verge maintenance by £100,000 in 5 years.[2]

It’s definitely worth contacting your council to encourage them to adopt the new national guidance. Councils are starved of cash and may well jump at the chance to reduce their costs.

Plantlife has written a sample letter, which you can use or adapt to help you write to your council. They also have a tool to help you find out which council you should be writing to, because it isn’t always obvious. Follow the link and scroll down to find the tool and sample letter.

[1] Plantlife. 2021. Real Action Needed To Save Our Vanishing Meadows. [online] Available at: <https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/about-us/news/real-action-needed-to-save-our-vanishing-meadows> [Accessed 25 January 2021].

[2] Barkham, P., 2021. UK Roadsides On Verge Of Becoming Wildlife Corridors, Say Experts. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/27/uk-roadsides-verge-wildlife-corridors-guidelines-wildflowers> [Accessed 25 January 2021].

Photo credit: Lucie Hošová on Unsplash

Categories: Bees, insects & rewilding, Free, High impact, Influence, Quick & easy

Better gardening with bee-and-insect-friendly plants

bee on white and pink flower with blurred background

Why do we need to support bees and other insects?

Bees and other insects pollinate around one-third of the food crops we rely on and 80% of flowering plants – but bee populations are in decline due to pesticide use, habitat loss and disease.

You can help create safe, pesticide-free habitats for bees and beneficial insects by planting bee-friendly and insect-friendly plants in your garden.

Which are the best plants to attract bees?

Plants will vary by area, but colourful flowering native species are likely to be best for your local bee and insect population.

Friends of the Earth has a list of trees, shrubs, flowers, herbs, wildflowers, fruit and vegetables to help you choose plants that will attract bees and other pollinators all year round. It includes favourites like lavender, and surprises like ivy, which flowers late in the year when there isn’t much else around. (Viburnum is another pretty, scented winter plant that provides early food for insects.) They also have advice on how to provide shelter and water that’s safe for bees to get to.

Re-wilding large areas of the countryside needs political will, but if enough of us start now, we can make a difference while the politicians catch up. You can make a difference at the local level by persuading your local council to mow roadside verges less often, letting the wildflowers grow until July. The bees will be happy and so will the council – they’ll save money on contractors.

Photo credit: Sensei Minimal on Unsplash

Categories: Bees, insects & rewilding, Cheap, Gardening, High impact

Find your tribe – how to join or create a green group

group of people talking laughing outside

When you see people buying fast fashion, or buying a diesel or petrol car, or voting for politicians who support fossil fuels, it can feel like you’re the only person who’s doing anything to fight climate change.

Finding a group of people who are on the same path can really help when your motivation gets low. Talking through problems and sharing solutions will help all of you make faster progress, and create a visible hub that people new to “going green” can join.

How can I find a green group or tribe?

  • Join groups that already exist, like your local Extinction Rebellion group, your school’s sustainability group, or a community garden
  • Visit or follow your local zero-waste shop and get to know the owners and regular customers
  • Search for green groups on your preferred social media platform
  • Set up a community group called “your neighbourhood/workplace green people” (or something along those lines). Invite anyone you know who’s got solar panels, an electric car, an allotment, or is known to be vegetarian or vegan. Share your ideas, support each other and watch your group grow
  • Put a box in your workplace break room and label it “food sharing”. Encourage people to share food they’re not going to get to, or food they bought to try, but don’t like
  • Start a sustainability group at work or school
  • Get a food buddy and share bulk purchases from online ethical or vegan stores, or take unwanted items off each other’s hands
  • Organise a new-to-you event and swap clothes, toys or household items
  • Set up a formal or informal Terracycle collection point at your work, school or place of worship
  • Set up or support a Community Fridge
  • Start or support a community garden
  • Start a Wombling group (a gathering to litter pick or clean up a specific area)
  • If you’ve got a specific community project in mind, set up a Facebook group to attract supporters/helpers, and advertise it in local community groups
  • Take a Zero-Carbon Britain course and connect with like-minded people

In addition to their stated aims, these groups also create the opportunity for conversations about green issues, which can help you find allies to promote even more green initiatives at work or in your neighbourhood.

