Generous Actions

Festival and picnic generously

2010-05-27T03:19:38-07:00

Lots of you will find yourself at a festival this summer. Even if you didn’t plan to be at one you may still find yourself in the middle of one by accident there are so many. Many more of you will be picnicking this summer at some stage. The great outdoors beckons us to come and party and eat in its embrace.

From a Generous perspective, think about the footprint you leave behind – because the impact of festivaling and picnicking on the environment can be pretty horrid. But if we all do out bit to take our rubbish home with us, recycle everything we can and generally leave Mother Nature in the verdant state we found her, we can enjoy earth’s goodness with a clearer conscience.

Try and support festivals doing their best to reduce their corporate footprint (here were the top 10 as identified in the Guardian last year) and try not to take too much plastic packaging with you when you picnic. (Here’s a great supplier site that might help.)

Commit to this action here.

(Photo credit: Matt Burgess, Greenbelt Festival, 2009)

Watch the World Cup generously

2010-05-30T09:15:23-07:00

It’s almost here. Four weeks of agony as we manage and massage our disappointment about how England tend to fare in a major footballing championships.

According to most pundits, though, this time it could all be different …

But just in case it’s not, you can make the World Cup different yourself, Generous-style, by always:

getting together with others to watch it
inviting in those on the fringes to share the agony with you
and, of course, making sure you switch the set right off (not just to standby) after extra time and penalties.

Commit to having a Generous World Cup 2010 here.

Opt-out of receiving phone directories

2010-05-08T07:29:11-07:00

Don’t let a copy of the Yellow Pages sit gathering dust on your doorstep. If, like many, you look up everything online now, why not put a stop to having the Yellow Pages delivered to your home all together? Just think of the paper and energy costs that would be saved if loads of us did it.

One of our Generous members, Drew, caused a twitter-storm when he tweeted this suggestion (around 140 people have retweeted it) and he then posted it – along with Frances Berriman too – as a possible Generous action. We like it. So here it is.

Opt out of receiving a paper copy of the Yellow Pages and save the paper and associated printing and transportation waste.

It’s easy: Yellow Pages have a UK free phone number to call to opt out on 0800 671 444.

Again, thanks to Drew and Frances for this suggestion.

Flickr photosource – thanks metrostation

Become a micro-financier

2010-04-07T05:33:19-07:00

Micro-finance schemes connect you directly with people in developing economies who have great ideas and big ambitions but lack the capital they need to get their small businesses up and running.

One such scheme is Kiva. It’s the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website and its mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. You would do well to begin your lending as a micro-financier through Kiva.

You can read more about how microfinance works here.

Join The Wave – Sat 5 December 2009

2009-12-01T01:41:19-08:00

Join The Wave, the UK’s biggest ever climate change march in London this Saturday, 5 December.

Click here for more details.

Sign the Copenhagen petition

2009-12-01T01:42:16-08:00

Sign a petition to ask Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen to not double count money to help developing countries adapt to climate change at the Copenhagen Conference on the One International website. The people at One are after 25,000 signatures before the Conference starts and they’re just over 15,000 now.

Hold off on the heating

2009-12-07T07:56:01-08:00

We’re not encouraging acts of masochism, but you might like to set yourself a sort of ambitious-ish target date before which you want to try and cope this autumn without the central heating.

There was a phone in on Five Live recently where people were vying with each other as to who was the latest to switch on their central heating last winter. (Remember last winter? it was cold and frosty and it snowed lots.) One caller claimed he’d held off until 5 December!

Join the fray and comment below this action when you sign up to it. Let’s see who can go the longest. Not that Generous is about competition, you understand!

Get a vest (or two)

2010-03-09T07:16:58-08:00

Dig out your old vests and press them back into service. Or, if you don’t have any (it’s true, some people don’t have any) go out and buy some.

Keeping warm is all about layering up. And you might as well start at the bottom, as it were. A good vest gets you off to a great start in terms of feeling snug as the temperatures fall.

It’s not all post-war austerity. It’s practical. And it can be stylish too. Ladies, you can even get vests with lace trims (men, you might like them too).

