Portsmouth Goes Generous Actions

Recycle your old bras

2009-05-01T09:06:19Z

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

Holiday generously

2009-04-03T19:22:22Z

(Flickr photosource – thanks velodenz)

Here’s a cluster of holiday action ideas to help you think about going Generous for your summer holidays.

House swap

House swapping means someone will be in your property while you’re away, giving you peace of mind…and someone to water the flowers and feed your pets. It also means you get to stay in someone’s house, with all its quirks and character, rather than in bulk-standard accommodation. It’s also cheaper than booking hotels, hostels or campsites too.

There are loads of websites out that will help you house swap – both here in the UK and abroad. Google ‘house swap’ and browse away.

Here’s an international one we found and here’s a UK one.

Alternative holidays

Think differently about the kind of holiday you take. Why not a cycling or walking holiday -either with a company or one you arrange yourself. Or go away with a charity to work with one of their projects at the same time as experiencing something and somewhere different. After all, a change is as good as a rest.

Google ‘cycling holidays’ or ‘walking holidays’ and bring up the results. Loads of them!

Walking holidays in the UK
Walking holidays in Europe
Cycling holidays here in the UK
Cycling holidays in Europe

Or take a holiday with a charity working on one of their projects – click here for some options.

Free days out

If money is tight and a week or two’s holiday is out, then why not plan some free days out. Avoid theme parks and just go for a walk, a bike ride, or to a beach. It’s cheaper, better for environment … and it can be more fun. (Thanks Annie for this suggestion.)

Here are some websites that might help you out:

A Free Day Out
Do Free Stuff
Enjoy England

(Thanks Annie for these suggestions.)

Go by train to Europe

Hankering after a European holiday ? Why not swap the plane for the train? You could skip the airport queues, relax en route, and make big CO2 savings.

With the growth of Europe’s high-speed rail network, traveling city centre to city centre not only cuts out the misery of airport check-in, it can even be quicker than the plane on some trips. And a rail trip can save as much as 90% of the CO2 emissions from your journey.

Despite over 50% of us saying we are more concerned about the effects of flying than we were five years ago, only 8% of us actually fly less.

During the next 30 years, predicted air travel will create an extra 3000kg CO2 emissions per person – that’s the equivalent of driving a petrol car for an entire year. Scientists claim we need to reduce emissions by that amount to avoid dangerous levels of climate change.

Here’s a good website to start with: Rail Europe

(Thanks to the BBC’s Bloom site for this suggestion.)

Make your own bread

2009-04-03T19:20:47Z

(Flickr photosource – thanks fuzuoko)

Buy a bread-making machine and start baking your own. It’s quicker to put all the ingredients in the machine than to run to the local supermarket or bakery. The bread is healthier, and you can choose a different type each day.

Depending on what sort of bread-maker you get, you could even have a day a week when you bake other goodies – like healthy cookies, the odd cake or two – and put these into lunch boxes instead of crisps and chocolates.

And you don’t have to get a bread maker, of course. You could just do it the good old-fashioned way – kneading your dough and baking it in your oven. It’s just that a bread maker gives great results with the minimum effort.

(Thanks to Vanessa for this suggestion.)

Here’s the ‘Which’ review of bread making machines
And here’s a BBC web page all about baking your own bread

Have a power-cut party

2009-04-03T19:19:04Z

(Flickr photosource – thanks Robin Kearney)

Organise a Power Cut Party. Ask your guests to bring candles, lanterns, instruments, board games, and songs. Create an emergency ration kit, light a fire (if you can), and then see – albeit dimly – what happens.

You could play ‘hunt the fuse box’. But, whatever you do, the idea is to create a different sort of convivial atmosphere and space where different types of connections can be made – at the same time as saving energy and highlighting its preciousness as a resource.

