Author Topic: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact  (Read 16936 times)

Mrs Pingu

  • Who ate all the pies? Me
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Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #125 on: 16 January, 2020, 08:41:59 pm »
But does 30 mins washing get clothes clean?
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #126 on: 16 January, 2020, 09:31:07 pm »
.......................for example only virgin plastic can be in contact with food.....................

I'm not entirely sure about this boab. In a previous job I had a customer who recycled milk cartons and the resulting pellets went to make more milk cartons. Ironically, they're based up your way.

But, like you
Quote
I'm no expert,


Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #127 on: 16 January, 2020, 09:39:39 pm »
But does 30 mins washing get clothes clean?
They didn't actually test that...
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #128 on: 16 January, 2020, 11:19:49 pm »
Held a meeting looking at what our town can do to ameliorate the claimte emergency. Second part of the meeting next week.

It is simpler than it looks.

ian

Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #129 on: 17 January, 2020, 09:27:46 am »
Held a meeting looking at what our town can do to ameliorate the claimte emergency. Second part of the meeting next week.

Surely you could push it out till 2030?

Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #130 on: 17 January, 2020, 07:57:34 pm »
Oh well.

My wife has flown down to Cornwall for a funeral (the trains were going to cost more than twice as much and be impractical in terms of times - you generally don't get enough advance notice of funerals in order to be able to book the cheap advance fares).

My sister-in-law is taking our daughter down to Cornwall for part of half term, by plane.

(Yes those are both FlyBE. Personally I think APD should have been ringfenced but it's standard business tactics to pay the Government last and then negotiate when you can't make those payments.)

I'm going skiing in early Feb.

Of course, all 3 trips aren't entirely necessary, we could just choose not to do them.

But that's all 3 of us blowing our "one short haul return flight a year" in almost the first month. Luckily we don't have plans to do any other flying the rest of the year, we'll go to France in the summer by train again, and I'm looking into skiing next year by train.

In other news, we do most of our washing at 30 degrees on the rapid (30 minute) cycle, seems good enough for us, but it is only a half load (3.5kg). Not entirely sure it uses half the water or half the energy of a full 100 minute wash (which can take a full 7kg load, which we do at 30 deg C too) so it may be a false economy.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Phil W

Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #131 on: 17 January, 2020, 08:13:47 pm »
Getting to French ski resorts by train is easy once you’ve got to London. We just used Euro Star to Paris then TGV from there in the past.  We’d have lunch in Paris on the way. We also got 15% off the cost from the ski company which offset any costs above that of flying.

Phil W

Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #132 on: 17 January, 2020, 08:18:04 pm »
Had my car MOTD this week.  Mileage last couple of years has been around 4,000 miles. It was 1900 miles for the last year.  Car is 10 years old so will keep running it. If UK transport was integrated I’d get rid of it, But transporting a bike on public transport is shit or not possible. Still remember seeing bike racks on the back of Vancouver buses back in 2000 and thinking what a great idea.

Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #133 on: 18 January, 2020, 10:15:42 am »
Getting to French ski resorts by train is easy once you’ve got to London. We just used Euro Star to Paris then TGV from there in the past.  We’d have lunch in Paris on the way. We also got 15% off the cost from the ski company which offset any costs above that of flying.

Absolutely. Its the £300 return ticket (2nd class) per person to get to London and the night in a hotel in London as the Eurostar train departure times for such things are usually too early in the morning that buggers it up for those of us North of Watford or in the West Country.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

simonp

Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #134 on: 18 January, 2020, 11:55:34 am »
Getting to Paris-Brest-Paris with the coach was about a 12h trip. It's obvious why people fly.

Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #135 on: 18 January, 2020, 12:59:15 pm »
There is also a load of non joined up thinking and policy. North Yorkshire Council for example keep running recycling campaigns encouraging everyone to recycle everything but then their own schools send all their waste paper (which there is an enormous amount of obviously) to landfill as they get charged as businesses by the council (which they have no budget for) if they want to recycle it. Bonkers.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #136 on: 18 January, 2020, 01:08:41 pm »
In re bonkers the best I've seen was when a professional-training bunch I had for a client had new brochures printed.  Boss had a look at them; the conversation went roughly like this:

- We're supposed to set environmentally-responsible standards, and that means not printing brochures on brand-new paper. Junk the lot and reprint them on recycled stuff.

- That is recycled stuff.

- It doesn't look recycled enough. Junk the lot and reprint them on something a bit grey.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #137 on: 18 January, 2020, 07:29:18 pm »
Never had a driving lesson, let alone driven a car.
Vegan.
Electricity tariff that is 100% renewable.
Home thermostats set low.
My personal budget is £300 a year, so I reduce/reuse/upcycle/skip-dive as my first option.
Re-usable batteries about the house is my 2020 resolution.
Recycle.
In the last year I have taken two flights, once to see my dad before he died and once for his funeral.

