Portsmouth Goes Generous Updates: News, Blogs, and Actions

News: Cereal That Changes The Milk Colour

2010-01-29T11:56:58Z

The Daily Mail is good for your health. Today anyway, by publishing a rather fine list of FOOD RULES – from the bread we should avoid to the size of our plates and the effect certain cereal has on the milk we mix it with.

Here’s a few of their food commandments – actually, not theirs, but those of Michael Pollan from Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual.

Don’t eat cereals that change the colour of the milk
If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t
Eat when you’re hungry, not when you’re bored
Eat your colours
Eat like the French, Japanese, Italians or Greeks
Try not to eat on your own

After consulting dietitians, nutritionists, anthropologists, folklorists, doctors and nurses – as well as a large number of mothers and grandmothers – author Michael Pollan has come up with a fascinating list of so-called ’Food Rules’ that could help change your eating habits for ever…

News: Turn Your Cards Back Into Trees

2010-01-29T11:53:07Z

Back of envelope this, but … two and a half thousand Generous members times, say, 30 Christmas cards each, makes … 75,000 Christmas cards. All ready to recycle. Here’s how.

Take down your cards from the mantelpiece, unpin the drawing pins holding up the string on which they sway below your ceiling, take a final, lingering look at the names of all those people you forgot to drop a card to … and bag them up and head to M&S. Or WH Smith. Or TK Max.

Drop your cards into the special bins provided in their stores through January and, in partnership with The Woodland Trust, they’ll be turned into thousands of new trees. There’s a clever little graphic here which explains how it works.

And then you’ll have gone Generous so you can tick off this Generous action here.

News: Act for Copenhagen

2009-11-30T16:50:17Z

With a surprising amount of political momentum generated at the Commonwealth Conference in Trinidad, hopes are picking up again for an agreement that might mean lasting change being made in Copenhagen in just a few days time.

Here’s just one way that you can play your part in keeping the pressure up:

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. Make it one of your Generous actions here.

And in case you think the jury’s still out on climate change and you live in the UK, consider one of our wettest, warmest Novembers ever – a month when in many parts of the country there’s been rain of some sort or another on literally every day. Also, take a listen to the Iona Community’s John Bell’s Generous ‘Thought for the Day’ in the aftermath of the devastating Cumbrian floods.

News: Buy Nothing Day - 28.11.09

2009-11-26T11:34:50Z

This Saturday, November 28th, is Buy Nothing Day (UK). It’s a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple: for 24 hours you will detox from shopping and anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!

Click here for more.

Make it one of your Generous actions here.

News: Terminating TVs?

2009-11-22T20:58:26Z

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has praised his State’s legislature for passing new regulations that will require manufacturers of LCD and plasma televisions to meet progressively stricter energy guidelines, starting in 2011.

The average plasma screen TV uses more than three times the power as an old-style, bulky cathode ray tube TV. And as televisions account for about 10 per cent of a home’s electricity use, it is estimated that people will use 8 per cent more electricity a year as they switch to these larger, flatscreen televisions.

The television industry in the States was understandably opposed the new regulations but environmental groups reckon the new rules could save the State of California a whopping 1 billion dollars a year.

Flickr photosource – thanks Adam

News: Hire stakes

2009-11-05T14:11:57Z

Britain should become a ‘hire society’ rather than a ‘throw away’ society says WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), the Government’s waste watchdog.

In a remarkably Generous-sounding report, the first ever study on how cutting waste can help the UK meet ambitious climate change targets, found that ordinary people (that’s you and me) could save a huge amount of carbon dioxide simply by consuming less. And that’s something we’ve been advocating here at Generous for years now.

But what we hadn’t gone onto to do, and what this same report highlights, is to realise that thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide could also be saved by hiring goods rather than buying things brand new. Especially as around a third of all products that are thrown away are still working.

Liz Goodwin, the Chief Executive of WRAP, said that it’s our buying behaviour and waste reduction taken together that are the “secret weapon” in combatting climate change. She goes on: “Until now, making best use of our natural resources has not been high enough on the agenda as one of the contributors to meeting climate change targets.”

We say that it sounds like a government watchdog has woken up to the positive impact that a Generous life can have.

Click here to read more of Louise Gray’s report on the findings in the Telegraph.

Related news
Waste not want not

Related actions
There are lots and lots of Generous actions around recycling, re-using and reducing. Just use the ‘Search’ facility on the site to browse through them and sign up. And we’ll try and get an action up soon about hiring not buying.

Flickr photosource – thanks Maol.