Photo credit: Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Categories: High impact, Quick & easy, Saves money, Waste

How to take climate action – grow your own food

green and red tomatoes growing ripening on vine

Why should I grow my own food?

Every piece of food that you grow yourself saves you money, has zero food miles, zero packaging waste, gets you outside in the fresh air, and gives you a massive sense of achievement. You also get the satisfaction of eating seasonally and learning to store and use your own produce.

You can do it on a small scale or a large scale. In different houses, over the years, I’ve grown vegetables in a dedicated vegetable plot, mixed in amongst flowers in the border, on windowsills, and on balconies.

If you haven’t got the space to grow fruit and vegetables at home, consider an allotment. However, there are often long waiting lists for allotments, so if you can see yourself wanting one in the future, contact your local council and get your name down now.
Alternatively, arrange to tend someone else’s garden in exchange for sharing the produce (try Lend and Tend (UK), AllotMe (UK) or Shared Earth (US)).

What seeds should I buy?

The seeds you buy from the garden centre are often either F1 hybrids or genetically modified. The offspring are likely to be infertile or unstable, which means there’s no point saving seed from your plants to sow next year, locking you into a never-ending seed-purchase cycle that only benefits the international seed companies.

While this isn’t likely to be a big problem for hobby growers, it could become a huge problem for farmers in developing countries if the monopoly suppliers jack up their prices. And, as climate change increases the frequency of extreme and unpredictable weather events, the reducing genetic range (and therefore adaptability) of our staple food crops could become a problem for all of us.

I prefer not to support the big international seed companies, and I like the seed I use to be stable and unmodified, so I buy mine from a family company that grows heirloom varieties. In my experience, the seeds germinate reliably, generally produce good crops, and you can save the seed from your plants to use them next year. They even give you instructions on how to save the seed.

Here is a list of companies that sell organic seeds in the UK, courtesy of The Ecologist journal.

How can I get the most out of a small plot?

The majority of homes in the UK have very small plots, and we’ve all been trained to think that a flawless lawn is “peak garden”. So you may need to think creatively if you want to grow fruit and vegetables at home while allowing the rest of your family to continue to enjoy the garden in their own way.

  • If your partner isn’t convinced, create a Pinterest board of “beautiful gardens that aren’t lawns” to help them visualise what you’re planning
  • Remember you don’t have to do it all at once. Start with fruit and vegetables that you know you’ll eat, so your effort doesn’t go to waste. We started with tomatoes, peppers, squash and courgettes because we eat a lot of them and they can be grown without a greenhouse
  • Protect your crops from dogs, balls and children with a sturdy fence or a fruit cage
  • You can grow salad items on a windowsill, possibly even in winter (depending on how much sun the windowsill gets)
  • Join a local gardening club or Facebook group to get advice on when to plant and what’s going wrong with your plants
  • Find out when the last and first frost dates are in your area
  • Learn which plants grow well together and which don’t
  • To make the most of the space you have, try:
    – growing in pots
    – raised beds
    – vegetables planted amongst flowers
    – salad leaves as ground cover or ornamental lawn edging
    – hanging baskets (good for protecting strawberries from slugs)
    – increasing your growing area by using vertical space, e.g. growing plants up a trellis, an arch, a cone made of bamboo poles, or along wires fastened to fences
    – using cold frames to extend the growing season
    – growing vines and fruit trees against sunny walls so the plants benefit from the heat store
    – underplanting vertical plants (like sweetcorn, tomatoes or beans) with ground cover plants (like lettuce, courgettes or squash)
  • If you have enough space, a fruit cage or a greenhouse will help protect your crops so you get a better yield
  • If you have too little space for your needs, apply for an allotment or tend a neighbour’s garden in exchange for giving them a share of the produce

How can I become fully self-sufficient?

If you’re really going for it and want to be fully self-sufficient, estimates for the amount of land needed range from 0.75 to 1.25 acres per person for a vegetarian diet.

