Welcome to Living Greener
If you’re convinced by all the news that we’ve just got to get on and make the changes needed to stop climate change, species loss and pollution, but you’re not sure what really works then Living Greener might be for you. It sets out to answer the question, what can I do to make a real difference?
You’ll find ideas for changes to our food, homes, transport, the stuff we buy, and how we work and play. You can choose the best changes for you and create your own Change List. Then try them out, rate, review and share your experiences. You can contribute your own suggestions and questions, and there’s a blog, Twitter news feed, and FaceBook group for inspiration and to get connected. So Living Greener could become your one stop shop for a greener life.
It’s free and volunteer-run, with no advertising and no ties. It’s just here to help. In fact LivingGreener is two of us (former BBC Radio producer/furniture maker and former GP) and a dog (former puppy) living in Bristol, England, but, most importantly, Living Greener is a growing community. Working together we can develop the best ideas, and acting together we can have the biggest impact.
Research shows that the single biggest factor affecting whether we stick with environmental changes is whether our neighbours are doing the same, so whether you’ve been doing this stuff for ages or you’re just dipping your toe in the water here’s a chance to help create a global neighbourhood and really make a difference.
What do you think? Is it for you? We hope so.
Grant and Sue
We’re still getting the site fully functional, so you might bump into some oddities and road works along the way. Let us know if it’s something you think we’ve missed. Otherwise, bear with us. Thanks
Here’s a taste of some of the change ideas available, click on each to find out more and if you like it, add it to your change list and browse more like it. You can also select the change category that interests you most from the main menu.
Don’t be a Bigfoot
It’s not complicated.. accelerate gently, brake gently, coast when you can. It’s astonishing how much that can improve your car’s fuel consumption. There’s a word for it, hypermiling, that weirdly came from the US NASCAR scene which involves driving stock cars very fast in circles round a track. It’s not...
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Slow the flow
Replace your standard 15 litres per minute shower head with a low flow model. This Mira model is 8 litres per min. This Flowpoint one too. This Kiri Satinhead shower head is a very low 5.7 Litres per minute. Or, if you are particularly attached to your current shower head, you...
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Have a seasonal sunday
Why not make your Sunday special with a meal based on fresh, seasonal food. We think this seasonal food calendar from the BBC is brilliant. Not only does it automatically highlight the current time of year to show you what’s in season now, it also has links to seasonal recipes...
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Take a 4 minute shower
Cut the amount of time you run the water in the shower. You can turn it off while you soap up, or just get focused on the matter in hand. I favour keeping track of time by singing along with Bob Marley's One Love (3 minutes 42 seconds) which leaves...
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Wash in a vegeta-bowl
Use a bowl for washing vegetables. Washing your veg under running water can use up to 20 litres every minute, so use a bowl when washing and preparing your vegetables, or doing the washing up. You can use the leftover water to water plants or rinse out your cans and...
Read Morefeatured blog posts
Here’s a selection from the blog where we talk about the issues and put the changes into context
Bananas are the new roses
The carbon emissions from a single hot house-grown red rose are more than from 4 kilos of imported bananas, so I’m floating the idea of a dozen yellow bananas for next Valentine’s day. I set off on this potentially romantically … Read More...
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Eat for the climate
Because food accounts for a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, changing what we eat can make a huge contribution to reducing gloabal warming. Step one.. waste less. Less waste food releasing methane as it rots in landfill; less carbon … Read More...
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Eat seasonal. Cut carbon.
Eating fresh seasonal food is not only eating food at its absolute best, it’s also good for the environment. Food accounts for about 1/4 of all greenhouse gas emissions and one of the ways we can reduce that is by … Read More...
Read MoreLooking for the latest news?
The @LivingGreenerUK Twitter feed shares what’s in the news about #ClimateAction and #LivingGreener at a local, national and international level.
Want to connect?
The Living Greener community depends on your your suggestions for changes and your questions about things you’d like us to look into. You can also review and rate the changes once you’ve tried them.
There’s also a Living Greener Facebook page and a Facebook group which is a great way to make oconnections and swap ideas.