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Before You Turn the Heating Back On: Give Your Home an Autumn Energy MOT

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  Before You Turn the Heating Back On: Give Your Home an Autumn Energy MOT The cheapest unit of winter energy is the one your house doesn't need. September is a curious month. One day the windows are open and the afternoon still feels like summer. A few days later, you walk downstairs first thing in the morning and notice that unmistakable chill in the house. And then comes the temptation. Turn the heating on. There is nothing wrong with using heating when we need it. Going green should not mean sitting in a cold house wearing three jumpers and feeling miserable. But before we start paying to put heat into our homes again, perhaps we should spend an hour finding out how much of that heat is likely to stay there. That is the purpose of an Autumn Energy MOT . Not a major renovation. Not a £20,000 technology project. Not a lecture about replacing everything you own. Just a systematic walk around the house asking: Is my home ready to use energy efficiently this winter? Start Before the...
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Are We Consuming Too Much of Everything—not Just Energy?

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  Are We Consuming Too Much of Everything—not Just Energy? What if becoming greener isn't about adding more green products to our lives—but discovering how much we don't actually need? When we talk about Going Green, the conversation very quickly turns towards energy. We discuss electricity. Gas. Petrol. Solar panels. Heat pumps. Electric cars. Insulation. And all of those things matter. But I increasingly wonder whether energy consumption is only one part of a much bigger question. Are we simply consuming too much of almost everything? Not because most of us are deliberately wasteful. Not because enjoying possessions, holidays, technology or good food is somehow wrong. But because over several decades we seem to have quietly connected two ideas that are not necessarily the same: Living better. and Consuming more. Perhaps it is worth separating them again. When Did "More" Become the Default? Look around an ordinary modern home and compare it with one from perhaps 40 o...
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The Green Commute Challenge: Could You Leave the Car at Home One Day a Week?

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  The Green Commute Challenge: Could You Leave the Car at Home One Day a Week? Don't sell the car. Just see what happens if you don't use it tomorrow. When we talk about greener transport, the discussion can become extreme surprisingly quickly. Apparently, we must choose sides. Keep driving everywhere and we don't care about the environment. Give up the car completely and somehow reorganise our entire lives around bicycles, buses and railway timetables. But for most people, neither position is particularly useful. A car can be enormously convenient. For some people it is essential. If you live in a rural area, work unusual hours, carry equipment, have mobility difficulties, take children to school or simply live somewhere with poor public transport, abandoning the car may be completely unrealistic. So I am not proposing that. Instead, I have a much smaller experiment. Could you leave the car at home for just one working day each week? Not forever. Not even every day. Just o...
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