40 Easy Actions to Reduce Consumption
At international, national, local and individual level - in no particular order.
Stop using noisy, polluting leaf blowers and other frivolous fossil energy recreational toys, jet-skis, land damaging ATV (All-Terrain Vehicles), motorised private pleasure craft and domestic heated Jacuzzis.
Cut constant use of air-conditioning. The UK doesn’t need air-con on most days. Also deter the use of “sky heaters” outside pubs and restaurants.
Legislate to reduce wide-scale interior lighting in supermarkets when closed.
Cut overuse of street lighting intensity and density in urban and country areas of the UK. Modern lamp units can be more widely spaced. Aim for 30% reduction.
Deter sales of increasingly used garden trinket lighting and extensive spotlighting around houses.
Stop business policies to open shop doors to increase footfall on cold winter days while blasting a curtain of hot air to compensate for heat loss. People can see shops are open without the doors being wide open!
Set standards for all supermarkets to have plastic barriers to keep chiller foods cold
Reduce grass cutting to ‘rewild’ urban green spaces.
Incorporate wildlife corridors and pollinator habitat.
Reduce vastly over complex street furniture overload. Toucan crossing systems sometimes having 40 metal posts and light units in place. Metal uses lots of energy.
SUVs use around 25% more fuel and emissions than smaller vehicles. Set a 20% extra sales tax on all full-size SUVs, except for farmers/ landowners who need them. Similarly ban sales of dangerous and totally unnecessary electric 200mph supercars that can accelerate to high speeds in a few seconds.
Stop government and IT industries bulldozing drive to deploy 5G. The costs are huge. 5G is being rolled out without independent Health or Environmental Impact assessments. Thousands of polluting rockets will be needed to deploy low orbit satellites. New ‘microcomb’ cable fiber technologies are safer, 10x more efficient and could be in wide use within three years. As data from billions of internet-connected ‘smart’ devices grows exponentially, it is estimated the ICT industry could consume 20% of global electricity production by 2025.
Make UK rail and bus transport affordable. UK rail, bus and underground are so expensive. Cut domestic flights and reduce all other flights. There are too many short haul flights where it can take less time centre to centre by rail than by air and where take-offs and landings have higher fuel and emissions costs than longer haul, See https://flightfree.co.uk/
Limit the massive scale of advertising to deter wasteful consumption.
Ban the delivery of large amounts of unsolicited mail through our doors that consumes forests we need to absorb carbon emissions.
Encourage newspapers to combine Sunday editions into Saturday weekend editions to save paper, in a world of 24/7 electronic news.
Get more freight back onto rail rather than ever expanding road distribution.
Stop import of wood chip from US forests sent by freighter across oceans to fuel so-called sustainable wood-chip power stations in the UK. Consider alternative power inputs.
Global supply-chain waste. Fragile, just in time supply chains waste remaining fossil energy moving products around the world to assemble products at marginally lower cost.
Live as “locally” as possible. Work flexibly from home. Eases childcare costs.
Reducing reliance on imports, targeting investment towards energy security and ecological protection offers multiple benefits.
Drastically reduce and redeploy land used for tobacco production to grow alternative food crops. Our priority is for food not tobacco that can kill us. Same for crop land used to grow rapeseed to feed biofuels
Stop supermarket plastic packaging, when there are bio-degradable alternatives. Sell fruit and vegetables loose.
Stop planned product obsolescence. Make repair services more accessible.
Eat less meat and dairy and consider vegetarian and vegan.
Buy only what you need not whatever you want. Avoid fast-fashion, buy second hand or source ethical/sustainable fashion.
Where possible, walk and cycle more instead of driving. If you don’t need a car don’t have one. If you need one get the smallest that will do the job. If you have 2 cars, sell one.
Don’t use power tool if a hand tool will do.
Don’t leave a tap running any longer than necessary. Don’t leave lights on longer than you need.
Draw curtains to keep heat in in winter and sun out in summer
Avoid single use plastics as much as possible - plan your lunches, reduce takeaways, use reusable bottles/cups.
Fit LED light bulbs in less intense warm spectrum rather than blue spectrum.
Don’t use your conservatory in winter. Grow edible plants in pots there.
Limit to one main TV and maybe a main bedroom TV. Avoid trend for massive cinema screen TVs that use a lot more energy.
Avoid leaving appliances on standby.
Switch to renewable energy at home and the office. Install energy efficient boilers and heating systems. When you need a new appliance like a fridge or washing machine buy the most energy efficient model.
If you have a garden, try growing your own food (start with simple stuff like herbs)
Lead by example. Become active - write to your MP and councillors urging them on climate actions, have challenging conversations with friends and family. Transition Towns have LOADS of examples of practical projects working at local community level.
If you're a business owner - research the circular business model. It can save you money.
Use CDs or DVDs if you listen to them repeatedly. Streaming a recording over the internet more than 27 times will use more energy than manufacturing and playing a CD. Streamed music on a hi-fi system is estimated to use 107 kilowatt hours a year, costing about £15.00 to run. A CD player uses 34.7 kilowatt hours costing £5 to run.
BONUS Support climate charities and campaigns - can we count on you to support our ambitious COP26 campaign?