Posts Tagged ‘Team Green Britain’
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#2 Green Britain Day- 6 easy steps to reducing your travel footprint
Travel
In 2007, domestic transport was responsible for around 21% if all GHG emissions in the UK and by 2008 travel by car accounted for 63% of all trips made within the UK and ~80% of all distance travelled!
On the upside between 1995 and 2008 there was an increase in the use of public transport with use of buses increasing by 8% outside of London and 61% within London, and the use of surface rail increased by 54%!
What can you do, and inspire others to do?
1. Get started with PUMP IT UP! –come along to a Climate Squad pump it up event and learn how to pump car tyres correctly. Having the correct air pressure means the tyres do not cause friction on road surfaces which saves energy and CO2.
2. Use the Global Action Plan travel hierarchy -
Walk – Cycle - Bus - Train – Car – Taxi - Plane
3. Use a FREE bike in London - In July 2010 a free cycle-hire scheme launches in London! 6,000 cycles will be located in 400 docking stations across Zone 1. After registering, they are free for the first 30 minutes or 12p/day for a year.
4. Electric cars - Plug-in electric cars can be 5x more energy efficient than a baseline fossil-fuel car and significantly more efficient than a hybrid. Some can even reach 62mph in 4 seconds!
5. Dispose of car batteries correctly – the recycling rate of car batteries is estimated at higher than 90%! However they are classed as hazardous waste so take them to a dedicated waste and recycling centre or ask your local council. Most recycling services will offer discounts on new batteries when you take your old one!
6. Dispose of car tyres correctly –more than 100,000 used tyres are removed from the UK each day and 450,000 tonnes/year of used car tyres are recycled or disposed off which is enough to stretch a line between London and Sydney! So - reduce, reuse, and recycle. Check your car tyres weekly for damage, air pressure and tread and this will help them extend their lifespan.
Each retreaded tyre for an average car saves 4.5 gallons in oil compared to manufacturing a new one!
Did you know?
In the United States, Fife, Scotland, and on the South Downs outside Brighton, tyres have been used to build houses. Called Earthships, they’re built using around 2,000 tyres which are rammed full of earth and then stacked like bricks to form walls. The walls are then rendered with adobe, plaster or cement.
Read #1 Green Britain Day- 5 easy steps to reduce your fashion footprint
Read #3 Green Britain Day- 4 easy steps to reduce your food footprint
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#1 Green Britain day - 5 easy steps for reducing your fashion footprint
2 million tonnes of clothes are bought in the UK every year, of which 1.2 million tonnes is dumped in landfill sites! The average Brit throws away 30kg of clothing and textiles which is very much down to the availability of cheap throwaway fashion.
So what’s the problem?In the UK the clothing and textiles sector was responsible for:
~3.1 million tonnes of GHG emissions
~1.5-2.0 million tonnes of waste
70 million tonnes of water waste
10 x more energy than producing steel or glassAlso, when these materials end up in landfill, some synthetic materials don’t decompose and some which do degrade release methane which is 21 x more powerful than CO2.
If everyone in the UK bought one reclaimed woollen garment a year, it would save an average of 371 million gallons of water – the average UK reservoir holds about 300 gallons!
5 easy steps for reducing your fashion footprint…
1. Choose eco labels - many shops have organic clothing, green, Fairtrade collections and upcycled collections which use old fabrics to create new fashion. There are also many UK based designers supporting local businesses and which save energy by being UK-made, e.g. People Tree, Beyond Skin and Izzy Lane.
2. Take your old clothes to one of the 6,000 recycling banks in the UK – this is easy yet only 25% of the banks are being used to their full capacity and only 16% of clothes are recycled! The clothes are taken to homeless, charity shops or sold in developing countries.
3. Shop in charity shops – Fed up of seeing everyone wearing the same dress as you? Full of vintage glamour at bargain prices, charity shops are ideal for that unique piece that will set you apart - and you will be raising money for charity! Over 70% of the world’s population uses second hand clothes so why not do it!?
4. Swapping and swishing –host your own party or swap online from one of the many websites out there.TheBigWardrobe has 30,000 members and pieces from Stella McCartney, Marc Jacobs and Topshop.
5. Customise your wardrobe – as Vivienne Westwood advised everyone watching her on Jonathon Ross:
“Do it yourself, take the tablecloth if its beautiful… put things together yourself, don’t spend money, just take what you can find, take your old things and keep on wearing them, don’t buy much fashion but if you do buy it, choose really well, wear it for a long time until it drops of your back and it will get more wonderful…forget buying all of these new clothes…buy less and choose well”
It is very easy to associate eco fashion with “hippies” however this shouldn’t be the case. London fashion week saw designers such as Izzy Lane and Amana take part in the “Estethica” initiative which is now in its 7th season.
The government have also outlined a sustainable clothing roadmap which is a voluntary clothing industry initiative to improve the environmental and ethical performance of clothing to hopefully make green fashion choices second-nature.
Read #2 Green Britain Day- 6 easy steps to reduce your travel footprintRead #3 Green Britain Day- 4 easy steps to reduce your food footprint
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Friday is Green Britain Day!
Friday 10 July is the very first Green Britain Day and it’s going to be the first of many in the years to come.
The idea is that as hosts of the 2012 Olympics we have an opportunity to show the rest of the world what a great example we can set as leaders in the fight against climate change.
We can all get together to achieve this. The Team Green Britain website has loads of ideas on how to get involved or to just get you thinking about what you could be doing.
And there’s masses of things happening on the day itself. Over 600 schools will be joining in Green Feet Pledge events. And at the Eden Project in Cornwall, Paul Weller and Florence and the Machine are playing a charity gig.
In fact there are loads of events to choose from right across the country. From swap shops and bike surgeries, opportunities to learn more about buying local goods, to advice on how to shrink your carbon footprint.
But it doesn’t all end when the sun sets on Friday. The Team Green Britain website has lots more information about how you and your friends could join up to do more. It’s definitely worth a look.
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Team Green Britain
Team Green Britain is working to try and make Britain genuine leaders in the race against Climate Change by the time the Olympic and Paralympic Games come to London in 2012. They’re focused on working together as one big team, inspiring each other, learning from each other and bringing out the best in each other. The idea is that team members will get all the practical support, information and advice needed about living a greener life.
Remember to put July 10th in your diary, as this will be the first Green Britain Day!
So how does it all work? Well, there are five different teams within the project, that all involve different activities.
- Team Energy get together and share your TV with your friends
- Team Swap throw a bring and swap party
- Team Big Lunch host a lunch to meet your neighbours
- Team A to B leave the car when you’re going local
- Eco Teams learn to lead a greener life together
The Team Green Britain website has LOADS more information on each of these teams, so why don’t you have a look!
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