How to be more green

This is my attempt to provide a concise list of ways that people can make their lifestyles more environmentally friendly. Many organisations have produced their own lists, but they tend to be either too long or too focused on the issues that organisation is concerned with. This page only lists ideas that will have a big impact and that you may not have fully considered before.

First, the average UK citizen causes about 10 tonnes of C0₂ emissions every year; the average US citizen causes about 25 tonnes; most environmental groups suggest that we ought to only be causing around 2.5 tonnes for us to bring climate change and other pollution-related problems under control. You can calculate your carbon footprint here.

Cutting your carbon Dioxide emissions

• Flights - a round trip from the UK to Australia will cause around 10 tonnes of C0₂ to be emitted; London to the south of Spain will be around 1.4 tonnes; London to New York is about 4.25 tonnes. One trip to Australia equals the average annual output for a UK citizen! Two trips to the South of Spain equal your suggested annual output. Don't fly, take the train or travel to a closer destination.
• Cars - commuting 20 miles each way to work will cause around 4 tonnes of C0₂ to be emitted annually. According to DEFRA, car use for food shopping costs the UK more than £3.5 billion per year from pollution, noise, accidents and congestion. If you need to use a car, buy one that is as energy efficient as you can afford and use it as little as possible.
• Food and other products - try to buy food produced as locally as possible, and also check if it has travelled; often food produced in the UK is flown to the continent for processing, then flown back and driven around the country between depots, effectively causing more pollution than food that came from the continent. The same goes for all products you buy, though obviously many will only be available from halfway across the world! There is also the issue of third world development to consider, making this a tricky one. Products being flown and shipped around the world account for around 4 tonnes of C0₂ emissions per UK citizen, on average. Look out for schemes like the Riverford organic veg box scheme or the Reading True Food Club.
• Electricity & gas - in the UK you can switch to a green electricity supplier; try Good Energy, npower Juice or just look around for other deals. This web site is quite good for looking at the cost for a range of green electricity companies. Turn things off when you're not using them. Turn your thermostat down by one or two degrees. You can save money and around 1 tonne of C0₂ emissions annually just by taking these easy steps.

Respecting human and animal rights

• Fairtrade - wherever possible buy products bearing the Fairtrade logo. Also ask the company you're buying from about their human rights record, whether or not they monitor working conditions in their factories, etc. If you have the time, do a little research on web sites like Corporate Watch, Corporate Critic and Ethical Consumer, or by searching the web.
• Animal rights - if (like me) you eat meat and dairy products, only buy organic or possibly free range products. Check that the company who produces them is actually meeting standards, since the food industry isn't well regulated and may not be as good as their label suggests. Factory farmed chickens are kept in sheds called broiler houses where up to 50,000 birds are crammed with less than 600cm2 of space per bird (about the space of a computer screen). If you don't buy organic chicken, you are condemning chickens to these conditions. Similar conditions will apply to all animals, and non-organic animals may be exposed to antibiotics and other chemicals to make them more productive, though usually with painful side effects.
• Supermarkets - a related point that is particularly important to UK and US citizens is that you should avoid supermarkets wherever possible. Around one third of food is rejected by supermarkets because it doesn't look good enough, and is then thrown away; according to the UK Competition Commission, Tesco consistently uses its monopoly position to pay suppliers 4% below the industry average; buy one get one free, and other offers, are usually offset by the farmers, NOT the supermarkets; supermarkets usually know about animal and human rights abuses, but choose to ignore them and often cover them up; supermarkets damage local economies and operate sophisticated lobbying campaigns that swamp opposition from local communities and political parties; ASDA have a known policy of attacking workers' rights to keep their low prices. By buying from a supermarket when you could buy from a smaller, trusted local supplier, you are condoning the abuse of the farming industry, the abuse of human and animal rights, and you are supporting a sector of the retail industry that has devastated our local economies.

Persuading others and campaigning

• Advocate - the most obvious solution is to talk to friends, family and colleagues about these things. If you can persuade two friends to halve their car usage and only buy local produce, you've probably done more than you could ever manage yourself to reduce C0₂ emissions. Try persuading your employer to switch your workplace to green electricity, for example!
• Campaign - get involved with your local Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth group (UK-specific links, search the web for groups local to you). In the few years I've been a Greenpeace activist I've seen major lumber merchants like Travis Perkins and Jewsons stop selling illegally logged wood; I've seen major garden furniture retailers like Wyevale and major publishing groups like Bloomsbury move towards using sustainably logged timber for their products; I've seen Sainsbury's introduce a range of non-GM milk; the list goes on. You can make a difference, and if you get involved you will.