Some points to debate:
* A complete carbon cost analysis suggests that some imports are lower CO2 cost than buying local (more than one source on this - the one interesting thing I read in "Greedy Man in a Hungry World" by J Rayner).
* If we don't procreate then the next generation will be the children of non-cyclists and they will inherit/destroy the earth.  Even with three kids, the fact that we are vegan (kids veggie), car free and on a renewable tariff means that our footprint is smaller than a couple with no kids, one car and omnivorous diet (let alone two cars and holidays to Spain).
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

Phil W

Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #138 on: 18 January, 2020, 07:55:14 pm »
There is also a load of non joined up thinking and policy. North Yorkshire Council for example keep running recycling campaigns encouraging everyone to recycle everything but then their own schools send all their waste paper (which there is an enormous amount of obviously) to landfill as they get charged as businesses by the council (which they have no budget for) if they want to recycle it. Bonkers.

The three arrows also represent reduce, reuse, recycle.  Only the latter gets focus when the former ought to be considered first.

Ben T

Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #139 on: 18 January, 2020, 10:46:31 pm »
In re bonkers the best I've seen was when a professional-training bunch I had for a client had new brochures printed.  Boss had a look at them; the conversation went roughly like this:

- We're supposed to set environmentally-responsible standards, and that means not printing brochures on brand-new paper. Junk the lot and reprint them on recycled stuff.

- That is recycled stuff.

- It doesn't look recycled enough. Junk the lot and reprint them on something a bit grey.

At a well known energy company I used to work at, one woman reported seeing the blue, green, red, grey and yellow (basically all of them) recycling bins all being emptied into the same bin lorry.

I also once overheard an approx 10 year old girl, of fairly well to do parents, proudly declaring that she was going to throw away her plastic toothbrush, in order to get a bamboo one.  :facepalm:

IanDG

  • The p*** artist formerly known as 'Windy'
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Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #140 on: 18 January, 2020, 11:34:10 pm »
Bought a cottage that we thought change the kitchen and bathroom and move in  but end up ripping it all apart because there's no insulation. Will be fully insulated when we move in hopefully reducing the energy requirement of the previous owner.

Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #141 on: 19 January, 2020, 07:20:58 am »

ours mains water varies from around 6°c in the winter to 16 in the summer (record high of 17.5)(min 4.4)

I have no idea what temp our storage tank is throughout the year but considering the energy involved in heating water there could be savings made from selecting between main and storage to make use of the warmest.

Interesting point.  We have a pressurised hot water cylinder (megaflo) that takes water directly from the mains.  It would use less energy to have a second pressurised cylinder to hold water to allow it to warm up to ambient temperature (in our unheated but warm garage) then use that to feed the boiler.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #142 on: 19 January, 2020, 09:08:37 am »
A large distinction between professional and personal,

Personal
- never owned a new car, so reducing embedded carbon usage. Current car is sixteen years old, and dying, but will need replacing which will be second hand again. I only do about 3-4,000 miles a year in it, so fuel economy is not a major consideration - I'd happily pay more for road transport fuel for an additional green levy. Try and cycle for transport as much as possible, but not to the extremes of self-flaggellation
- food, buy as much as I can on the market, eggs from a farm within an hours cycle from me, veggies even closer. I'd happily buy all my fruit and veg like that, and I genuinely think English produce is amongst the best and enjoy the seasonality.  Mrs ED happily ocados blueberries from Peru.
- meat, very much reduced but I do have a weakness for cheese
- last couple of holidays I've had in the UK, by car. Mrs Ed has flown, she doesn't like bikes or camping. This year will be a family holiday in Europe.
- solar PV on the house which heats the hot water tank before exporting to the grid. Perversely ends up with higher tumble dryer use, when the sun is shining, free electric after all.

Work is a bit trickier, not many people in my company qualified to do what I do, so when we have BigOil in Australia wanting to use us, do we just say no, its not within our environmental policy, or rationalise on the basis that I'm there to help them reduce their environmental footprint? Then the new job, helping companies including BigGas reduce their own energy usage, which is more environmentally friendly, allowing them to extract the gas more efficiently for someone else to burn it on a power station, though much more efficiently.

I've started taking the train to the airport, rather than sitting in the back if a taxi, unless its not logistically feasible. Trains to Aberdeen are marginal, OK to get there, mostly unfeasible home, so who pays for me to stay an extra night and catch the train in the morning?

