Portsmouth Goes Generous 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.

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.

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.

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

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.