www.everythingsgonegreen.co.uk

Today sees the publication of the Stern Review’s final report; the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change.

Commissioned by the UK government, the Stern Review is an independent report to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the effects of Climate Change on Economics. The full report is available in PDF from HM Treasury website with hard copies available to purchase from December 2006.

The most important message from the report is in its summary:

There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we take strong action now.

And what are those impacts detailed in the report?

Well basically, Sir Nicholas Stern’s report indicates that continued pollution from carbon emmissions resulting in rising temperatures & rising sea levels will affect the most poor countries of the world, in turn being the potential cause of mass economic and environmental migration. In short, if climate change goes unchecked it could result in the world economy taking a dip by 20%, leading to a global recession.

The good news is that if the leaders of the world take strong and positive action now then it may only take 1% of GDP to arrest the negative trend in climate change. Green options for renewable energy do exist and it really is time to do something about climate change before it’s too late.

It’s Light Savers Day and one of the easiest actions that everyone can make is to replace the lightbulbs in the home (and business too) with energy-saving lightbulbs.

Energy-saving bulbs use less wattage, typically 80% less electricity, to produce a similar brightness of light. In addition they also last 12 times longer than your old lightbulbs!

For more information take a look at lightbulbs-direct.com

If you’re in your mid-life years, we’re sorry… this isn’t about turning back the clock…

Today, as part of the EST’s Energy Saving Week, it’s “Turn to 30 Day” which means simply… when you do your washing, use the 30°C wash cycle.

Now, we gotta say that doing every wash at 40°C is fine, we’ve never done a “boil wash” ever, but we can’t go any lower than 40°C, so maybe when our highly efficient Zanussi needs replacing we’ll go for a more capable model

Continuing Energy Saving Week, it’s Green Wheels Day today and the Energy Savings Trust are promoting green driving tips to reduce CO2 emissions such as:

1. Change gear at no higher than 2,500rpm or 2,000rpm on a diesel
2. Sticking to the 70mph speed limit – at 85 mph you apparently use 25% more fuel
3. Drive smoothly, cruising in higher gears whenever you can
4. Use your air con less (We’d say if it’s hot open your windows )
5. Turn off your engine if you’re going to be stationary for periods over a minute
6. Share car journies wherever possible
7. Remove roof racks, bike racks and travel boxes – air resistanc reduces fuel consumption
8. Service your car regularly (change oil, plugs & air filter) and keep your tyres’ air pressure correct

So, that’s what you should be doing if you really have to use the car, otherwise we’d recommend;

1. Staying at home
2. Walking
3. Cycling
4. Taking the bus
5. Buying a Toyota Prius, a Smart Car (personally we fancy the Smart Forfour Diesel) or something…

Would you believe it… today is Boil Better Day?

As part of Energy Saving Week the Energy Saving Trust are promoting that we all use a little less water in our kettles – by only boiling as much water as you need rather than “filling the kettle” we can all be a bit more energy efficient, save energy & save money by simply boiling better.

Right, that’s made me thirsty, I’m off to make a cup of tea…

Just in case you didn’t know it’s Energy Saving Week

The Energy Savings Trust is kicking off the week with today, Monday, being “Buy better day” meaning that if you’re off out to buy yourself a new fridge (on a Monday?) then make sure it’s got an Energy Saving Recommended logo!

See the Energy Saving Recommended products.

Or so they say on the frontpage of the Tesla Motors website.The latest buzz in the green car community is the Tesla Roadster; a sleek sports car that’s quick & fast and totally electric powered.

Historically most electric-powered cars have a reputation for being slow or ugly. Or both. But this Tesla Roadster is no slouch and it looks good too: which isn’t surprising considering it’s based on a Tesla-specified Lotus Elise chassis, has a number of Lotus Elise parts and is assembled at Lotus’s Hethel factory near Norwich. Gorgeous.
So, it looks great, but how does it perform?

Well, Tesla boast that their Roadster is capable of 130+mph and gets from 0-60mph on around 4 seconds. What’s more is that it has a peak 248hp and only weighs 1200kg. Not bad at all for an electric car. And add to that the 250 miles between charges, that’s pretty smart. And having all that Lotus-engineered suspension it probably handles somewhat too.
Want one? Yes, thought you might. We’d have one too, but the limited edition Tesla Signature One Hundred Roadsters have sold out all ready. And if you want your very own Tesla Roadster they’re taking orders for the next batch of 100 electric rockets, so get your $25,000 deposit down and don’t forget to cough up the $75,000 balance on delivery. That’s a lot of money, even in England, but I bet it’s a lot of fun too. And pretty green by the sound of things.

An email from B&Q just popped into our inbox this morning entitled “GO GREEN without going into the red” from those UK giants of home DIY B&Q. They state that

“an average UK house produces enough carbon emmissions in a year to fill six hot air balloons”

…and then they offer a number of solutions to help bring that figure down.

Now, the DIY trade isn’t normally known for it’s eco-awareness, so for a “high-street” company as high-profile as B&Q to encourage people to buy into the green way of life is very welcome.

They’re offering solar water heating panels from £1498, Windsave wind turbines at £1498 including fitting, loft insulation on a BOGOF offer (though not environmentally friendly loft insulation by the look of things) and efficient modern radiators & towel rails.

At last, the compost bin turned up.

After 10 whole weeks without one, after graciously leaving the other one behind at the last place, we now have our very own 330 litre compost bin. Whoopee.

And it was worth the wait because it was a good price and it’s HUGE too.

The local council were offering these composters at a discount; so we ordered direct from the manufacturers, quoted the promotional code and save a few pence too – the money we saved allowed us to get a water butt to collect our rainwater.

So, visit evengreener.com and, right now (at the time of publishing) you can get a 220 litre compost bin for £30 (that’s £10 off the RRP) and the 330 litre compost bin, like ours for just £40 (normally retails for £50) They even do a 130 litre mini-composter and a really cool beehive wooden composter.

Now all we have to do is transfer all the old material we stored in a far-flung corner of the garden to our new composter…