Fight Climate Change

Porthcawl in South Wales have made a huge step in fighting climate change by introducing solar power festive trees (The BBC). The trees, which use LED lights and a solar panel replace the town’s annual christmas lights and whilst they perhaps may not be as festive and bright, it’s a good to see that at least one council is taking appropriate steps. However, what can you do to be eco friendly with your christmas lights this year?

Already we’ve seen houses lit up like, well, christmas trees – and these will be on from now until 12th night, every night. In a time when we’re meant to be conserving energy it’d be interesting to know just how much carbon is generated by a street full of outdoor lights. However, you can do your small part and reduce your own carbon footprint by using solar power christmas lights or eco friendly lights.

Solar Powered Christmas Lights from Nigel’s Eco Store are a good option. They’re especially designed to cope with the British Climate and when fully charged they will shine for up to 3 days. They’re available in red or yellow lights.

There are also Solar Powered lights available from Ethical Superstore. These are a set of 45 flickering star LED lights that are charged via a solar panel. When fully charged, the lights will provide up to six hours of light.

If solar power isn’t for you (and the rope lights are limited in excitement) then make sure you’re buying LED christmas lights as these use a lot less energy than the bigger bulb lights. You can find a great selection at Christmas Wrapped Up.

Aside from solar powered lights and eco friendly christmas decorations, if you really want to be greener this Christmas then simply just remember to switch off the lights when you’re not at home – and perhaps just turn then off an hour earlier than usual each day. Not only will it cut down on your bills, you are helping conserve energy.

Tesco are the latest big name to bring their green credentials online as they’ve now launched a Greener Living section at Tesco.com. It’s packed full of useful information about how you can live a greener lifestyle and there’s also plenty of information about how Tesco are working to reduce the size of their own carbon footprints.

According to the website Tesco are:

1. cutting down on carrier bags (and they’re actively encouraging shoppers to use their green bags)
2. choosing local produce where they can (let’s hope they’re also paying the farmers appropriately too)
3. cutting down on waste (how much packaging is unnecessary – let’s get that reduced further)
4. they’re spending £100 million to help them switch to renewable energy (that’ll be a days takings then!)

One excellent element of the Greener Living site is the Parents section where you can find activities for kids (from preschool right through to 14). It’s good to see Tesco take these steps as with fighting climate change, “every little helps”. They have changed the way we shop, perhaps not always for the better, so they are in a strong position to help change the way we shop in order to save energy, reduce waste and support local farmers and producers.

Marks and Spencer have launched a new Greener Living Shop section as part of their online store. As well as Fairtrade products you’ll find Recycled clothing and even a Deluxe Composter! According to their website, the Greener Living Shop is part of a long term strategy for M&S as they aim to “work with customers and suppliers to make UK and Republic of Ireland operations carbon neutral, send no waste to landfill, extend sustainable sourcing and help people to lead healthier lifestyles – without passing on the extra cost to customers”.

The FA are the latest big organisation to throw their weight behind climate change issues by encouraging supporters to reduce their Carbon Footy Print. If saving the planet wasn’t enough to encourage supporters from Accrington Stanley to York City to take part, The FA have also added in a competition element where you could win tickets for you, nine mates and your FA Cup legend to The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON 2008 Final.

To take part you need to register and then pledge ways to save energy – and these include arranging lifts to and from games, sorting events with your mates – and even free coach travel to some fixtures from the Third Round and beyond with National Express. You can also help get your team to the top of the Carbon League too.

So far only 2% of carbon generated by the cup has been offset, and in truth pledging to switch off the lights or turn down the central heating are simply just pledges. The plus side though is that fans can locate car share – this is for FA Cup games only – but disappointingly there aren’t any car share offers or events on the site! This is a great idea from The FA, although it does seem that it won’t get that much publicity until at least the 3rd round of the FA Cup.