Check out this Grand Designs episode for the story of an inspirational couple who feed not just themselves and their family, but also support their catering business, on five acres of land in Somerset (season 22, episode 9).

If you’re living the self-sufficiency dream, we’d love to hear about it for our inspirational stories – please email info@biggreenideaslist.com and let us know!

Photo credit: Dan Gold on Unsplash

Categories: Food, Gardening, High impact, Saves money, Waste

Cutting your food miles or cutting out meat – which is better?

bunches of yellow bananas

What are food miles?

Food miles are the distance your food travels, from where it’s produced to your plate. Every mile travelled increases the greenhouse gases emitted.

However, it’s not as simple as it first appears.

Is it better to eat locally-reared meat, or fruit and vegetables that have travelled a long way?

The short answer, according to a study by researchers at the University of Oxford, is:

It’s better for the environment if you eat plant-based food, no matter how far it’s travelled.

The study, by Poore and Nemecek of the University of Oxford[1], acknowledges that there is a lot of variability between producers, and therefore scope for many meat producers to improve, which should be encouraged. But as a general rule to live by, it’s better for the environment if you eat plant-based food, no matter how far it’s travelled. (What they actually said was “The impact of even the lowest-impact animal products is typically worse than the impact of vegetable substitutes.“

That’s because the emissions from producing food far outweigh the emissions caused by transporting it. (A different study [2] showed that just 5% of American households’ food-related emissions were generated at the transport stage.)

So your priority should be:

  • first cut out beef, other meats and dairy transported from far away, e.g. beef from cattle reared in the Amazon, replacing them with plant-based protein or smaller quantities of animal protein produced in your own country
  • then cut out beef, other meat and dairy that have been produced closer to home, replacing them with plant-based protein
  • finally, choose seasonal fruit and vegetables, or at least ones grown in warmer areas of your own continent. (This avoids wasting the energy used to heat industrial greenhouses in winter, or high-altitude air freight.)

So what is plant-based protein?

Protein is a basic building block of life, so all plants contain some protein – but some plants contain more, or more complete, protein than others.

Some of the best sources of plant-based protein are quinoa, seitan (vital wheat gluten), soy-based foods like TVP (textured vegetable protein), peas, beans (including baked beans from a can!), lentils, chickpeas (and anything made from them, like hummus or falafels), tofu, oats, rice, nuts and seeds.

[1] Poore, J. and Nemecek, T. (2018). Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science, 360(6392), pp.987-992.
After researching five environmental indicators, 38,700 farms, and 1600 processors, packaging types, and retailers, the researchers found that “Most strikingly, impacts of the lowest-impact animal products typically exceed those of vegetable substitutes, providing new evidence for the importance of dietary change.”

[2] Weber, C and Scott Matthew, H (2008) Food-Miles And The Relative Climate Impacts Of Food Choices In The United States. [online] Available at: <https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es702969f> [Accessed 25 January 2021].

Photo credit: Matthew T Rader on Unsplash

Categories: High impact, Food, Travel & commuting

How to cut your food waste

loaf of bread with knife and wheat on a black background

We’ve been trained by supermarkets and cautious parents to only eat food that looks perfect, a habit which contributes to the 9.5 million tonnes of food the UK wastes, every year[1].

Once you change your way of thinking, you’ll be amazed at how much edible food you used to waste.

Make a plan and think ahead

Plan your meals in advance

Plan your meals for the week so you can:

  • use up anything you’ve got left over
  • plan something easy for busy days
  • batch cook on days when you’ve got more time
  • defrost tomorrow’s food overnight (chilled food cooks quicker, so it uses less energy than cooking from frozen)

Shop with a list

Shopping with a list helps you stick to a budget, avoid impulse buys that go to waste, and avoid buying accidental duplicates of things you already have.

Freeze food in portion sizes

Cut your garlic bread or pizza into portion sizes before you freeze it, then only defrost what you need (useful for everyone, but particularly if you’re cooking for one, or if you have small children who eat earlier than you do).

