Eco audit: to heat or not to heat

I’ll confess this now.  I’m writing in bed.  It’s possibly my favourite place to write.  And, when you get the luxury of the house to yourself, you get to do what you want a little more. But another reason for writing in bed is because it’s cold.  It’s still February.  Snow is coming and going. …

Eco audit: only reduce

‘Only connect’ is the classic injunction by E. M. Forster – that we might reach out beyond ourselves, amongst other things.  In environmental terms, my attempt at encouraging myself starts with: only reduce. Forster might well have been surprised at how well his phrase works in the multi-connected world of today.  But our world may …

Eco audit: buying containers that can be reused

We have a friend whose mum would never ‘throw away’ a jar, all year – because they were all needed for the annual jam making. Containers were not just for one use – they were for multiple. And preserving makes a virtue out of this. So what do you do when you’re in the supermarket, …

Eco audit: going against the dominant food culture

There’s nothing like Not Eating the Same as Others to make you stand out.  It doesn’t seem to matter what your difference is.  It gets trickier.  Sometimes you are seen as being Difficult. In your teens, it is important to find a few ways to be different from your family.  To embrace causes.  To have …

Eco audit: buying fresh from farmers

Childhood is not complete without a little pick-your-own strawberry activity.  (And of course eating, while picking.) I don’t know that my parents were choosing to do it for ‘support the farmers’ reasons.  I think we did it because it was fun, because the fruit was so fresh, and because it made a family outing out …