It takes just minutes but the benefits live on for years: switch to a green energy supplier by filling in one simple form and your carbon emissions will plummet. Give your valuable money to a trusted company who’ll invest it in creating a clean, green and secure energy supply.
Why?
Energy security
It’s fairly well known that much of the UK’s oil comes from Russia and the Middle East (but most comes from Norway); It’s perhaps a lesser-known fact that our top three sources of coal are Russia, South Africa and Colombia1.
Increasing our generation of renewable electricity will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, gas and coal – that’s got to be a good thing. It’ll also help to protect us from increasingly unpredictable oil prices, international disputes and the other threats of peak oil.
Clean energy technology is ready and waiting for our money. So show the power-daddies that you want it clean – switch to a green energy tariff today.
Climate change
Electricity generation accounts for a whopping 1/3 of the UK’s carbon emissions, and we’re lagging shamefully behind our European friends in the renewable generation game. Given our windy and coast-rich island setting, the mere 6.6% energy we get from renewable sources is a bit embarrassing.
The government is slowly cranking up the target levels of renewable energy feeding into the mix (it’s currently at an unambitious 11%), but many suppliers aren’t even meeting this.
Want to do this action? Head over to our list of Doers to find someone to pledge for.
Here's one for all you mega-printers out there - cut back on your paper habit.
How?
Check if your printer can print double sided.
If yes, change the default setting on your printer to double sided or “duplex”. More info for PCs here and Macs here.
If no, either do it manually or use the back of the paper as scrap paper once you’re done with it.
Whilst you’re at it, you could also buy recycled paper, and even combine your pledge with another: Tintin and recycle your paper once you’re done with it.
Want to do this action? Head over to our list of Doers to find someone to pledge for.
Staying in one place saves you money. No more overpriced train journeys or rip-off taxis. It makes business sense...especially when you have all those extra pennies to spend on luxurious fairtrade coffee!
Health
Commuting and business travel are never fun. You’d know that if you’ve ever got on the train at rush hour: sad faces, sweaty armpits and heavy hearts are wedged together like sardines in a tin. According to the stress experts, commuters can experience greater stress than fighter pilots. Seeking flexible work alternatives such as video conferencing can actually lower the risk of long-term health issues.
How?
1. Find out if your office has any conference calling facilities and book them (and if they don’t, ask the facilities manager to get on the case!). Simple.
2.Sign yourself up to a video conferencing site. Skype is free and easy to install, though if you want to talk to several people then there are plenty of other providers to choose from. Megameeting and Nefsis have free trials available.
3. How’s your webcam? Most modern computers include good quality webcams and microphones but it’s worth ensuring you don’t look or sound like a robot!
4. Check your internet connection and account beforehand with a test call to a friend or colleague.
5. Find yourself a quiet, well-lit location, and get yourself a glass of water or a cup of tea.
6. Happy meeting!
Want to do this action? Head over to our list of Doers to find someone to pledge for.
Light up your life with LED’s or Energy Saving bulbs. Incandescent bulbs have brightened our homes for the last 100 years, but these days there are better ways to become enlightened.
Financial
Low energy bulbs might be a bit more expensive in the short term, but you’ll quickly earn your money back through lower electricity bills. Each halogen bulb you switch to an LED will save you around £4 per year or £70 by the time you have to replace the bulb[2]
How?
Bulb jargon busting:
Filament bulbs: the old ones. They've been kicking about for over 100 years, and it’s time to move on…
Halogen bulbs: mildly more efficient than filament bulbs,
CFLs: Compact Fluorescent Lamps – the twizzley twisty energy saving ones. They’ve massively improved over the last few years, and are the bulb of choice for most standard light fittings. But it’s hard to find ones for spotlights and the likes.
LEDs: Welcome to the future. Super efficient and available in all sorts of specialist styles for all your fancy lighting needs. They are also available in a range of tones (not just dentist surgery white) and there are dimmable varieties too.
Where to buy them:
You can find CFLs in most high street shops or department stores, but LED’s are harder to come by. The Ethical Superstore has a great stock.
Want to do this action? Head over to our list of Doers to find someone to pledge for.
