Environment Tips

 

There are so many different ways we can live in a more environmentally friendly way. But where do you start? Here we’ve listed some easy, quick fix pointers for how you can decrease your carbon footprint and live a little greener.

Reduce, reuse, recycle…in THAT order!
You’ve heard it a million times, but have you given it much thought before now? Here is why the order of this statement is so important. Lets use printer paper as an example. If you reduce the amount of paper you use (you could do this by saving more things to USB rather than printing, reducing font or margin size or by printing double-sided), you will reduce the number of trees that need to be cut down to create the paper. After that, you need to try to re-use your paper. If it’s been printed single-sided you could tear it into smaller pieces and use it for scrap paper. Again, this is reducing the number of trees that would need to be cut down to create the pads of notepaper you would otherwise use. Lastly, you need to recycle your paper. This is one of the basic materials Councils recycle, so either take it to your local recycling centre or put it out for kerb-side collection. And hey presto! There you have it!

Buy second-hand
Buying second hand products can turn into a bit of an obsession, if you can get over the fact that they’ve belonged to someone else before you. Whether you buy your products from charity shops, carboot sales, antiques fayres or vintage clothes outlets, the chances are you’ll find something a little bit more unusual, at a fraction of the price of buying something new. If you’re buying from a charity shop, you’ll be giving charities essential funding for them to support their activities plus there are now online charity shops for all of those impatient consumers out there who can’t be bothered with trudging into town for their bargains.


Eat organic, local and in season
Over the last few decades, modern farming techniques have reached new highs with the levels of chemicals and pesticides they use to ensure they can produce a more efficient crow. The result is often tasteless food produced to survive huge journeys to its end destination and for a long shelf life rather than for flavour.

Buy choosing an organic option you will not only reduce the chemicals that are introduced into the earth through the spraying of crops, but you’ll reduce the chemicals your body is exposed to through digestion. If cost is an issue for you, then start by just converting to organic milk- there’s very little difference in price to regular milk.

Eating local and in season is also important as it reduces the number of food miles the products have travels, which improves your carbon footprint. It’s also muchn cheaper than eating products imported from far away lands! Check out what's in season right now at the Eat Seasonably website.


Turn it OFF!
The standby function on appliences eats up more electricity than you’d imagine, which in turn means you’re paying more for your electric bill than you really need to. Plus, to make things worse, things like phone chargers still use electricity when your phone isn’t attached, if they’re still turned on at the wall. So turn things off, both at the power button and at the wall. And if it helps, get a timer. You might be surprised at how it affects your electricity bill!

 

Spring Showers
Actually, all year round showers are what we need. Opting for a shower over a bath will not only leave you feeling more awake but will use less water too. Which means what? That’s right; less electricity and less money out of your wallets. Just make sure you don’t spend an age in there; it’ll not only end up using MORE water than a bath but it’ll wind up your housemates too!

Refillable Ink Cartridges
It is a little known fact that cartridge ink is the most expensive liquid in the world… or at least that’s what I heard someone say once. So rather than having to buy brand new cartridges each time, use refillable ones. That way you’re not contributing to landfill, you’re not paying for the casing each time and you’re not throwing away a half-used cartridge just because one colour has run out!

Packed Lunch
It’s cheap, it uses less packaging, you know exactly what you’re eating and the chances are it’ll be healthier too! Even if you just take fruit with you as a snack to keep you going between lectures, you’ll soon notice the positive impact on your wallet (crisps and chocolate soon add up)!

Grow Your Own
Geeky as it might sounds, there’s something strangely satisfying about growing your own food. It’s cheap, it’s good fun, and it cuts food miles down to food meters. And the good news is you don’t even need a garden! If you’re short of space check out these websites: http://www.windowfarms.org and http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/22/HOGUNIBUCQ1.DTL&hw=peirce&sn=147&sc=181

Give the car a break
If you’re lucky enough to own a car you probably use it for anything from popping to the corner shop to going home for the holidays. But if you’re the only one making the journey you might find it both cheaper AND greener to use public transport, especially if you book in advance. And why not try walking instead of driving 1 day a week? You might just be surprised at how awake you feel by the time you reach lectures!


Meat-free Mondays
Not all of us can face the idea of switching to vegetarian or vegan diets full-time. So if that idea is just too much to bear, why not introduce meat-free Mondays into your weekly routine. Meat production has a huge carbon-footprint, so by switching for just one day out of your week, you’ll help reduce C02 levels and give your wallet a break.

Campaigns
There are lots of campaigns you can get involved in. Quite often you can simply add your name to a petition, so it doesn’t even need to take up much of your time for you to do your bit to make a difference.

·        Snap It Off (NUS)
NUS created ‘Snap It Off’ in response to concerns from students about how much energy is being wasted through unnecesary lighting, not just on campus but everywhere.

Simply take a photo, send it through to NUS, and then check back later to see the status of your photo. NUS will try to hunt down whoever is responsible for the lighting and will hopefully get something done about it.

For more information on the campaign and how to submit your photos visit:

www.snapitoff.nus.org.uk


·        10:10
10:10 is a global campaign to cut carbon by 10% a year- starting in 2010. They believe any person, family, business, school or other organisation can cut 10%- and that by working together we can make sure our actions count.

www.1010global.org

  • ·        Lighter Later
  • Lighter later is a campaign  to advance the clocks by an hour throughout the year. They believe the benefits of this would include creating 80,000 jobs, preventing 100 road deaths/year, cutting obesity and boosting sport, saving 500,000 tonnes of CO2 and reducing crime and fear of crime. For more information on how you can support this campaign visit their website.

·        Tar Sands

There is currently a global trend to extract oil from unconventional sources, like tar sands and shale oil. This threatens dangerous levels of climate change and risks local ecological disaster. To find out more about how you can take action visit:

http://www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/campaigning/toxic_fuels/toxic_fuels_fair_pensions_campaign.cfm