Here’s what Vincent Reid wrote in the Guardian about making an emergency kit:
What’s in your emergency kit? The bare necessities of life are available in most houses. We are all accustomed to having heat, water and electricity on demand. Without these things, we would be quite helpless. But what if something went wrong, such as a power cut or a broken pipe? It is worth discussing what you need and why. It may come as a shock that we are dependent on these amenities. After discarding the suggestions of favourite DVDs, our emergency kit ended up as a box of matches, candles, a blanket, two tins of beans, a pocket knife (with tin opener attachment), some spoons and a big chocolate bar. A few days later, we had to use it for the first time when the power went off. It was a remarkable success.

Give a gift that keeps on giving – choose from Christian Aid’s Present Aid

2008-12-02T00:00:00Z

Give to someone you’ve never met via someone you love – a goat to a family in Bolivia for Uncle John, perhaps – by sending a ‘Present Aid’ gift. Present Aid is run by Christian Aid, but other development agencies now run similar schemes.

Present Aid provides a range of gifts to choose from that will make a real difference. Starting at £8, they make ideal gifts for those friends and family members who seem to have everything. The agency receives your donation, and your loved-one receives a card telling them precisely what the money has bought: crutches in Bethlehem, reading glasses and classes in Honduras, ducks in Bangladesh, and so on.

The range of options is such that you can chose something relevant to pretty much anyone you find you’re buying for now.

Use your car less in 2009 (walk, cycle or share lifts instead – even just to church!)

2008-12-02T00:00:00Z

Start a car club at work / church to share the commute / journey. Better still, get your bicycle out and hop on that or just take a walk to get to where you need to be – not forgetting exploring public transport options. Basically: think before you drive. Avoid it being just you on your own going somewhere in the car this year.

If cycling or walking are really out of the question for you, that’s a shame, but then you might have a friend or neighbour who you could talk into sharing lifts with. You might want to car-share to and from work – or church. And, of course, you could always look at joining a car club, more and more of which are setting up around the country.

Research shows that short car journeys are the most damaging to environment – all that starting and stopping, accelerating and braking and all. So, try to avoid lots of short journeys and instead think about how you might combine errands and tasks into one round trip. Research also suggests that each car club car on the road replaces five privately owned vehicles. This helps to relieve parking pressure on our crowded streets and improve our local communities. A reduction in the number of cars means less pollution and congestion, helping to make places cleaner and safer. That’s got to be a good thing, don’t you think?

Flickr photo source

Turn your thermostat down in 2009

2008-12-02T00:00:00Z

Turn your heating thermostat down by 1 degree and wear more clothes instead. Save yourself some money and help save the planet in 2009.

The average household can cut its bills and stave off global warming with some simple changes (click hre). Each home in Britain creates about six tonnes of CO2 a year, according to the Energy Saving Trust. Yet, by taking a number of simple steps the average household could cut that amount by approximately a third. What’s good for the environment can be good for your bank balances, too. Making your life more energy efficient can slash bills by hundreds of pounds.

This starter action is taken from a Top Ten listed here.

Did you know that setting the central heating system thermostat lower by one degree centrigrade can reduce your home’s heating bill by about £40 a year. (And even further savings can be made by closing the curtains to keep the heat in and by installing double glazing.)

Lucy Siegle, the Observer’s ethical and environmental correspondent refers to what she calls the ‘Holyoaks effect’: the way that people spend the winter as well as the summer in tee-shirts these days, instead of donning extra layers to keep warm in the colder months. It’s time to turn down and put on.

Flickr photo source

Recycle Your Greetings Cards

2008-12-02T00:00:00Z

Recycle your cards instead of throwing them away at the start of 2009.

There are various ways you could try this. Use the unwritten-on side as a picture post card. Turn them into gift tags. Transform them into cards you can give again – or make them into cards to sell on for a local charity. And any that can’t be used in this process, find them a good home in the recycling bin or with one of the many schemes that will take your cards and recycle them for you – like the Woodland Trust.

Related links
The Woodland Trust

Flickr photo source

Become a blood donor

2008-12-02T00:00:00Z

Give blood and become a life-saver. It’s not a difficult thing to do. But it’s a Generous thing to do, making a real difference to the lives of others.