Use jam jars to freeze batch-cooked food

Each jar is the right size for one person, so you only defrost the quantity you need. This is particularly useful for families that have a mixture of meat-eaters and vegetarians/vegans.
Learn how to freeze food in jam jars.

Using up food that’s about to go bad

Learn the difference between use-by dates and best-before dates

Find out the difference between a best-before date and a use-by date – misunderstanding could be causing you to throw away perfectly good food.

Leftovers

Use your leftovers to make a quirky lunch tomorrow (e.g. fish fingers in a wrap with lettuce and mayo; chilli in a bap; roasted vegetables with pasta).

Bread

Freeze sliced bread before it goes stale. When you freeze it, put a piece of kitchen roll or a piece of teatowel in the bread bag – this will absorb any excess moisture so the bread doesn’t go soggy when you defrost it later. You can toast bread straight from frozen, or defrost as many slices as you need, overnight, in a reusable bag.

If your bread has already gone stale, or no one ever eats the crusts, grate them or whizz them up in a food processor. Use the breadcrumbs as a crunchy topping for a pasta bake, or breading for nuggets.

Fruit

You can freeze fruit that’s gone a bit past its best (but not mouldy). The fruit will be squishy when defrosted, so use them in a recipe where you don’t expect them to be firm, like a smoothie, porridge, overnight oats, a crumble or any baked fruit recipe. Bananas can be frozen and used as a base for a smoothie, non-dairy ice cream, or banana bread.

Vegetables

Freeze vegetables that are past their best (but not mouldy) and roast them later. Tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables work really well, as you expect roasted vegetables to be squashy anyway.

Save veg peelings/tops to bring extra flavour to soups or stock.

Save your potato peelings and make homemade “crisps” in the oven.

Broccoli stems are nice when sliced thinly, brushed with oil, seasoned and lightly pan-fried.

The leaves of many root vegetables can be sauteed like chard, or used to make a variation on pesto.

Salad

Put a piece of kitchen roll, or a piece of a tea towel, in your bag of salad leaves or spinach. The leaves will last much longer before they start to go slimy.

Use excess salad leaves or spinach to make pesto – a super-easy mid-week meal.

Eggs

Eggs last a long time past their best-before date, but if you have some that you are sure you won’t use in time, you can freeze them. Crack the egg as normal, then freeze the white and yolk either together or separately in small containers.

Milk

Milk can be frozen, but be careful because liquid expands when it freezes. Follow these steps to avoid splitting the container:

  • Loosen the lid
  • Very gently, push in the side of the bottle (not so much that the milk comes out of the bottle!)
  • With the side still pushed in, tighten the lid
  • Now freeze it
  • When the milk expands, it will just push the side of the container back out, and the bottle shouldn’t split

Cheese

Grate bits of hardened cheese and freeze them, then use them later for cheesy toppings.

Random leftovers

Use odd leftovers in quiches, mixed through rice, on pasta, roasted and served on a slice of puff pastry, or in omelettes.

Why not have a “whatever” night every week, when you finish up whatever’s left over in the fridge? This should save money as well as introduce some variety – you may find a new favourite meal.

[1] Food surplus and waste in the UK – key facts. October 2021. rep. Available at: https://wrap.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-10/food-%20surplus-and-%20waste-in-the-%20uk-key-facts-oct-21.pdf (Accessed: January 2, 2023).

Photo credit: Victoria Shes on Unsplash

Categories: Food, High impact, In Lockdown, Quick & easy, Saves money, Waste

Eating better step 5 – choose a vegan diet

crispy vegan burger in a bun with salad and vegan cheese

Eating a vegan diet doesn’t have to mean a life of lentils. Seriously, just look at that burger. It’s from Vincent Vegan, Berlin. Yum!

Why go vegan?

Removing all animal products from your diet is the best way to reduce the huge environmental impact caused by commercial animal farming.

What is a vegan diet?

