3. Water the garden with your bath water
There is nothing I love more than a big bath to wallow in. But this uses a lot of water. A shower is much better for the environment but I really really love baths, and so does my little boy!! I tried for a while to just shower, but I was really missing my baths! So I got the outlet pipe from my bath linked up to a new pipe that waters my garden (and you can also do this with a hose). It was really simple and really cheap to do, and the garden looks so lush from all of the water! You need to let the water cool down before you let it out, and also use earth friendly bath products. If you are not a bath fanatic, and have a garden, then get a water butt to collect your rain water to water your grass and plants. Tap water is really too precious now to use to water your garden.
4. Become fanatical about your fridge
I have found that the tidier our fridge is, the easier it is for everyone to see what food there is in it, the less we waste and the more gets used! It’s that simple. It’s also great to plan your meals before you go shopping, and once a week grab everything that is left in the fridge, put the list of ingredients into Ecosia, and see what recipes it suggests! There is always a new recipe out there to try! And close the fridge door when you take something out; it saves so much energy.
5. Vegan burgers!!
I have been vegetarian and latterly vegan for a long time now, and never have I tasted more amazing vegan burgers than the ones that are available now!! My favourites are Moving Mountains Plant Based Burgers (and their plastic free packaging), M&S Plant Kitchen No Beef Burgers and Beyond Meat Plant based burgers! All delicious, even the committed carnivores in my life love these burgers, and they cut your foodprint down enormously!!
6. Fabulous flasks and lights
I read somewhere that most people boil the kettle three times before they use the water! Kettles are one of the least efficient items in terms of their energy use, so why not boil your kettle just once and then put the hot water in a flask to use when you need it. Or better still make up a flask of tea and take it to the woods, with some biscuits whilst watching nature at work. My other top energy cutting tip has been using an LED reading light pinned to my book in the evenings! You can then turn all the other lights off and sit in darkness with just your book lit up for some cosy reading!
7. Baking bonanza
Another really simple one, but really effective at saving energy; next time you stick the oven on to bake some cookies, or to cook a hot pot, bung in a few jacket potatoes or a tray of vegetables to roast. Use up all of the room in your oven to cook anything you might be eating in the next few days and to leave a few ready cooked things in your fridge for those moments when someone is peckish!
8. Slow Travel
I went volunteer farming across Europe with my son two years ago, and we got the train most places, or the bus. It was just incredible and so much more fun than flying! We saw some of the most incredible scenery that we would otherwise have missed. And we didn’t have to get taxis from airports into cities or to where we wanted to go because the train dropped us right into the fun! It is also so much easier now to find alternatives to flying with using this website and this one too.