Archive for the ‘Carbon Footprint’ Category

Energy Efficient Washing Machine? We just Sust-it

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Energy Efficient Washing MachineAfter a good old innings our hand-me-down washing machine finally threw in the towel last week and retired from service.

Being fans of all things second hand and vintage we did ponder initially on searching Freecycle or Ebay for a cheaper, older model but soon came to the conclusion that a new energy efficient machine was the wisest long-term move in terms of saving energy and money.

Having gone on about Sust-it on here before and to friends over the years, this was the first time I personally had the opportunity to use the site for advice on making a purchase.  The conclusion?? Fantastic, Sust-it is in my opinion, a highly useful resource for anyone looking at electrical purchases.

465 washing machines are in the database and all are ranked in terms of their energy efficiency.  Best available prices are listed on everything also so you can match your budget to the most energy efficient model.

To be honest, having not made a major new electrical purchase in several years we were a little worried our cash-strapped January budget wouldn’t stretch to a very efficient model but after browsing the site for a while we opted for the BEKO WM7335 which is ranked 5th out of 465 in terms of annual running costs.

Sust-it gave us a full comparison of the environmental and financial running costs – litres of water used, power used, annual CO2 emissions and running costs per year.  The BEKO WM7355 has annual CO2 emissions of 103.01 kg based on 250 cycles.  The old machine (which was very old indeed) was taken away for recycling and was a Hoover model not listed on Sust-it.   The best performing Hoover washing machine on there emits 120.18 kg CO2 a year so at a rough estimate we’re at least 15% more efficient at washing clothes than we were last year.

Gone but not forgotten – before waving him off to recycling heaven, we also managed to do a spot of recycling ourselves and transformed the old glass door into a handy bowl for all that fruit we’ve resolved to eat in 2010.

Washing Machine Fruit Bowl

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Carbon Footprint, Eco Tips, Eco Websites, Energy Saving, Green Living, Recycling, Water Saving | No Comments »

Meat Free Mondays…..

Saturday, January 16th, 2010

Eat less meat film
A while back, here at ECOutlet we made a little film called Eat Less Meat. Regular blog visitors might have spotted it before but if you’re new to our site, I’ve posted up the film once more at the end of this post so you can check it out.
It’s a funny, gentle reminder that Eating Less Meat is not only good for your health but also helps to combat your overall carbon emissions (and it won a Green Award too!).

One of my predictions for the coming year is that going meat-free at least one day a week will become a hop topic for many people. The Governments advisory committee on sustainability, the Sustainable Development Commission recently released a report which highlights a diet with less meat as one of the main ways the general public can combat climate change. And as we commence the run up to the next general election, we’ll also be hearing lots more from all the major political parties on the issue as they promote their own sustainable food policies.

If you’re looking for new ways to reduce your carbon footprint in 2010, cutting down on meat could be one of the answers. For inspiration check out your local charity shops for veggie cookbooks and websites like Meat Free Mondays offer up handy recipes and restaurant recommendations for anyone keen to dip their toes into a veggie lifestyle.

Posted in Carbon Footprint, ECOutlet, ECOutlet Films, Green Awards, Green Living, Green Media, Sustainable Food | No Comments »

Our carbon neutral fight against the Winter Chills….

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Our New Wood Burning Stove

Cosy Wood Fire in the ECOutlet Office

In the ongoing drive to reduce our carbon footprint here at chez ECOutlet, we recently acquired a wonderful wood burning stove. Our mission was to heat the office through the cold winter months as sustainably as possible and burning wood is a great way of achieving this goal.   Wood is a carbon neutral fuel source in that it only releases as much carbon dioxide as it absorbs when the tree is growing.  So long as we replace the fallen tree with a new sapling it’s sustainable too.

We’ve been getting our wood deliveries from Certainly Wood who source it from  sustainable, well managed British woodland and they also kiln dry their wood (to make it more efficient) using wood to power the kilns.

Choice of stove is also crucial, as the more efficient it is, the more heat you get for the smallest amount of fuel. Most of urban Britain is also a ‘smoke control area’. That means its legal only to burn wood (or smokeless fuel) in a stove that meets the requirements of the clean air act.

After a consultation and visit from the experts we opted for a Scan Anderson Multi Stove which was installed by a really nice team from Embers Fireplaces and Stoves. We’ve been saving up for this one for a while, they don’t come cheap but after a couple of months of use we’ve already seen a considerable drop in our fuel bill and the place is much warmer than the last few years even in this cold snap.