News: Climate Change Academies

2009-10-21T12:54:08Z

During the last two weeks of October and in conjunction with the Festival of Learning and Energy Saving Week 2009, the Energy Saving Trust are holding nine FREE ‘Climate Change Academies’ (workshops) across England to explain what climate change is and help show what can be done in people’s own homes to save the planet (and save money on their energy bills!).

Each ‘academy’ will run as a workshop on a ‘first come, first served’ basis from 10 – 3.30pm (FREE lunch provided) with three sections in each:

What is climate change…and why save energy?
What can I do today?
What can I do next, ie solar power, forming a green community etc?

Dates/times

Wed 21 Oct
The Window, 13 Windsor Street, Islington, London, N1 8QG
Thursday 22 October
County Hotel by Thistle, Neville Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 5DF
Friday 23 October
The Castle Green Hotel in Kendal, Cumbria, LA9 6RG
Tuesday 27 October
Royal York Hotel & Events Centre, Station Road, York, YO24 1AA
Tuesday 27 October
MWB Business Exchange, 1 Farnham Road, Guildford, GU2 4RG
Wednesday 28 October
Hilton Nottingham, Milton Street, Nottingham, BG1 3PZ
Thursday 29 October
Novotel Birmingham Centre, 70 Broad Street, Birmingham, B1 2HT
Thursday 29 October
The Southville Centre, Beauley Road, Bristol, BS3 1QG

How to book

To book a place on a ‘Climate Change Academy’ near you, contact Kirsty Mitchell at the Centre for Sustainable Energy by email on kirsty.mitchell@cse.org.uk. Call Kirsty on 0117 934 1400 with any enquiries. Children welcome.

For more info
Click here

Related actions
Improve your home’s energy efficiency

News: World Food Day - 16.10.09

2009-10-16T09:14:18Z

There are now a billion malnourished people in the world, meaning that almost one sixth of humanity is suffering from hunger. World Food Day offers an opportunity to learn more about the world’s hunger and to join the fight against it. You can start to help fight hunger simply by being informed and spreading the word.

But, for all you Generous-minded people out there, there’s so much more we could do. Here are just 10 things that the World Food Programme ask you to consider today.

Meanwhile, ActionAid’s latest report on world hunger says that Luxembourg is trying hardest to end global hunger, while The US and New Zealand rank bottom. Read more about their report here.

And the UN warns that targets to cut the number of hungry people in the world will not be met without greater international effort. It says the number of hungry people was growing before the economic crisis, which has made the situation worse.

“No nation is immune and, as usual, it is the poorest countries and the poorest people that are suffering the most,” said the annual report of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme. The FAO says Asia and the Pacific has the largest number of hungry people – 642 million – followed by Sub-Saharan Africa with 265 million.

Related websites
Click here for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization website.
Click here for the World Food Programme’s website.

Related Generous news and actions
News: Global food crisis can be helped by eating less meat
Action: Choose to have a meat-free day at home each week
News: Don’t waste your food
Action: Give thanks before a meal

News: Right Royal Common Sense

2009-09-22T15:09:05Z

He has two Jaguars, two Audis, a Range Rover and an Aston Martin given to him by the Queen on his 21st birthday, but Prince Charles says it’s ‘time to end the domination of the car over the pedestrian.’ Well done your highness and it would be even more royally right-on if you publically warehoused some of your cars for good. We dare you!

The Daily Telegraph reports that the principle of “elevating the pedestrian above the car” was one of the guiding factors of Poundbury – Prince Charles’s model development in Dorset. The importance of “pedestrian friendly public space” is central to the Poundbury ethos.

This kind of public transport-oriented development is fundamental to achieving the ultimate goal of a low carbon community, and it is very likely that such communities, far from being austere, will actually become the sought-after places where people will choose to live and spend their time.”

The Prince, in a foreword to a report Building for the Future, also highlighted how green building materials could help tackle the problem of climate change.

He said that his architectural charity – the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment – was creating a “natural house” using green materials such as clay blocks and sheep’s wool for insulation. It is taking shape at the Building Research Establishment’s Innovation Park in Watford.

In his article, the Prince said: “The natural house will raise important findings about true sustainability that I hope will be useful to a building industry facing root-and-branch change in the next few years.

“I am sure that well-informed consumers will demand more of their new homes – not only energy efficiency, but attractive, spacious and natural constituent parts of real communities.”

Read the article in full here.

Flickr photosource – thanks roger g1

News: Trustees worth their weight in gold

2009-07-13T14:14:17Z

Doesn’t sound that glamorous or world changing, does it? But 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.

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.

To read more about this, click here to visit the Philanthropy Capital website.

Make this a Generous action of yours here.

Flickr photosource – thanks Cheg