(In similar vein, although not a specific Generous action, don’t be shy about wearing a scarf around the house. Especially if you work from home and spend lots of time sitting at the computer. Generous founder Jacqui has an award-winning writer friend who always wears a scarf to write!)

Doing this sort of stuff is not sad. It’s sensible. And in terms of cutting your energy consumption, it’s Generous too.

Vests – they’re the way to go.

Think before you buy

2009-10-03T12:27:38-07:00

Do you really need to buy that thing? Haven’t you already got enough things? This action says that you’ll start at least thinking before you buy something about whether or not you really need it (and we all know the answer it probably ‘no’).

Here’s the checklist:

Think before you buy.
Do you need it?
Why are you buying it?
Can you get rid of something at the same time (adopting a one-in-one-out policy!)

There’s never been a better time to try and make this a Generous action – in these credit-crunched times, when it makes sense to be spending less and being more careful with our consumption anyway.

It’s all ways round. It’s us reducing the clutter in our lives – and that’s got to be good. But it’s also the great machine of production being slowed just an infinitesimal amount, and so cutting the carbon required to produce all this stuff we don’t need just a tiny, weeny amount. But, as the Generous mantra goes, it all adds up.

Stats show that we only use 1% of the stuff we buy six months after we’ve bought it. Shocking isn’t it? It’s time to buy less stuff. And that starts with thinking before you next think you need to buy something.

Flickr photosource – thanks colodi

Become a Trustee

2009-12-08T01:26:13-08:00

Serving as a trustee for a charity that you’re connected to can add up to the equivalent of giving them £40 a month in cash. And that’s pretty Generous, in our book. So why not become a Trustee? It might make more difference than you could imagine.

Almost a million people here in the UK are already charity trustees. But, while that’s an impressive number, nearly half of all charities still have at least one vacancy on their Board.

Add up the time spent in meetings, preparation and other committee work and it’s estimated a trustee would be expected to devote about one working week – or 40 hours – each year. And that’s where the £40 a month figure comes from.

Click here to read our news story about this from July 2009.

Support your local fête or fair

2009-12-08T01:28:27-08:00

Try to pop along to a fête or fair happening near you, because supporting local events in your area helps build local networks, relationships and, ultimately, community.

Fêtes and fairs are potentially really Generous happenings. They signify an amazing investment of social capital. As well as the connections and conversations, the fun and games, you might even pick up a bargain and a yummy cake, too – and all the money you spend contributes to your local economy.

So, as the summer hots up, we say: it’s time to get your local fête or fair buzzing – by being there if you can, and then telling us about it on Generous and Flickr-ing your photos as well*.

*When you’re doing Generous actions why not capture them on camera and upload the results to www.flickr.com? That way we get a fuller sense of our community activity, at the same time as adding more visual interest to our homemade website!

*In order for the Generous site to find your images and magically draw them in from Flickr, you’ll need to ‘tag’ them a certain way. So, any photo you upload relevant to a particular Generous action will need to be tagged with “livinggenerously:action=X” where X is the ID number of the action.

For example, for Give something away and declutter your life, the tag would be: livinggenerously:action=44 and for this action it would be livinggenerously:action=197

Go on! Show us just how Generous you are!

Flickr photo source – thanks Anguskirk

Sit down for a Big Lunch on 19 July

2009-07-01T14:05:37-07:00

On 19th July The Eden Project in Cornwall is asking the people of Britain to stop what they’re doing and sit down to lunch together. That’s right – the Big Lunch is a party in your street, in everyone’s street.

Why? Well, for lots of reasons really, but mainly to put a smile back on Britain’s face.

Imagine a summer’s day on which millions of us, throughout the UK, sit down to have lunch together, with our neighbours in the middle of our streets, around our tower blocks and on every patch of common ground. The food, entertainment and decorations we will have either grown, cooked, or created ourselves. This will be a day to break bread with our neighbours, to put a smile on Britain’s face.

Click here to find out more. And if you don’t think you and your friends and neighbours can get something together in time (it might be a be late for this year), click here to find out where your nearest Big Lunch is happening.

This is what the Big Lunch says about the idea:

‘Most of us are shy, many of us lead single lives and even when we are together often go our own way. We all know about the problems in our society and don’t need to be preached at about them. But inside almost everyone there is a notion that despite our differences, the ties that bind us are important.

