Green Challenge

Food

• Eat seasonally
• Plan your meals to avoid food waste
• Cook in bulk and freeze
• Use the milkman and have your milk delivered
• Buy fruit and veg in paper bags
• Campaign for paper fruit and veg bags
• Eat up your leftovers
• Vary your flour use – use spelt and rye
• Use a local butcher
• Compost the waste you can’t eat
• Use a metal or bamboo reusable straw
• Don’t use single-use cutlery
• Use a plate on top of leftovers to keep them fresh
• Add one vegetarian/vegan meal to your diet each week
• Pick your own – forage where possible (safely)
• Make your jam from gluts
• Make your own chutneys
• Only boil as much water as you need
• Keep your fridge at 5°C or lower so that food lasts longer
• Make sure your fridge door seal is strong
• Allow a 10cm gap behind your fridge to let heat flow away
• Avoid palm oil
• Take your own cup to work
• Use a refillable water bottle
• Re-use jam jars
• Buy Fair Trade wherever you can (tea, coffee, chocolate…)
• Don’t buy sachets of sauces – use a full size product
• Make use of your freezer as ‘use by dates’ approach

 

Green Challenge Shopping

• Use a re-usable shopping bag
• Use a shopping trolley
• Shop little and often
• Food share with neighbours if it is too much
• Use local shops
• Use independent shops
• Buy local produce
• Alter how you shop to avoid making waste (e.g. BOGOFs)
• Support local farmers’ markets
• Give shops feedback to help them be greener

 Clothing

• Only buy the clothes you really need
• Avoid fast fashion
• Dry washing on a clothes line
• Reduce your washing
• Wash clothes at 30◦C instead of 40◦C
• Investigate using green laundry detergent or an eco-egg
• Consider re-usable nappies
• Give things away to charity shops or on Freecycle
• Mend your clothes instead of throwing them out
• Darn your socks
• Put on a jumper, not the heating
• Buy second-hand where you might have bought new
• Rent clothes for special occasions
• Make a rag rug from old clothes
• Use worn out clothes as cloth

Try Green Challenge Shopping- its fun!

Energy

• Use a green energy supplier who supports renewables
• Use energy efficient lighting
• Install solar panels
• Use rechargeable batteries
• Avoid using portable heaters
• Learn about your own energy footprint
• Switch all plugs off at the wall at night
• Install double glazing if you haven’t already got it
• Only run a full washing machine
• Only run a full dishwasher
• Turn down the thermostat by a degree
• Investigate the Green Homes Grant
• Try a heat pump to heat your home
• Consider biomass as fuel

Tech

• Switch off at the mains rather than leaving on standby
• Cut out unnecessary emails
• Delete emails which are no longer required
• When replacing consider refurbished products
• If buying new appliances check energy ratings
• Unplug your devices when the battery is charged
• Switch off when not using for periods of time
• Switch off the video when not needed on video calls
• Use both sides of the paper when printing
• Don’t print unless you have to
• Recycle your used print cartridges
• Consider using re-engineered print cartridge

Transport and Travel

• Walk whenever and wherever you can
• Consider a hybrid or electric car
• Use your eco-driving mode in the car
• When it’s too far to walk, cycle where possible
• Use public transport if you can
• Carshare
• Holiday in the UK
• Use small, re-usable containers instead of travel miniatures
• Avoid air travel for a year
• Reduce your air miles
• Offset airmiles by donating to environmental charities
• Declutter your car to reduce weight
• Make sure your tyres are fully pumped up
• Consider offsetting the carbon produced by commuting
• Wash your car in rainwater from a water butt
• Be active in supporting public transport initiatives

DIY

• Use a resources exchange for left-over paint and materials
• Mend things instead of throwing them away
• Improve your loft insulation
• Draught-proof your home
• Fit energy efficient light bulbs
• Use a Repair Café
• Save water in the home – Savewatersavemoney.co.uk

Growing & Gardening

• Create clean air in your home by growing houseplants
• Have a no-mow patch
• Propagate more – spend less
• Learn how to take cuttings in the garden
• Let your grass grow longer before mowing
• Install a bee hotel
• Put up a bird box
• Make a hedgehog house
• Make a winter house for insects
• Create a pond
• Plant single flowered plants (bees can’t get into doubles)
• Plant winter flowering plants (e.g. Snowdrops, Mahonia)
• Have as little “hard” garden cover as possible (paving etc.)
• Use coffee grounds to keep slugs away
• Plant a tree in your garden
• Give a tree as a gift
• Make a wormery
• Save up used tealeaves for roses and camellias
• Use old tights as garden ties
• Make a compost heap, bin, or bag
• Use grey water in the garden (with care)
• Put a sedum roof on your shed or garage
• Develop an area as a wildflower “meadow’
• Rent an allotment
• Don’t use a lawn sprinkler
• Water plants in the early morning and evening
• Grow your own flowers for cutting
• Plant a native tree
• Plant a native flower
• Plant nectar-rich flowers in your garden
• Install a water butt
• Grow your own on your windowsill

Bathroom & Personal Care

• Try a bamboo toothbrush
• Buy an aerated shower head to reduce water usage
• Try eco-friendly toilet paper
• Use biodegradable cleaning products
• Use refillable cleaning products
• Only flush solid waste in the loo
• Use bar soap
• Use bar shampoo
• Use a shower not a bath
• Turn the water off in the shower while soaping
• Turn the water off in the shower whilst shampooing
• Swap to reusable face pads to take your makeup off
• Use a handkerchief rather than tissue

Gifting & Packaging

• Wrap parcels with brown paper and string
• Reuse padded envelopes
• Reuse wrapping paper
• Re-use Christmas cards
• Send recyclable cards
• Choose unwrapped cards
• Only use recyclable wrapping paper
• Use paper alternatives to bubble wrap
• Give homemade gifts

General

• Pick up litter
• Lobby your MP
• Lobby your Regional Council
• Join any of the many environmental organisations
• Upcycle
• Use the library instead of buying books
• Go plogging – pick up litter when you exercise
• Reduce Junk mail – register to opt out at mpsonline.org.uk
• Volunteer on a conservation project
• Volunteer at a charity shop
• Take regular exercise
• Make friends with your neighbours
• Tell people when you make changes
• Consider a woodland burial
• Don’t buy a patio heater
• Choose an environmentally friendly bank
• Invest your money ethically
• Switch to online bills instead of paper bills
• Change to a green energy tariff
• Buy repairable products
• Encourage others to join this challenge.

 

These Green Challenge suggestions are advisory and Millbank Venison accepts no liability for any damages caused by their implementation.

Taken from information from Malvern Link with Cowleigh Green Challenge following a challenge set by the Eco-committee St. John the Evangelist, Moffat