According to the Vegan Society, a vegan diet is based on:

  • fruit
  • vegetables
  • starchy foods e.g. oats, potato, bread, rice and noodles
  • proteins including peas, beans and lentils
  • healthy plant-based fats including omega-3 and omega-6
  • vitamins and minerals like calcium, iron, zinc, vitamins B12 and D, iodine and selenium

It means cutting out meat, dairy, eggs, and any other foods or additives that come from animals.

The good news is that there are so many easy-to-use alternatives to the foods we learned to cook with (and wrongly assumed were essential). For example, we regularly make vegan bread at home (using sunflower or olive oil instead of butter, and oat or almond milk instead of cow’s milk) and it is softer and just as tasty as bread made with a traditional recipe.

Moving towards a vegan diet

Going vegan is a low-risk, cheap, effective way to reduce your environmental impact, but it’s also quite hard – which is why we’re suggesting you get there in stages, particularly if you don’t know any other vegans to help you work out what you’re doing. There’s no shame in starting off as a part-time vegan (e.g. just at weekends, when you have more time to cook from scratch; or a weekday vegan, to make it easier to eat with friends at the weekend).

Any progress is good, and better than making things too hard for yourself and quitting.

Meat substitutes and vegan cheese can be expensive, but you can eat cheaply and healthily if you choose a good variety of vegetables, fruit, nuts and legumes (peas and beans), supplementing with essential nutrients like vitamin B12 and some types of omega-3 fatty acids.

We realise that veganism is a privilege, and that people who are on a very low income, are time-poor and/or don’t have access to adequate cooking facilities may find it difficult to eat well on a vegan diet. This is a political issue and one that you should write to your political representative and the heads of supermarkets about. If this is you, please just do what you can, even if that is just getting through the day.

Choose a vegan diet, but do it safely

This next bit is important; please read it.

Just as many Western diets lack vital nutrients, an unplanned vegan diet can lack some essential nutrients like vitamin B12 and some types of omega-3 fatty acids. If you are following a vegan diet, you need to know what you should be eating or doing to make up the shortfall.

So if you’re going vegan, make sure you read advice from responsible sources like the NHS, the Vegan Society or consult a qualified dietician.

Previous:
Step 4: go vegetarian

Photo credit: Paul Kapischka on Unsplash

Categories: Cheap, Food, High impact, Influence

Eating better Step 3 – cut out dairy & eggs

dairy-free milk made from almonds and cashews

Why cut out dairy and eggs?

Cow farming, including growing crops for their feed, is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation. So cutting out dairy is an easy way to reduce your environmental footprint.

Many people also choose to cut out dairy for ethical reasons. Cows only produce milk if they’ve been pregnant, in order to feed their calf – but the dairy industry relies on removing the calf from its mother so we can use the milk instead. The separation distresses both the mother and the calf, and male calves are usually slaughtered at just over a year old.

You may think that eggs are cruelty-free – after all, supermarket eggs aren’t fertilised, so no animal is directly killed to produce that egg. However, chickens farmed for eggs (layers) and chickens farmed to produce the next generation (breeders) are usually kept in overcrowded conditions that lead to aggression and disease. Farmers routinely give their chickens antibiotics “just in case”, which leads to antibiotic resistance. And male chicks are an unwanted waste product of the chicken breeding industry, routinely killed at just a day old.

So do we need dairy and eggs?

The simple answer is no! The dairy industry has spent decades convincing us that we need cow’s milk to keep us healthy, but it just isn’t true – in fact, 68% of the world’s population is lactose intolerant, avoiding dairy products altogether, and suffering no ill effects whatsoever[1].

But we do need calcium – we just have to get it from other sources.

Cutting out dairy is getting easier all the time, but if you’re finding it difficult, you don’t have to do it all in one go. It’s better to take small successful steps towards the goal, rather than try to do it all at once and fail. Personally, I found it very easy to give up milk and yoghurt, while cheese took several years. But any progress is better than giving up.

Eggs are a good source of protein, and they are often used as a source of fat and for their binding properties in traditional recipes. The fact that egg is used in so many ways means there’s no one-size-fits-all alternative, and we have to be a bit creative, using vegetable oils, flax seeds, and even apple sauce depending on what property of eggs we’re trying to substitute for.

