Sustainable choices and lifestyle edits can go a long way to reducing your impact and saving money. Courtney Holm recommends creating simple systems that help to make those changes stick
Here are my top tips to get you started making simple edits to reduce your environmental footprint and save those valuable pounds. We are fortunate in the UK to have renewable energy infrastructure. The amount of renewable energy available from the grid fluctuates, but in Q1 2024 more than 50% of the UK’s energy mix came from renewable sources.
A great place to start to reduce your environmental footprint is to switch to a renewable energy tariff. While this does not always mean
that 100% of your electricity will be renewable, it does mean that a good percentage will be and that the energy supplier will buy enough renewable electricity from the network to match your estimated use.
Green tariffs also encourage more renewable investment. As an added bonus, most clean tariffs are less expensive and some have off peak rates, so you can (with your smart meter) understand which activities are using the most energy, e.g., dishwasher or laundry, and do those in the evenings when the electricity costs less.
The kitchen may be the heart of the home, but food is a big contributor to your family’s environmental footprint. One of the easiest ways to reduce your impact is to edit your diet; eating seasonally, buying locally or UK grown produce, eating more plant-based proteins, like beans, sweet potatoes and pumpkin seeds, all can go a long way to reducing food miles, preventing de-forestation, saving you money and improving your health.
Preventing food waste by introducing simple systems is also an excellent way to reduce your impact and stop wasting money. The first system is meal planning, simply decide which meals you are going to make and make a shopping list (stick to it!) – this will ensure that the food you purchase gets used. The second system is food storage. Save those glass jars and use them to store your fruit and vegetables in the refrigerator.
For example, strawberries can last up to two weeks if they are stored in glass containers. Doing laundry is energy intensive, so it’s important to focus on efficiency to lessen your impact. Most of our clothes don’t get that dirty, so washing less often not only reduces energy and water use, it also makes our clothes last longer. When you do need to do a few loads, make sure they are full and that you use cold temperatures.
The bathroom is also an energy and water thirsty hot spot. As a mom, I know that your daily shower can feel like a spa break, but those long hot showers have a financial and environmental impact. Your daily 20-minute hot shower could be costing up £5 a week - that’s £260 a year. Even with a low flow shower head, one 20-minute shower uses about 200 litres of water, that’s 73,000 litres of water every year. Taking shorter, cooler showers is an easy way to reduce your carbon and water footprint. My top tip for showering includes turning off the water in between ‘activities’. For example, while you are washing your hair, soaping up or shaving.
Your closet has a surprisingly high environmental and social footprint. The fashion and textile industry represents 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 20 per cent of wastewater. The most sustainable choice you can make is to love and care for the clothes and shoes you already have, but if you do need to buy something new, buy second hand. If that is not practical, steer clear of fast fashion, and purchase the highest quality you can afford. The value chain ends with you, and an alarming 30% of unwanted clothes in the UK end up in landfill, so when you do clean out your wardrobe, either sell, donate or recycle those unwanted items.
On a slightly different note, UK insect populations have severely declined since the 1970s. While scientists attribute pesticide use and drought as major contributing factors, our gardens, no matter what size, provide an opportunity to improve biodiversity of insect populations.
There are two simple things that you can do to provide a hospitable habitat for pollinators and insect species. The first is to plant native perennials and the second is to not use pesticides.
These tips are practical and simple ways to reduce your footprint, but there are many other things you can do.
If you’d like to learn more please visit: www.theholmedit.com
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