Every day new medical treatments are being developed and more operations are being carried out in the UK. Not surprisingly, then, The National Blood Service constantly needs donations for these vital procedures. About 2.5 million donations a year, to be exact.

When you give blood you just show up, they’ll ask you a few questions about your health and lifestyle (just to make sure you haven’t been exposed to anything infectious). And then they’ll take a drop of blood from your finger to make sure you’re not anaemic.

Then they’ll take your blood donation – just under a pint. It takes about 10 minutes. Most people don’t feel a thing. Apart from a tremendous sense of well-being that, that is.

Search for you nearest session online here. Or you can call 0845 7 711 711 to find out more.

Related links
www.blood.co.uk

Flickr image source

Measure your own carbon footprint at the start of 2009

2008-06-13T00:00:00Z

Calculate your CO2 emissions at the start of the New Year (using the online calculator link below). Once you know what your footprint is, reflect on the year ahead and think about how you can start to change your default settings to reduce your footprint in the coming months – as Portsmouth Diocese goes Generous.

We’ve all got one – a carbon footprint – our own personal measure of how much carbon dioxide we create, an individual invisible record of how much we contribute to climate change.

Our personal emissions of greenhouse gases are changing the climate – every time we burn coal, oil or gas for energy. More than 40 per cent of CO2 emissions in the UK come directly from what we do as individuals – heating our homes, turning on the lights, driving our cars.

But knowledge is power – when we know how and why we create the carbon dioxide we do, then we also throw a little light on how we might create less of the stuff.

And the UK government is making it easy with a simple to use carbon footprint online measuring thing. You can do it for yourself or you can do it for the household in which you live. It’s easy, takes just a few minutes.

Go Generous here by clicking where it says ‘Calculate your carbon footprint’.

Related links
actonco2.direct.gov.uk/index.html

Slow down, calm down – stick to the speed limit

2008-03-07T00:00:00Z

Drive slower and stick to the speed limits. Not only will you lower your stress levels and your fuel consumption but, most importantly, you will play your part in making the roads safer.
Traffic is the biggest single killer of 12-16 year olds. Two out of three accidents where people are killed or injured happen on roads where the speed limit is 40mph or less. At 35mph you are twice as likely to kill someone you hit as at 30mph. Enough said.

And of course, with the move towards introducing much tougher penalties for speeding offences it makes sense all round to stick to the speed limit – rather than risk losing your licence altogether.

(Keeping your tyres inflated properly also greatly improves your fuel efficiency.)

Switch off and unplug appliances and chargers

2008-03-07T00:00:00Z

Make sure lights and other electrical equipment in rooms you’re not using are turned off (not just left on standby) and only leave your chargers plugged in and switched on when you’re actually charging your device. At all other times make sure the socket is switched off and, ideally, your charger is unplugged. Easy!

Did you know that 95% of the energy used by the UK’s mobile phone chargers is wasted energy? Only 5% is actually used to charge phones, the rest is used when the charger is plugged into the wall but not switched off at the socket.

That’s over 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions that could be avoided if we all just unplugged our chargers after use. Amazingly, this is the equivalent of almost 500 football pitches’ worth of forest every year. Incredible!

And that goes for all appliances! Leaving televisions, DVDs and computers on standby, rather than switching them off, emits four million tonnes of CO2 and wastes £740m a year. The average household could save £37 in electricity bills each year by turning appliances off and not leaving them charging unnecessarily.

And, for those of you already onto this one, how about looking into solar-powered chargers?

Related links
Check out the solar chargers here

Watch An Inconvenient Truth in 2009

2006-09-11T00:00:00Z

Make sure you – and your friends, family and homegroups – watch Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth. It’s the ideal starting point – both a resource and inspiration – as you begin your Generous journey this year. And your vicar should have a copy, courtesy of Rev Andrew Norris (the Diocesan Environmental Advisor), so it should be easy to get hold of a copy to watch.

