How can we help reduce climate change at work and at home?
One You East Sussex have been taking climate change and sustainability in to their own hands by reducing their single use plastic through the EcoBricks initiative! The video of Alex, below, explains how you can help in your office…
We asked Chrissie at One You Kensington and Chelsea what WE can do to help, here’s her 6 top tips!
Climate change has been hitting our news headlines a lot recently. From forest fires in the Amazon to ice caps melting, the world is showing us we need to start making sustainable changes to ensure we protect Earth as we know it for years to come.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
It can be easy to make climate change someone else’s problem, but there are some really easy things we can do at home or in the office that can make a big difference.
Try meat free Monday
Did you know one 200g beef burger needs up to 3000 litres of water to make? Take a day off meat and opt for some amazing veggie options! For example these veggie fajitas - https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/veggie-fajitas
Turns lights and plug switches off whenever you can in the office or at home
Ask for reusable water bottle or keep cup for Christmas - and take them wherever you go!
On average we use 7.7 billion plastic water bottles in the UK alone each year, which is about 175 bottles per person (taken from www.water.org.uk). A reusable coffee cup can save you money on your morning coffee (most coffee shops now offer a discount to people who bring their own) and a reusable water bottle can save you money too.
Educate yourself! Watch David Attenborough’s ‘Seven Worlds, One Planet’ on BBC or ‘Broken: Recyling Sham’ on Netflix to see the impact we have every day on our world…
If you don’t quite understand how a plastic straw or your toothbrush is impacting the planet you are not alone! One of the best things you can do to help climate change is to find out more about it and make it important to you.
Use your money as your voice!
Every day we choose where to spend our money, from high street shops to online retailers, and we can use our power to make ethical decisions from where we buy to what we buy.
Plastic packaging on food items are easy to buy and are thrown away instantly, but some plastics can take anywhere from 10 to 1000 years to degrade! Opt instead to buy food without or with less packaging. Many supermarkets are now offering fruit and vegetables without plastic packaging which can be a great way to start.
Fast fashion takes a high amount of water to produce items, and one washload of polyester clothes can release 700,000 microplastic fibres into the environment (The Guardian, 2019). Approximately half a million tonnes of these fibres end up in the sea – eaten by fish and then ultimately eaten by us! The ‘Pulse Fashion report’ also states in the industry in 2015 was responsible for 1,715 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
We can help by asking certain questions before we make fashion purchases….Do I need it? Do I already have something similar? When will I wear it? Could I get it second hand?
Remember that nobody is perfect!
Give one of these a try, and don’t worry if it doesn’t work out. We are only human and habits are hard to break! Think about which one would be easiest for you to do and start there.