If you want to know more about Wood Burners there is a good article on the Channel Four site, the only thing it fails to mention is how lovely (and occasionally distracting) it is to have a warm, flickering fire at work.

PS That’s one of our Recycled Planters in the pic which we’ve found is the perfect vessel for storing wood and it looks really cool next to the wood burner too!

Posted in Carbon Footprint, Climate Change, ECOutlet, ECOutlet Products, Green Living | No Comments »

National Carbon Footprint Day….

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

Carbon

Tomorrow October 2nd marks the first ever National Carbon Footprint Day launched by award winning environmentalist Donnachadh McCarthy.  Donnachadh writes a weekly eco-column in the Independent, runs his own eco-auditing company 3 Acorns and in 2007 his Victorian terrace in South London became not only carbon neutral but carbon negative exporting more green energy back to national grid than it imports in fossil fuels.

The aim of National Carbon Footprint Day is to make it easier for us all to remember to calculate our annual carbon and environmental footprints and to reduce these footprints as much as possible in the coming year.  Taking the pledge commits you to taking five simple measurements to calculate your carbon footprint as it stands at the moment and then every October 2nd following this you’ll receive an email update requesting you do the same so you can then calculate your footprint for the previous year.

Check out the website for further details on how to pledge as well as a set of top ten tips on how to reduce your footprint over the coming year.

Posted in Carbon Footprint, Climate Change, Eco Tips, Eco Websites | No Comments »

Rising Food Prices – Grow Your Own can help….

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Homegrown Chilli Plants

Last week the BBC reported on the increase in food prices which have now gone up by an average 8.3% since January.  Meat and fish saw the biggest jumps, up 22.9% whilst fruit and vegetables were up 14.7%.

Meanwhile my little experiment at ‘growing your own’ has almost come to an end for another year.  It’s been a relative success, five chilli plants were grown from seed and are still producing fruit for mealtimes.  We’ve not bought any herbs (basil, mint, oregano or thyme) from the shops since May now and the tomatoes are just about ready for picking.  The only disappointment or failure this year has been the salad which didn’t seem to favour the wetter conditions the summer brought with it.

It’s fair to say the savings made in our weekly shopping bill wouldn’t be described as massive but nor were they insubstantial.  If food prices continue to increase in the same vein next year then more and more of us may well consider the Grow Your Own option as a means of tackling the rising costs of a weekly shop.

For those lucky to have an outdoor patch or anyone thinking about giving Grow Your Own a try due to the increase in food prices, the Gardeners Calendar and the Royal Horticultural Society’s website are two very good starting points with advice available on starting a vegetable plot and monthly tips on what to sow.

Posted in Carbon Footprint, Eco Tips, Eco Websites, Grow Your Own, Sustainable Food | No Comments »

More reasons to cycle….

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

Cycle Lane

If one of your new years resolutions was to cycle more in 2008 then the following info might just be of interest. First up for anyone in the market for a new bike, the governments Cycle to Work Scheme is where employers can offer staff the option of buying a bike out of their pre-tax income thereby discounting the retail cost by up to 50%!

Under the scheme the employer technically buys the bike and reclaims the VAT. The VAT-free price is then deducted from the gross salary in 12 or more installments. Higher rate tax payers save 41% in tax and NI contributions whilst basic rate tax payers save 33%. These schemes are normally run via local bike shops where you can also add helmets and locks under the same terms. Most employers seem unaware of this tax break, so spread the message at work and make sure your boss knows all about it.

Another bike tax perk I recently cam across in a copy of the Financial Times is a little known 20p per mile allowance for work related travel on your bike. You can’t claim for commuting but if say you use your bike to travel to meetings then your employer can pay you up to 20p per mile tax-free.  If your employer pays you nothing or less than 20p per mile you can claim a deduction from taxable income to reduce your tax bill..Hooray!  So say you cycle 20 miles a week to meetings you could claim £160 of mileage allowance thus saving up to £64 in tax.  The two schemes above however do not work concurrently so you can only claim the 20p allowance if you fully own the bike yourself.

The strangest perk of all though is that as a cyclist you can also claim for ‘cyclists breakfasts’ as a no-cost tax free benefit! The only small catch though…you’re only allowed 6 breakfasts a year!

Posted in Carbon Footprint, Cycling, Eco Tips, Eco Websites, Green Travel | No Comments »

Save a polar bear/change a lightbulb concert…

Thursday, July 12th, 2007

Polar Bear

The line-up for last week’s Live Earth gig was’nt really my bag so no tears were shed when I missed most of it but I was disappointed not to catch the short films commissioned to coincide with the concert and which were played throughout the intermissions across the world.