This DoAction was created by Natalie Scarfe. Want to create one yourself?
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We all know that exercise keeps us healthy, but the challenge is squeezing it into our busy lives. By running in to work, school or uni, you can combine your daily workout with your commute and get fitter and healthier as you go.
How?
You don’t need a lot of fancy equipment to go for a run, just a decent pair of trainers and a positive attitude.
If you’re new to running, there is lots of help and advice online about how to get started.
Make sure you check with your doctor before you start, and build up gradually. There are plenty of beginners’ training programmes to help you get going, including Livewell. Walkjogrun has a funky beginners’ training app. You’ll be catching up to Mo Farah in no time.
There are lots of other runners out there who have shared their running routes through websites like Good Run Guide and Map My Run.
Home Run London coordinates groups of runners who run home from work in London. Sign up and they’ll carry your bag for you and keep you company on your journey.
Need a hand training? Good Gym are a great way to keep fit, whilst helping out in your local community and making new friends. You can also use Runnit tro help you train - they'll give you rewards each time you go running - brilliant!
If you do fancy getting yourself kitted out, have a look at our friends over at Wiggle: they are pretty knowledgeable about all the different gear.
Want to do this action? Head over to our list of Doers to find someone to pledge for.
Limousine, minivan or three-wheeler, if you’ve got an empty seat in your car then why not fill it with a friendly face and share your journey with someone going in the same direction as you?
Congestion
On average, there are just 1.2 people in each commuting car[6]. Sharing journeys means less traffic on the roads and more spaces in the car park.
How?
It couldn’t be simpler. You don’t have to live near your colleagues - there are loads of schemes that make it easy to find people going in the right direction. Here are just a few:
Compare and Share is a one stop shop, pulling together rides from all the main car sharing sites
goCarShare - UK; great if you are travelling to and from festivals
And it doesn’t have to be the commute to work; you could share a lift to the shops, to college or to a concert. Iron out details such as time and whose turn it is to drive, then jump in the car and get going!
Want to do this action? Head over to our list of Doers to find someone to pledge for.
By walking briskly for 30 minutes to work or school each day you’ll easily meet the recommended 2 ½ hours of exercise each week. This could reduce your risk of major illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer by up to 50%.
It’s a wonder drug.
99 calories
are burnt by 30 minutes of walking (assuming average weight and moderate speed).[2]
What’s more, whilst walking around you’ll soak up fresh air and sunlight, increasing Vitamin D levels significantly.
Money
Walking is absolutely, totally, 100% free.
No train fares. No bus passes. No petrol tanks to fill. No gym memberships to cough up for.
And finally….
People who walk to work or school are shown to be more alert, have better concentration, be more productive, and have greater independence.
Clearly we aren’t all lucky enough to live close enough to school or work to walk there, but if you are within a few miles, then you’d be mad not to!
You can’t make something out of nothing. Each time a new product is made, we need to extract fresh resources from the earth – through mining, quarrying, or tree felling. Unless, of course, it’s made from magical recycled materials, like fleeces out of plastic bottles or insulation from old newspapers.
Climate change
Greenhouse gases are emitted from every stage of the lifecycle of your household goods, from extracting, refining, transporting and processing the raw materials, right through to landfilling the finished product. In fact, landfills themselves produce about three per cent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions3. That’s a big chunk that we can cut out pretty easily.
Landfills
It’s funny to think of landfill sites as a precious resource, but they’re filling up so quickly that we could soon struggle to find space to bury our ever-growing mountains of waste. Councils warn that unless we start recycling more of our waste, Britain might run out of landfill space by 20184.
How?
RecycleNow is perfect for working out what recycling your council collects. It has a handy post-code search tool and will provide you with all the waste-sorting info you could ever dream of.
With plastics, check out the little number hidden on the base, inside a small triangle. It tells you the quality grade (1-8) of the plastic, which determines whether or not it can be recycled in your area.
Want to do this action? Head over to our list of Doers to find someone to pledge for.
Got other tips or great resources to share? Please email them over to us at
Limousine, minivan or three-wheeler, if you’ve got an empty seat in your car then why not fill it with a friendly face and share your journey with someone going in the same direction as you?
