Follow my journey to being more environmentally friendly
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!
1 Made own humous, coleslaw and pesto, dead easy with a whizzer. Saves a tonne of plastic and glass tubs.
2 Applied for a Triodos current account as most ethical bank account.
3 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.
4 Plugged Trees not Tees in my Xmas film, 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, and I promote their cause whenever they ask me.
5 Tried supermarket deliveries from Sainsbury’s – they deliver without using plastic bags.
6 I refil our washing up liquid, handsoaps, clothes washing liquid and fabric softener with Ecover from the refill shop opposite Finny’s nursery.
7 I’m now using period pants and a mooncup, WHYYYYY did I not discover these genius items sooner?!
8 I make as many short journeys on foot and by bike as I can, I already did this but making even more effort now, even using the bike plus trailer for weekly food shops in good weather when I have the energy. It’s hard hauling it all back up the hill, especially with Finny on the baby bike seat! All good training eh!
9 I donate monthly to Wren to offset my carbon impact
10 I interview Green Runners such as Jasmin Paris and Damian Hall and encourage them to share their activism ideas
11 I take the boat over to the Isle of Man when I visit and I don’t fly willy nilly to races anymore – I think I have flown once (to Chamonix for the UTMB 2022) in the last 4 years and will look into the train next time
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….
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:
Considering:
