When I read last year that the North Pole was going to melt whatever we did, I decided I had to take action. My partner, Laura, and I have spent the last year trying to reduce our carbon footprint significantly. We now recycle about 80% of our household waste. That equates to a bag of general rubbish about once every two weeks. The compost bin was the biggest contributor to this. It’s quite amazing how much waste from the kitchen can be recycled in the garden or on a roof terrace.
We’ve virtually stopped using our car in favour of travelling by bicycle and train. We’re now thinking of getting rid of it altogether and joining one of Camden’s excellent car clubs (Google: Camden car club).
We’ve changed our electricity supplier to the renewable energy provider Good Energy (www.good-energy.co.uk). Our organic fruit and veg come once a week in a box from Abel & Cole (www.abel-cole.co.uk). We’ve cut down on meat consumption because the livestock industry uses so much energy. We’ve bought a water butt to collect rainwater from the down pipe on the outside of the house which we use to water the garden. We grow our herbs on the balcony and we refuse plastic bags in shops.
None of these things were too hard to do – although Laura found the composting a little disgusting! The really hard thing for us, as two professionals working in global industries, was cutting down on travelling by plane. We now pay a voluntary tax for all the carbon created when we fly using a charity called Climate Care which spends the money on environmental projects (www.climatecare.org), but we haven't yet persuaded our companies and clients to do the same. As Area Sales Manager for Northern Europe I can just about take trains and ferries to go about my daily business. Laura is putting her faith in greater use of video conferencing.
I firmly believe that people want to do more for the environment and would do more if they knew what to do. One of our manifesto commitments was to make the Council’s Energy Efficiency Dept much more proactive. We want to train advisors to go out to peoples’ homes and provide hard advice on what can be done, what grants are available and what the payback period would be for any significant investment. That’s the only way we’ll get a step change in energy efficiency – by actively helping people to understand what’s possible.
It’s not just that we have a moral and political imperative to act now for the benefit of future generations, we also have huge economic interest in pursuing the sustainability agenda. Using less energy or less packaging, recycling more, buying more renewable energy – all these things will reduce business and household costs over time.
The Camden Council Climate Change Action Plan (Google: Camden, climate plan) of January 2006 is a good starting point, but it’s only a starting point. I would like to see Camden generating or buying 100% of its electricity from renewable sources (as Woking does). Car parking permits could be priced according to the emission of a car. I would like to see more local, seasonal, organic food on sale in Camden at reasonable prices. Supermarkets need to be encouraged, cajoled or forced to change their energy wasting ways. I would like to see Camden introduce a Zero Waste strategy (as many UK councils have already done). Re-use of rainwater should be mandatory in all new planning applications – whether for a new building or a refurbished restaurant.
So much to do and so little time to do it in! With your support Camden’s new Sustainability Taskforce can make a difference. Our remit is to put life in Camden on a more sustainable footing. In the fight against global warming we will operate cross-department, cross-party and across Camden. We have to change as individuals and as a community. We need action from the top down and from the bottom up. We need to change our mindset, our behaviour, our systems and our values.
I’m looking forward to the challenge. If you have any suggestions, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
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