An Inconvenient Truth was a surprise hit film in which the man who used to be ‘the next President of the USA’ delivers an inspirational critique of the myths and misconceptions that surround global warming.

Having ‘lost’ to George Bush in 2000, Al Gore gave up politics for another form of campaigning – to raise awareness of the issues around climate change.

It’s an eye-opening and poignant portrait of Gore’s ‘traveling global warming show,’ in which, surprisingly, he comes across as funny, engaging, open and incredibly passionate about what he calls our ‘planetary emergency’.

And Big Al thinks it’s not too late to save the planet – in fact he talks a very Generous talk. We like him!
‘There is no doubt we can solve this problem,’ as the official website puts it. ‘In fact, we have a moral obligation to do so. Small changes to your daily routine can add up to big differences in helping to stop global warming. The time to come together to solve this problem is now.’

Couldn’t agree more. Wonder if he’s signed up to Generous?

So, it you want to know more about global warming, this is the film to see. And if you’ve got some sceptical friends why not show it to them, to see if their truth is still convenient? Or maybe just some friends who aren’t sceptical… but just didn’t realise quite how hot history is getting.

Or show a bunch of pals – and have a drink afterwards to discuss those ‘small changes to your daily routine’ that can help avert the emergency.

Go on, be Generous! See An Inconvenient Truth… and show a friend too!

Find out more about the film at the official site here.

Encourage others to go Generous

2005-12-30T00:00:00Z

Encourage a friend outside the Generous community to do one or more of the actions or even to become a member themselves.

You can even copy and paste this text to do the job for you (if you’re not speaking to the person face-to-face – which is always the most Generous thing to do, by the way!)
——————————————

Dear ??

I thought you might be interested in the Generous online community http://generous.org.uk/ which I’m a member of.

Basically, it’s a rapidly growing crowd of people who think that if a lot of us begin to make small changes in the way we live, then together we will create a big change in favour of the planet and its people.

There’s now about two thousand of us signed up and every month we get emailed some suggested Generous Actions. The idea is to try and commit to taking on one or two – and then making them part of our everyday life.

Some are easy (takes five minutes to sign up online as an organ donor), some are more of a hassle (switching to an ethical bank, putting a plastic brick in your cistern to save water, starting to shop local and fair trade) and some are more challenging (cutting back on your car use, offsetting your airmiles, improving home energy efficiency).

Every time a Generous member commits to an action, it gets logged on the site – for example there’s now 517 people who have stopped taking carrier bags from shops, 452 who turn off the tap when cleaning their teeth and 377 who have unplugged their chargers to reduce their emissions.

If it sounds like your kind of thing (and I thought of you when I got to know about Generous!), you can read more about it here – http://portsmouth.generous.org.uk/about/

You can see all the current Generous Actions here – http://portsmouth.generous.org.uk/actions/

You can sign up for free here -http://portsmouth.generous.org.uk/apply/

Yours generously,

????? (your name, or one you like, here)

Flickr photo source

Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth

2005-12-16T00:00:00Z

Switch off while you brush. As a default, most of us leave the tap running while we brush our teeth until we’ve finished the final swill. It’s time to break that habit and save up to 5 litres a minute to boot.
If the entire adult population of England and Wales did likewise, this could save a total of 180 mega-litres a day – enough to supply nearly 500,000 houses.

Saving water at home, in the garden or at work takes very little effort, but makes a surprisingly big difference. In general, this involves simply cutting out the amount of water we are wasting through our day-to-day habits – like when we leave the tap running while we brush our teeth.

It’s about consciousness – the more we become aware of our ordinary everyday actions, the more we can choose to modify them to look after this good world. Even when cleaning our teeth.
This is especially poignant when you consider what a precious commodity water is and how highly valued it is by those who do not have a multiplicity of taps in their village, let alone their home. It’s all part of our good care for the planet for which we’re responsible.

Flickr photo source