Creative self sufficiency (part 1 - introduction)

Being environmentally conscious, and/or self sufficient is not just about installing solar panels to your roof (although admirable), for those that are serious it also means you can get to try many creative activities too!

It gives you the opportunity of reconditioning items, turning old things into new and prolonging its life, or producing healthier alternatives than bought ones.

Such activities can include weaving, wine/beer or bread making. Making your own jewellery or candles, or even restoring old toys and furniture. There are countless hobbies, pastimes or projects that you can turn your hand to if you look around and put a little thought into it.

The benefits to you, your family, and the environment definitely worthwhile. Producing any of your own food, or wines for example means that you know exactly what you are eating or drinking. From a health perspective this is priceless.

Mass produced foodstuffs including simple things such as bread, not only contain hidden ingredients such as preservatives and other chemicals, they're also less nutritious than what you are able to make for yourself.

You can start small at first such as a simple pot of herbs growing on your kitchen window sill, and progress to having a whole section of your garden dedicated to growing your own fruit and vegetables. The flavours of home grown food can also taste so much better than those bought from your local supermarket.

Once you have grown it .. learn to cook with it (if you can't already!). Remember, start small, start simple, and build up slowly. There is no rush, just take everything one small step at a time and everything will eventually fall into place. Taking on too much in one go is one of the main reasons many people giveup or fail. They are overwhelmed. Yes it will require effort, but the rewards for your effort are so much greater all round.

You can turn old 'rubbish' into something new, restore it which will not only save you money, but also prevent you having to throw it out, adding to the increasing landfill. As well as the environmental benefits, you will become more creative and self sufficient in the process! This is the most creative form of recycling that you can partake in.

Doing any of these activities will give you a real sense of achievment - the satisfaction of producing or creating something for yourself. It will provide you with an interest, a hobby to persue, as well as the opportunity to share ideas with others or just show off your latest project!

This isn't a dated 'hippy' outlook, but a way of living that will help you to survive in this fast paced, modern age of waste, mass production, and disposable everything.

The next three or so articles will show you a few projects I have personally completed lately, including some how to's and photographs. This will hopefully give you some inspiration or ideas that you could try to help yourself and/or the environment.

These include making a 'new' necklace and bracelet from a broken wood bead necklace, breadmaking using a breadmaking machine (keeping it simple see!), to restoring an old footstall.

What's wrong with this picture.

If you have flash installed then take a look at this website, now I understand the sentiment, but using something that does possibly
3 miles to the gallon to promote it!

Does this seem strange to you, or is it just me? That is probably one of the most environmentally 'un-friendly' vehicles I know of, and in their own words to: 'raise awareness of environmental issues'! Can you say the word 'irony' Honda?

Save energy ... change colour!

Earlier in the month I talked about software, and whether it could be environmentally friendly. Well, staying on a techie theme, here is an interesting article from WinBeta that was passed on to me by a friend regarding the colour of web pages of all things!

The example given uses Google, but it applies to all web pages, and to be honest I was amazed!

An all white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts. See what happens when you do the math on Google's home page. Astounding.

So what does happen when you do the math? Click here for the full article.

Now what if all web pages were black or dark in colour ... just think how much energy that could save!

Can software be environmentally friendly?

Well, lets start off with a happy new year to you all!

I work in the IT industry, and have always had more than a passing interest in software ... or more precisely, free software. I think everybody loves something for nothing!

But what has this to do with being green, or environmentally friendly?

The answer to this can easily be seen by just walking around the software department of any large computer store ... PC World in the UK is a good example. You'll see row, upon row of big, bright colourful boxes, excessive plastic wrapping, and other eye catching gimmicks.

These boxes contain nothing more than a single disc, and perhaps a booklet or a manual, and yet most are large enough to hold perhaps 20, 30 discs or more!

It's rather sickening to think that the majority of this packaging will quickly end up in the bin as soon as the software gets into the home or office where it is going to be used. It is a dire waste of resources and materials, and all for the sake of self promotion.

It is intended to be big and brash so that the consumer is attracted to it. Unfortunately, its boldness is just such a waste. Even if you recycled most of the packaging, you still have the energy and resources expended to produce it, and spent again to recycle it.

This is where free software has the advantage. Unless it comes on a disc on the cover of a magazine, then you need to find it and download it from the Internet. The ecological advantage of this is now obvious - no waste from over ambitious packaging!

Now this is also true of commercial software or shareware that you can pay for online and download, but, as with most people, I prefer free when I can get it, and if I want a backup of the install file I just burn it to CD.

This brings us to our next problem - where to download from?

There are thousands of sites that you can download software from, the trouble is much of it is not free. It expires after 30 days, or useful features are crippled after a set length of time, or worse still, your computer gets infected with some malware, spyware or some other nasty! Another thing I have found in the past is that it's not always easy to find what you actually need, or there are a dozen titles that 'appear' to do what you want ... leaving you wondering which one do you download?

A good starting point for downloading safe free software is the Lessfuss Collection. It's free to join and has one perhaps two of any type of program considered to be the best of its kind currently available making your choice a lot easier. All of the programs are free to use forever, and they are also selected because they do not contain any adware, spyware, or malware.

Now, with broadband becoming more prevalent, I urge you all to download your software from now on instead of purchasing overly packaged 'boxed' versions. Yes, software can be green or at the very least 'greener' if you follow this advice. So get downloading, and leave those overly packed puddings on the shelf!

Green TV

green.tv is the first website to bring together films from a whole range of environmental organisations and independent filmmakers and make them available to anyone anywhere.

You'll need a broadband connection to take full advantage of the green.tv website, but if you do have, then it is well worth a visit.

It is currently still in beta, but the film quality is excellent and the information invaluable.

If you want to keep abreast of the environmental news worldwide, and prefer to 'watch' instead of read, then this site is really is the business.

Eco-friendly Electricity

So, you want to do your bit for the environment and use renewable energy, but you can't afford to install solar, wind, or other means of green power in your home - what can you do?

Well, there is something you can do, you can do it right now, and you can make a difference!

With the deregulation of the UK's energy market you can choose who supplies your electricity, and make your voice heard with your money.

"The other thing that not many people realise is that we can now all choose who supplies our electricity, and therefore how it's made, so wherever you live in the country you can actually choose to have your home or business supplied by clean energy. The funny thing is switching takes about five minutes but it's the biggest single step you can take to reduce your emissions and protect the environment."

There are several green suppliers about, but only one that stands out for value AND their future plans, and that company is Ecotricity. Why Ecotricity you may ask?
Well, Ecotricity was formed in 1996, and have so far (Q4 2005) invested in and constructed 11 windfarms with more at planning stage and construction starting on several other projects.
Just click the previous link and take a look! (link opens in new window).

"Wind is an abundant source of energy that will never run out. It's also the world's fastest growing energy source and in the UK we're lucky enough to have around 40%of Europe's wind resource, potentially enough to power the country 3 or 4 times over".

There are other 'green' suppliers including; Green Energy UK, and Good Energy, but both of these companies have 'bought into' the green energy market by purchasing existing renewable sources including wind and hydro (water) from other companies. Their actual investment in new projects has so far been zero. An interesting comparison of green and traditional suppliers (including their 'green' efforts) can be found at www.whichgreen.org.

Ecotricity promise to match the price of every regional supplier, so therefore it should cost you no more than you currently pay, they also promise to invest the profits from you back into renewable resources, therefore increasing the amount of UK energy produced by environmentally friendly means.

So make a difference now - change your electricity supplier to Ecotricity and you know you are not only making a difference, but your money is also being invested in all our futures.

Further interesting facts and figures regarding electricity and wind power can be downloaded from here . ( in PDF format - Free Adobe Acrobat Reader required: www.adobe.com )

Reducing Water Consumption

Freerain is a UK based company that specialises in what is called Rainwater Harvesting.

This is quite simply collecting the rainwater that falls onto your roof in a suitable tank for later use. The water passes through a primary filter before entering the tank, and is then pumped back out of the tank by a submergable pump when required.

Along with the environmental benefits and the cost of water steadily increasing in the UK, this is something that should not be overlooked. Freerain have completed many installations including contracts for the MoD. They have also recieved a water efficiency award from the Environment Agency in 2003, so are in a perfect position to advise or help you plan a suitable rainwater harvesting system for your chosen project.

Several different installations are available, depending on whether it is commercial or domestic property, the roof size, anual rainfall in the area, and for what purpose the water is needed. Water can even recieve additional filtering and UV sterilisation to provide drinking water in areas that may be remote enough to warrent such a set up.

Some of the benefits to yourself and the environment include not having to rely entirely upon the mains supply, and therefore cheaper water bills. The incidents of flooding can be reduced with more installations, as storm water does not all go back into circulation therefore swelling rivers to flood point. Drought conditions or water shortages (global warming?) also become less of a problem, and the reduced amounts of water to be 'processed' means less strain and demand on treatment plants.

Properties with such a system installed not only become more self-sufficient, but more economical to run, they also gain eco-homes rating points, which in turn can increase the value of the property.

If you are about to build a property or this interests you for an existing building then please visit the Freerain website and find out more. If you are, then this is certainly something worth considering right from the planning stage.