‘The shared enjoyment of eating together, laughter, play, music and conversation bring us together and for all the fact that we are so fabulously different in our outlook and experience on many things, we know a simple truth – together we are strong. Wouldn’t it be great if for just one day we remind ourselves about all that is good about us and bring about a moment that ignites a spark?

’It may be tricky, it may feel slightly uncomfortable to start with. It takes a bit of courage to stop being a stranger. But think of the prize – to be able to walk down the street and into the wider neighbourhood and realise how many good people there are: people who, acting together, can create a real sense of community – a word that in Latin means; “together, in gift”.

‘So… if you’re up for it, try growing something, making something or generally getting stuck in for the Big Lunch. No one is going to tell you how to do it as your ideas will be perfect for you. If you want any prompting we’ve gathered together lots of ideas that might set you on the road for a day that at worst might be fun and at best could start to change your life in unexpected ways!

‘And, if having a Big Lunch just for fun doesn’t feel right for you then find a cause that’s close to your heart and doorstep – be it a hospice, reformed offenders scheme or even a hedgehog sanctuary – then use The Big Lunch as a fund-raiser or volunteer your time.’

Recycle your old bras

2009-08-21T04:50:42-07:00

Take your old bras into Oxfam. It’s been virtually impossible to resell underwear. Until now. That’s because Oxfam’s recycling plant in Huddersfield, Wastesavers, sees bras as “invaluable revenue-generating items.”

Bras are valuable because they are lightweight, meaning you get more in a kilo, which in turn means they fetch a higher price per kilo. And bras from the UK are particularly popular. “They are technically difficult to make and those from here are considered to be of superior quality in the developing world," says Tony Clark, General Manager at Wastesavers.

Wastesavers is where clothes that cannot be sold in shops end up, when the material is either recycled, if the item is damaged, or sold to traders who send them to developing countries.

(Please note that Oxfam is still in the process of notifying its 570 clothes shops, and the 1000s of volunteers who work in them, about Wastesaver. So you may find that your local Oxfam tells you it doesn’t accept bras. But they do. They just might not know it yet.)

Flickr photosource – thanks MathieuB

'Grey' water your garden

2009-12-07T08:03:30-08:00

Divert bath and shower ( that’s ‘grey’) water onto the garden soil.

Get a valve that fits onto waste pipes with 41, 43 & 44.5mm outside diameter and then, when open, grey water is routed through a hosepipe onto your garden or into your water butt</a. When the valve is closed, the water flows as normal. It’s a permanent fitting with simple pull-cord operation.

Click here to buy a valve now.

Make your garden bee-friendly

2009-08-02T13:46:12-07:00

Encourage bumblebees to your garden to play their vital role in pollinating your plants.

Bumblebees can be found in most habitats where there are nectar- and pollen-filled plants – whether this is in your garden, on farmland or in the countryside. But Britain’s bees are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. Various government bodies and research institutions have agreed to provide £8m to look into why populations are falling. But we can all do our bit.

The best way to help is to provide food and nesting sites in your garden for bumblebees. Wherever you live in the UK, you should be able to attract at least six bumblebee species to your garden. Try and ensure you have different plants that flower at different times of year and plant traditional cottage garden flowers and native wildflowers. You could also leave an area of your lawn unmown to provide flowers during summer.

Find out more about keeping your bees in clover.

Find out how to make a bee home.

Alternatively you could get involved in monitoring and recording bee species that you see in order to help organisations understand their current populations. Find out about surveys run by the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

Why encourage bees?
Pollination is the number one reason. We need them to make trees, plants and flowers bloom. Also, they’re well adapted to the British climate and don’t mind getting out even when it’s not that warm. You’d be helping the British bumblebee to survive if you put out a home for them. Their population has fallen to the point where this trend needs reversing.

Fine out more about bees in your garden here (courtesy of Blue Peter).

Click here for a short video clip of bee facts.

And click here to listen to the Environment Minister Hilary Benn talking about this on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Click here for more on how to make your garden bee-friendly.

And register here for the Save Our Bees campaign.

Watch Martha Kearney’s BBC doc about the crisis on BBC2 on Friday 15 May at 7pm.