10:10 – Buying Yourself Green
Posted: Sat 5 September, 2009 Filed under: 10:10, 1BEM, Cynicism, Green, Thoughts 2 Comments »Looking at the list of the Guardian’s 10:10 suggestions from yesterday’s post, I couldn’t help but think that there was an awfully high number of those pointers that suggested buying/installing something new. Sure, they then (usually) said to recycle the old ones, but still, there was some significant investment involved in reducing that carbon footprint.
So, being a geek, I put the list into a table, and estimated some prices for those items with a cost…
(Click on the more link to see the table – it’s a biggie…)
| Item | Cost? | Amount (Approx) |
|---|---|---|
| Heating | ||
| Major improvement in your home’s insulation | Yes | £500 |
| New boiler if yours is more than 10 years old | Yes | £2,000 |
| Cavity wall insulation | Yes | £200 |
| Double glazing if you don’t have it | Yes | £2,000 |
| Solar hot water | Yes | £2,000 |
| Increase loft insulation, seal doors and skirting boards, etc | Yes | £400 |
| Better controls for boiler, hot water tank and radiators | Yes | £500 |
| Buy a wood-burning stove | Yes | £1,000 |
| Reduce your thermostat temp by 1 degree | ||
| Heat one less room | ||
| Slow-flow showers, not baths | ||
| Electricity | ||
| Install 2 kilowatt solar PV panels | Yes | £5,000+ |
| Buy a new A++ refrigerator if yours is more than 4 years old, and only use a small-screen TV. | Yes | £500 |
| Use LED or fluorescent lights where you currently have halogen lights installed | Yes | £10 per bulb |
| Buy an automated system to turn off appliances when not in use; get a meter that shows actual energy use and use it to monitor your household | Yes | £1,000 |
| Only use your washing machine and dishwasher when full to capacity and at lowest temperature | ||
| Never use the tumble dryer | ||
| Get rid of the freezer if you can, and replace your small appliances with “eco” varieties | Possibly | £1,000 |
| Car | ||
| Cut your annual mileage in half | ||
| Sell the second car | ||
| Buy a new car with emissions in car tax bands A or B, then scrap the old one | Yes | £8-10,000 |
| Join a car club or set up an effective local car-sharing scheme | ||
| Share car to work | ||
| Go on a day’s eco-driving course, fit low-resistance tyres and check air pressure every month | Yes | £250 |
| Don’t ever use a car for shopping. Buy online | ||
| Work from home one day a week rather than commuting by car | ||
| Air travel | ||
| Never fly | ||
| Restrict yourself to one short-haul return flight a year on a carrier with a fuel-efficient fleet | ||
| Consumer electronics | ||
| Buy secondhand mobile phones and ensure that three of your electronic devices are recycled | ||
| Keep your electronic devices (eg phones, TVs, computers, DVD players, games machines) one year longer than you would have | ||
| Switch from a desktop computer to a laptop at home, and recycle the desktop | Yes | £600+ |
| Food | ||
| Go vegan three days a week | ||
| Change to an almost entirely vegetarian diet, using mostly unprocessed wholefoods such as grains, seeds and nuts | ||
| Never buy processed food or ready meals | ||
| Buy more carefully and never throw food away | ||
| Grow all your own fruit and vegetables for July, August, September | ||
| Clothing | ||
| Buy 50% secondhand clothes | ||
| Reduce purchases by a more than a quarter compared to last year (eg buy four new T-shirts not the UK average of seven) | ||
| Buy only manmade fibres | ||
| Focus on new fabrics made from bamboo, hemp or other cotton substitutes | ||
| Water, sewage and waste disposal | ||
| Install a ‘grey water’ recycling system to take water from your washing machine into your lavatory | Yes | £2000 |
| Use showers, not baths. Install a flow-reducing aerator for the shower head | Yes | £50? |
| Regularly use soap, a basin of water and a sponge instead of a shower | ||
| Buy ultra-low water use cisterns, new water-saving dishwasher, washing machine. Recycle old ones | Yes | £2,500 |
| Install – and carefully monitor – a water meter. Put bricks in all the loos to reduce water. Carefully recycle all waste, compost all organic matter | Yes | £250 |
| Install a composting toilet | Yes | £500+ ? |
| Public transport | ||
| Cycle everywhere | Possibly | £500 |
| Always use coaches instead of the train | ||
| Work from home two days a week instead of taking public transport to work | ||
| Paper | ||
| Only buy newspapers, magazines, books, toilet paper and copier paper made from recycled materials. | ||
| Block direct mail, choose electronic bills and statements, buy secondhand books and share papers. | ||
That’s 21 out of 51 lines that have a significant cost allocated to them. And the rough (very, very rough) estimate of how much those 21 lines would cost? A minimum of £29,250 , assuming the minimum in any price range, no halogen bulbs needing replacing, and not needing to buy a new bike to do the “Cycle Everywhere” option.
Talk about taking the piss…
I take your point regarding the huge capital outlay, but fair’s fair – are you going to estimate the annual savings made by taking up those and the other suggestions too?
“Regularly use soap, a basin of water and a sponge instead of a shower”
Now that really *is* a step too far.
And that coming from one who does most of the others already…