What are some non-dairy sources of calcium?

You can get calcium from many sources other than dairy products. According to the NHS article “The Vegan Diet”,[2], you can get calcium from:

  • green, leafy vegetables e.g. broccoli, cabbage and okra
  • fortified unsweetened soya
  • rice and oat drinks
  • calcium-set tofu
  • sesame seeds and tahini (an ingredient in hummus)
  • pulses (peas, beans and lentils)
  • bread (in the UK, calcium is added to white and brown flour by law)
  • and dried fruit, such as raisins, prunes, figs and dried apricots

What are some dairy alternatives?

Vegan milk alternatives

There are plenty of different plant-based milk substitutes. Oat, almond, coconut and soya milk are all well-established and popular, while more recent products include milk made from peas and even potatoes. I find oat milk is the most versatile, and it also has the lowest environmental impact – but all plant milks have a lower impact than dairy milk, so whichever plant milk you prefer, go for it.[3]

Vegan butter alternatives

Butter can be replaced with nut butter (like peanut butter) or excellent vegan butter alternatives like Flora Plant Butter, which is available in a block for baking or a tub for easy spreading. Many other vegan butter products are slimy and tasteless, so I’d urge you to avoid wasting your money on them and go straight for the Flora. Alternatively, you could just not use butter at all, and swap it for vegan pesto (we recommend Sacla), vegan mayonnaise (Hellmans) or any jam (jelly).

Vegan egg alternatives

When baking, eggs are easily replaced with alternatives as varied as banana, apple sauce, aquafaba, flax seed, baking soda, lemonade and vegan yoghurt. Use a good vegan recipe to make sure the right balance of fats and moisture is retained – don’t just substitute at random (baking is more like chemistry than cooking and goes wrong easily).

If you miss the egg running out of your breakfast butty, egg yolk can be replaced with vegan butter mixed with nutritional yeast (no one really likes the white bit anyway, right?).

Scrambled eggs can be mocked up using tofu, and omelettes made using chickpea (gram) flour.

Vegan alternatives to honey

Alternatives to honey are agave syrup (which comes from cacti, and is virtually indistinguishable from runny honey) or maple syrup (which has its own delicious flavour).

Vegan yoghurt alternatives

Yoghurt is an easy swap – there are many vegan yoghurt alternatives available. I prefer the coconut-based ones but that’s really a personal choice.

One great thing about buying a big tub of plain vegan yoghurt is its versatility. You can mix it up with agave syrup one day, defrosted fruit the next, then crunchy oatmeal and raisins, jam, or whatever you fancy. Plus if you’re looking for something savoury, you can spoon it straight from the pot, onto a curry, chilli or nachos. Add a splash of lemon juice as you serve it to make it a little bit more tart if necessary.

Vegan cheese alternatives

Vegan cheese took a huge step forward in 2022 with the release of Cathedral City’s Plant Based Dairy Free block. It’s an absolute game changer as (unlike all other vegan cheese) it actually tastes and behaves like mature cheddar. Go on any vegan group and ask what their favourite cheese is, and you’ll see it’s the clear winner. It does smell quite a lot, but you could argue, so does good real cheese.

For other types of cheeses and more recommendations, check out our eco-friendly alternatives page for a list of our favourite vegan alternatives!

Next:
Step 4: go completely vegetarian

Previous:
Step 2: stop eating beef

[1] Storhaug et al, (2017). Country, regional, and global estimates for lactose malabsorption in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet, volume 2, issue 10, P738-746, October 01, 2017

[2] nhs.uk. 2021. The Vegan Diet. [online] Available at: <https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/the-vegan-diet/> [Accessed 17 January 2021].

[3] the Guardian. 2021. Almonds Are Out. Dairy Is A Disaster. So What Milk Should We Drink?. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/28/what-plant-milk-should-i-drink-almond-killing-bees-aoe> [Accessed 17 January 2021].

