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What am I doing to be more eco-friendly?

Follow my journey to being more environmentally friendly and helping others do the same.

Having watched David Attenborough’s increasingly terrifying TV programmes I’ve ramped up my eco mission and want you to also reap the benefit of some super easy eco-wins we can all do to help protect the planet! Feel free to suggest more things to me on my social media too. I’m pretty easy to find on there… google Wild Ginger Running or Claire Maxted 🙂

I’ll also be working my way through many of the things that I don’t already do on this list of 100 easy ways to be more eco-friendly…from a website hubby Steve found.

Join me in the following activities if you can!

Sun 8 Nov

QUICK UPDATE
Made own humous and coleslaw, dead easy with a whizzer. Will defo do this going forward.
Applied for a Triodos current account as most ethical bank account. We’ll see if I get accepted.
Started looking into ethical pensions using latest issue of Ethical Consumer mag. Might be a case of just adjusting my Aviva funds. A lot to take in on this one so need to do much more research.
Plugged Trees not Tees in my Xmas film, out tmr here, whilst also promoting my own Wild Ginger Running tees in the very next item. The irony is not lost on me… I also did them a little Xmas plug video as they asked me to.
Supermarket deliveries from Sainsbury’s are going well. Lots less plastic bags.

  • Randomly my friend Sophie appears to on the left here!
  • Signed the My Money Matters petition for more ethical pensions
  • Made own humous and coleslaw to cut down on plastic packaging
  • Applied for a Triados current account
  • Included Trees Not Tees in my Xmas gifts film here

Mon 12 Oct 2020

SUPERMARKET CHANGE
I didn’t realise but getting your shopping delivered is more eco-friendly than driving there yourself! Who knew? Of course one person dropping off 20 people’s shopping in a small area is better than them all driving, DOH. We stopped getting a Morrison’s delivery because they put everything in a gazillion plastic bags and although you can give them back at the next delivery, I didn’t really trust that they’d be used again. We also weren’t that impressed with the veg they selected for us. So I did some research through Ethical Consumer and other websites and decided that Sainsbury’s is the most eco & ethical supermarket that I can easily access. Co-op comes out even better, but we don’t have one in Stamford so more fuel miles, and the delivery system online seems a bit behind the times. We were really pleased to get our order tonight from our green delivery slot (apart from 3 substitutions which are a bit annoying but nevermind) and even more pleased that there were no plastic bags! We just unloaded the crates on to our counters and handed them back – fantastic. I’ll defo be doing this again. We have decided to get veg from our local market or Wothorpe Nursery instead of leaving it to the supermarket pickers. This will hopefully reduce the packaging too. We were also pleased to accidentally have bought Pilgrims Choice cheese with 40% less packaging! Nice! Fits in the fridge better too.

PENSION
The latest thing I’m looking into is moving my pension into more eco-friendly and ethical funds as apparently does more for the planet than going vegan and ditching flight and cars even! So I was really pleased that the Guilty Feminist podcast covered this recently in this episode “Making Money Matter” here, do give it a listen. In it they recommend using the resources from the website Make My Money Matter, a campaign for more ethical/eco pensions set up by filmmaker Richard Curtis, the guy behind Make Poverty History, Comic Relief and Red Nose Day. What a cool guy! So my next task is to read through this website and see what I can do with my Aviva pension….

Check out Make My Money Matter here

BANKING
After pensions, the next step is to see what I should be doing about my bank account. I’ve heard Triodos are the only ethical bank, but I’ve just had my first edition of Ethical Consumer through the door and the headline is “Choosing a bank with a moral compass” – perfect!

BLOG Tues 29 Sept 2020

Things I’m doing so far to be more eco-friendly:

There’s a section in my first book, The Ultimate Trail Running Handbook, all about how to be a more eco-friendly trail runner (out 21 Jan 2021, available to pre-order here)

Interviewed Jim Mann about his Trees not Tees company for Wild Ginger Running YouTube channel

Signed up to Project Wren to offset part of my estimated unavoidable carbon output (on Jim Mann’s trusted recommendation)

Renewed my commitment to highlighting the environmental credentials of the companies I review gear from, see my eco-friendly playlist on YouTube above

Started using Ecosia the search engine that plants a tree for using it

Using all second hand baby stuff… due 17 Jan 2021. Might get it a new mattress but not much else! Not buying a new mattress for our bed though as planned, will just swap the spare room one in! Don’t tell mum and dad (main users of spare room and suppliers of said bed and mattress!)

Just subscribed to Ethical Consumer magazine (hope they use recycled trees! Argh! Couldn’t face going totally digital as do love a paper magazine and book, sorry planet!). Hoping this will guide me through my eco & ethical journey!

Considering:

Can we afford an electric car? (just one car in our household) Looking at the Kia e-Niro…but hard to get hold of and SUPER pricey…

Continuing to make all possible journeys by bike but need now to buy trailer for going to Wothorpe Nursery for non plastic-packaged seasonal fruit and veg from their allotment before we start ours next year. Give us your allotment tips y’all! Need to buy trailer…FB marketplace looking good!

Did you know that getting an online delivery is greener than driving individually to the supermarket? Neither did I! So now I need to decide whether to ditch our usual Morrisons for someone more eco…Saino’s is looking good here. But weird how all of them have a bad rating for the human rights category – wonder what’s going on there!? Check out the source of this table here from the Ethical Company’s Good Shopping Guide. And now I’m totally confused, I just signed up a subscription to Ethical Consumer to access their best supermarkets guide and Saino’s is near the bottom on theirs! And Co-Op is the best of the larger stores. I have emailed them with my confusion. Looking forward to what they say so I can start my most eco & ethical online order.

Should make own humous from cans as we eat a tonne of it and it comes in plastic tubs

Eat more of these and less of the least sustainable species which include UK Cod (go for North East Arctic or Iceland instead) and Wild Atlantic salmon (only from Grade 1 Scottish rivers or UK organic farmed). For more info click here

Looking into the new govt grant for efficient house improvements 

Looking into more eco-friendly funds for my Aviva pension – maybe MoneyBox? Or Pension Bee? Help me out peeps!

Just found about about these groovey peeps from @ReRunClothing on Twitter so need to look into this now too!