THEY tried to make me go to green rehab, but I said no, no, no. By 'they' I mean the voices in my head. Okay, so I'm exaggerating. It's just one voice, my own personal Jiminy Cricket. The voice that says, "Don't just stack jars and bottles next to the fridge. Get up, put on some shoes and take them to the recycling bank."
If your eco-conscience is bothering you, you're not alone. Several studies conducted in recent months have shown that while many of us desperately want to be green, when it comes down to actually installing a composting toilet, we're a little less pa
ssionate. One survey, by Hyder Consulting, found that although 86% of people worry about the environment, less than half of those questioned were prepared to make lifestyle changes, such as reducing their water consumption. In short, the survey concluded, we are a nation of 'armchair ecologists'. There's something reassuring about finding out you're not the only person who's too lazy to be eco-friendly.
Some will blame our 'busy modern lifestyles'. I don't have one of those, but they do sound exhausting. Others just don't care, taking the 'by the time the polar ice is floating down the high street I'll be dead and buried' approach. How self-centred. But for those of us with green intentions, how do we drag ourselves out of apathy and into action?
The truth is we don't even need to leave our armchairs to be green. Get your laptop out and prepare to transform your life. First, swap to that green energy tariff, a favourite move of every big corporation that wants to look eco-aware. Log on to www.greenelectricity.org for details; the options vary from companies that produce all their energy from renewable sources to others that plant a few trees now and then, so read the small print. Just a click of the mouse and the transformation from dreamer to doer has begun.
Next, that tree-planting business. Don't worry about putting on wellies and grabbing a spade, just click on www.climatecare.org or www.treeforall.org.uk, enter your credit card details and let someone else do the hard work. Your carbon footprint is dissolving by the minute.
While you're on a roll, log on to activist websites such as Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth and add your name to some 'stop climate change' petitions. How easy is this?
Having surfed the net, you'll have discovered that leaving appliances on standby is an absolute no-no (it creates a million tonnes of greenhouse gases every year in the UK). But as any lazy green will tell you, we're not about to go back to the old days of walking round the house switching everything off at the mains. Instead, invest in a gadget such as a Bye Bye Standby (£19.99, www.ethical superstore.com) and you can switch all your electricals off without ever leaving the sofa.
The good news about being lazy is that in some ways it's inherently green. Can't be bothered doing the dishes or taking a shower? Celebrate the water you're saving. Other green actions really don't hurt a bit, such as washing your clothes at 30ûC - all the new soap powders claim to shift stains at low temperatures, so give it a go. Then it's time to turn down the thermostat by 1ûC and reduce your annual heating bill by 10%. This one sounds easy, but I haven't a clue where the thermostat is. Once I've summoned the enthusiasm to find the instruction manual for the boiler I'll sort that out. Right away. Honest.
Be greener
Use a smart meter
See how much energy you're using (and how much CO2 you're causing) by investing in an Efergy Smart Meter (
www.greenshop.co.uk) or the super-stylish Wattson (
www.diykyoto.com). You can watch your consumption in energy units or pounds, whichever worries you more.
Go on a diet
As well as the energy diet, resist two-for-one deals on food. The average household spends £424 on food that ends up getting thrown out, goes to a landfill and produces methane.
The full article contains 702 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
