It's Friday, so I thought I'd extend the 'green gloat/green guilt' series to you, dear reader, to get an idea what shade of green hippyshopper fans really are.
All you need do to take part is tell me one green thing in your life that you're proud of. Have you got into the swing of cycling to work over the past few weeks? Successfully reduced your electricity bill by using clever gadgets or just switching things the hell off? But don't forget the second part of the question. Are you a bit of a hot water hog? Has the credit crunch caused you to ditch Fairtrade? Or perhaps you just can't stop shooting those polar bears....we all have habits we'd rather not admit to, but be honest here and I'll do my best to help you make a change. The hippyshopper environment surgery is now open!
I cycled to work three days out of five this week!
Normally, I do at least one day a week on the bike (so that I'm cutting my carbon by 20%), but this week I've managed to leave the car behind more. I was aiming for an 80% reduction this week (four out of five days) but I had to bring a Christmas tree to work this morning...
Perhaps next week I will do all five days by bike! :)
I've eaten out most of the days this week, which cuts down on the use of lighting and cooking in my home (the restaurant would be lit anyway, and they keep their hotplates switched on). I didn't eat anywhere so twee that it had candles, which is the major source of green house emissions at the dinner table.
As for being a green hog: it being cold and wet lately, I've been running in the gym. This means a treadmill is being powered just so I too can burn energy, which makes no sense at all. I simply reassure myself that if I was running outside more carbon emissions would be released by the ambulance rushing me to hospital once I'd been hit by a car, and my conscience is assuaged.
I also didn't shoot a polar bear this week. Yet.
Dinner parties at which we serve food with an average Food Miles score of about twelve feet - everything dug out of the garden that same afternoon - are probably my biggest green gloat. The fact that my in-laws are currently halfway through planting about twenty acres of forest in Northumberland comes a close second though - I know I can't claim any credit for it at all (beyond the odd helping hand at Xmas) but it gives me green hope that someone in my family is offsetting at least some of my ludicrous carbon output.
I have two green things I am proud of.
Firstly, our weekly rubbish amounts to less than 100gms.
Secondly I have just sold my beloved 4x4; which has been weighing heavy on my green conscience for a couple of years. My new cars is averaging 55 miles to the gallon.
My thumbs down come from an addiction to kitchen towel and the fact that I still use my car too much. I don't walk or cycle anywhere :(
Ben> I think that's pretty impressive! I have to ask though - why are you transporting Christmas trees in October?
Mrs Green> I think you've certainly got plenty to gloat about!
Forgive my ignorance, but what's un-green about a kitchen towel?
Abi> I think Ms Green means paper towels. They kill trees, are manufactured using bleach, take carbon to transport, etc... while the same tea-towels and dishcloths can be used in your kitchen for years, being washed alongside the ordinary laundry at no extra cost to the environment.