40 short films were produced in total some of which you might have seen during the BBC coverage of the event. I’ve hunted high and low on the internet to find them all but so far have just come up with the Top 15 which are available on the Live Earth Film Project page. Some are good and some not so good, personal favourites include Sad Fish and Don’t let it all unravel.

For the brave at heart, there is also one called Cow. Be warned it does’nt make for pleasent viewing! We tackled the same topic (emissions from livestock) in our last video which you can still view over on the side or on our youtube page and which biased though I might be is much better!

Live Earth also came under a lot of criticism for the mixed messages delivered by pop stars and their big carbon footprints and although I dont want to dredge all that up again it was disappointing to see on the Film Project page that Chevy were sponsoring the online coverage.  An event like Live Earth goes hand in hand with corporate sponsorship and though they may have the biggest range of vehicles fitted to run on biofuels, is a car manufacturer who’s range includes a lot of SUVs and those monster truck type vehicles popular in the US really the best company to convince us of the changes we need to make to tackle climate change?

Posted in Carbon Footprint, Climate Change, Eco Websites, Green Events, Green Media | No Comments »

Eco Holiday…it could be so nice

Thursday, June 7th, 2007

Eco Holidays

We’re all becoming more aware of the impact travelling can have on the environment so websites such as Eco Travelling are a great source of information with plenty of food for thought as we enter the holiday season. The site offers a wealth of advice to help ensure the carbon footprint of your next trip is as small and ethical as possible with over 70 articles currently available and more being added regularly by a team of experts.

Featured tips and advice include articles on air travel such as the performance differences between aircrafts and a balanced discussion on the problems of long-haul flights. It don’t stop there though with most forms of transport covered including eco friendly driving tips, bus vs train, cycling and boating as well as advice on low impact holidays.

Another site also worth a look at if you’re planning a long weekend break or journeying into Europe over the coming months is The Man in Seat Sixty-One. The site is a comprehensive resource showing you how to travel comfortably and affordably overland to places where you might have thought air travel was the only option. It covers most global destinations and includes very handy timetables and fares for rail travel across Europe. As is pointed out, there’s more to travel than the destination, part of the fun can be in the journey!

Posted in Carbon Footprint, Cycling, Eco Tips, Eco Websites, Green Living, Green Travel | No Comments »

green power…

Friday, April 13th, 2007

ECOutlet windfarm

Switching to a green energy supplier is the single biggest step you can take towards making a difference to your environmental impact. Although it can sometimes be more expensive to change to a green energy tariff, it’s not always the case as Ecotricity for example promise to match the standard charge of any regional energy supplier. If you’d prefer all your energy to come from renewable sources, Good Energy is the only UK provider to supply 100% renewable electricity though you will end up paying a little bit extra for the service.

Another point to consider is whether your potential supplier is investing money back into renewable energy resources in the UK. Whichgreen provides a league table of energy companies rated on how much money each supplier spends per customer, per year investing in new sources of green energy. In 2006, Ecotricity topped the table investing £275 per customer which is almost 10 times more than Scottish & Southern Energy who came second. For the same period, other green energy suppliers Good Energy, Green Energy UK and Powergen all failed to invest any money in new renewable sources.  For a summary of all UK suppliers and the different options available check out the Green Electricity website.

Posted in Carbon Footprint, Eco Tips, Eco Websites, Renewable Energy | No Comments »

don’t tax planes tax cows…

Monday, March 26th, 2007

ECOutlet - cowplane

In the last 50 years, global meat production has increased 5-fold and the amount of meat eaten per person has doubled.  Methane is the second most significant greenhouse gas and the 1.5 billion cows on the planet are one of the greatest emitters.

Their grassy diet and multiple stomachs cause them to produce methane, which they exhale with every breath.  Each cow is responsible for around 400 litres per day!  Methane is 23 times more powerful a greenhouse gas then CO2 and meat production is 20 times more carbon intensive than vegetables.  In fact, livestock is responsible for 18% of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, more than cars, planes and all forms of transport put together.

The Eat Less Meat campaign is not a call to turn veggie or vegan.  It simply aims to raise awareness of how you can enjoy healthier eating and help the planet and animals too.

Posted in Carbon Footprint, Climate Change, Eco Tips, Sustainable Food | No Comments »