Photo credit: Sandi Benedicta on Unsplash

Categories: Cheap, Food, High impact, In Lockdown

Eating better Step 4 – go completely vegetarian

tomato quiche, vegetarian meal

Cutting out all meat (including chicken and fish) is the next step after beef and dairy.

There are so many reasons to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle – improving your own health, stopping cruelty to animals, reducing your impact on the environment, and saving money. Plus there are so many delicious alternatives to meat.

Don’t worry if you slip up sometimes. 95% there is better than trying and giving up altogether. Do what works for you, but work towards the goal.

Why stop eating chicken?

Chicken has less impact per head than cattle, but there are more of them, and they eat a lot of food. According to Greenpeace, nearly half of the soya the EU imports from Brazil is fed to chickens. This soya is grown on land that used to be rainforest – which accelerates the climate crisis and pushes wildlife towards extinction.[1]

Why stop eating fish?

Eating fish (particularly those caught by large-scale commercial fishing operations) causes significant harm to marine life. In addition to over-fishing (which endangers animals further up the food chain), commercial fishing methods like trawling, gillnets and longlines catch many more species than intended. Affected species include whales, dolphins, turtles, sharks and other species of fish, which may be injured in the process, and are discarded.

Discarded fishing nets and tackle (known as “ghost gear”) make up 10% of plastic pollution in the ocean – and up to 70% of floating macroplastics (the large bits). This plastic waste poses a threat to marine life for decades.[2]

Next:
Step 5: choose a vegan diet

Previous:
Step 3: cut out dairy & eggs

[1] Greenpeace.org.uk. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/is-eating-chicken-better-for-the-environment-than-beef/> [Accessed 10 January 2021].

[2] the Guardian. 2021. Dumped Fishing Gear Is Biggest Plastic Polluter In Ocean, Finds Report. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/06/dumped-fishing-gear-is-biggest-plastic-polluter-in-ocean-finds-report> [Accessed 10 January 2021].

Photo credit: LUM3N on Unsplash

Categories: Food, High impact, In Lockdown, Saves money

Eating better step 2 – stop eating beef

black brown and white cows in a green field in sunlight

Why should I stop eating beef?

Cutting out beef (and dairy) is the most effective way to reduce your environmental impact, according to Oxford University research into the environmental impact of farming.[1]

Poore and Nemecek of the University of Oxford compared the greenhouse gas emissions caused by farming and processing animal products with those of substitute vegetable-based proteins, like peas and soy. But they didn’t just look at one study. This was a meta-study, meaning they analysed the data from multiple studies in order to overcome any bias and understand the overall trend. They analysed 570 consistent and high-quality studies, covering approximately 38,700 commercially viable farms across 119 countries, and 40 food products, representing about 90% of the global protein and calorie intake.

So how bad is beef for the environment?

The study’s results show that the production of just 100g of beef protein (about half a steak, or a portion of chilli) causes an average of 50kg (110 lbs) of greenhouse gases to be produced. The worst producers caused a staggering 105kg (231 lbs) of greenhouse gases to be produced. In comparison, lamb causes 20kg of greenhouse gases per 100g produced.

However, the production of plant-based protein has significantly less impact on the environment. For example, tofu causes just 2kg (just under 41/2lb) of greenhouse gases per 100g, and peas just 0.4kg (less than 1 lb) per 100g.[2]

What can I replace meat with?

Try going meat-free a few times a week so you can learn how to use other ingredients like lentils, mushrooms, tofu, Quorn or vegan textured vegetable protein alternatives, then cut out beef altogether.

Cutting out beef could also save you money because vegetables are generally cheaper than good-quality meat.

You’re allowed to fail sometimes! Don’t give up – all progress is good.

Next:
Step 3: cut out dairy & eggs

Previous:
Step 1: go meat-free a few times a week

[1] Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth, The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding-meat-and-dairy-is-single-biggest-way-to-reduce-your-impact-on-earth (Accessed: February 20, 2023).

[2] Poore, J. and Nemecek, T. (2018). Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science, 360(6392), pp.987-992. Fig. 1.

Photo credit: Kate Spencer

Categories: Food, High impact, In Lockdown, Saves money