I am however vastly impressed by the ingenuity of the industry sectors I mostly work in, with some definitely out of the box thinking, ahead of regulation. Mostly now being driven by science, economics and public perception, extinction rebellion not included mostly because they simply have no idea how to even start implementing what they state they want. I'm pretty sure technology will save us, but I may not be around to see it, I'd like to see a government initiating a personal cap and trade scheme, individual carbon budgets, emit more if you like, but you buy the excess on the market. I can't see it happening though, electoral suicide.
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

rob

Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #143 on: 19 January, 2020, 08:18:05 pm »
I’m having more of a problem with work.  I look after wholesale power, gas, carbon and renewable credits.  I’ve done some interesting deals in the renewable/greentech space, but we’ve also missed a few as management take a very traditional view and aren’t really interested.

What I’m finding harder to deal with is that we are expanding our coal business and doing more physical oil and refined products.  Also we’re getting into palm oil and I’m deeply uncomfortable with that. 

Leaving would be biting off my nose to spite my face financially but I’ll have to take a call at some point.

Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #144 on: 20 January, 2020, 11:54:49 am »
I’m having more of a problem with work.  I look after wholesale power, gas, carbon and renewable credits.  I’ve done some interesting deals in the renewable/greentech space, but we’ve also missed a few as management take a very traditional view and aren’t really interested.

What I’m finding harder to deal with is that we are expanding our coal business and doing more physical oil and refined products.  Also we’re getting into palm oil and I’m deeply uncomfortable with that. 

Leaving would be biting off my nose to spite my face financially but I’ll have to take a call at some point.

That's a tough one Rob.  You know I'm in the same industry and worked for E.ON throughout the time they were planning on building a replacement coal plant at Kingsnorth which they eventually shelved.  Whilst they are doing a lot of good stuff now, a lot of it is still lip-service/greenwash. I eventually got out and set myself up as a one man energy consultancy taking on business on my own terms and making consistent decisions about the standards I set, including re-investing my pension into ethical/zero fossil funds.
Ultimately, the sooner we make principled decisions as individuals, the sooner things will change.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #145 on: 20 January, 2020, 01:33:24 pm »
I’m having more of a problem with work.  I look after wholesale power, gas, carbon and renewable credits.  I’ve done some interesting deals in the renewable/greentech space, but we’ve also missed a few as management take a very traditional view and aren’t really interested.

What I’m finding harder to deal with is that we are expanding our coal business and doing more physical oil and refined products.  Also we’re getting into palm oil and I’m deeply uncomfortable with that. 

Leaving would be biting off my nose to spite my face financially but I’ll have to take a call at some point.

That's a tough one Rob.  You know I'm in the same industry and worked for E.ON throughout the time they were planning on building a replacement coal plant at Kingsnorth which they eventually shelved.  Whilst they are doing a lot of good stuff now, a lot of it is still lip-service/greenwash. I eventually got out and set myself up as a one man energy consultancy taking on business on my own terms and making consistent decisions about the standards I set, including re-investing my pension into ethical/zero fossil funds.
Ultimately, the sooner we make principled decisions as individuals, the sooner things will change.

I'm interested as another working in a similar field, how you view my post? Should I be able to intellectually rationalise my work travel on the basis that I'm helping clients be better?
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #146 on: 20 January, 2020, 04:18:32 pm »
I too wrestle with a balance between having serious eco-principles and needing to feed my family.  I take each job on a case by case basis, motivated less by money generally and more (in no particular order) by whether (a) the job interests me or gives me a learning opportunity or chance of further work, (b) I have other ongoing work or not and (c) the potential employer is evil.  The deciding factor is usually whether or not I think my work has value which serves the long-term interests of the planet.  It it helps nudge a company to be less environmentally harmful then it serves a purpose.  However, I'd rather be working for a client who is leading the charge to net zero than one who is unprepared to take bold steps in line with the seriousness of the climate crisis.
Bonus points to clients who are social in their goals/ownership structure etc.


ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #147 on: 20 January, 2020, 07:14:00 pm »
It's a tough choice isn't it. I probably have less freedom to act than you do in that respect, but it is at least partly behind my move. I want to work with companies that are taking this seriously and taking action for the right reasons. I have lost all interest in trying to drag clients along who are only interested in a rubber stamp of their compliance, its simply not enough these days.

The interesting one recently is a company that needed me to write a report on their energy an environmental management systems for a new project to produce various polymers from a gas stream that is currently flared.

I'm not convinced their route is the most efficient from a GHG perspective, but its better than the flaring
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

simonp

Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #148 on: 20 January, 2020, 07:27:22 pm »
Took my own container to the salad bar today.


Re: Changes You've Made that (Might) Have a Climate Impact
« Reply #149 on: 21 January, 2020, 10:04:18 am »
Work. Welll.

Intensive agriculture, dairy and pigs.
Construction - have you seen the emissions from concrete manufacture?
Widgets- relatively minor
Flavours-pointless shipping of toxic chemicals round the globe to add to processed food
Oils - rarely an ethical supply chain in the bulk supply
Wine packaging - utterly frivolous

Hmmm. I might as well have been in banking.