Go Greener, Australia

Thanks everyone for being patient while I sorted out my blog hosting. Sorry, subscribers: I think you got a test post that Wordpress sends out automatically upon install. Anyway, on with the new content…

The other day Wilma from O2 mentioned that The Australian Consumers’ Association is starting a campaign against greenwashing in our supermarkets, and you can help by letting them know of any bad examples you’ve seen.

Choice Magazine, which is run by the ACA, checked the environmental claims made on 185 products found in supermarkets. They compared them to this list from TerraChoice about the different ways companies can try to make their products seem greener than they actually are. You can read their report here: Green claims on supermarket labels.

Luckily, only a small percentage of them actually lied on their products. However, many of them are making vague, unsupported claims that don’t amount to much more than a way to make us feel all warm and fuzzy when doing our shopping. They don’t break the rules, they just hope that we aren’t doing our homework. This leads to a perception that we’re doing a lot to help the environment, when maybe all we’re doing is lining the pockets of marketers. Meanwhile, companies going to a lot of trouble to do the right thing will get lost in a crowd of pretenders.

Choice is starting the Green Watch campaign to make the standard for ’self-declared environmental claims’ applicable to all green claims instead of only being voluntary. They also want the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to get tough when enforcing the Trade Practices Act for green claims, and for the government to get their legislation up to date with the newer phrases being used (like sustainable or greywater-safe).

Right now they’re just gathering data - so take their Green Claims Survey to let them know of anything you’ve seen that you think is an example of greenwashing. You can also let them know if you’ve seen any eco-claims that you thought were actually useful and set a good example for other companies.

Over the next few days I’ll be switching my web hosting to another company. There may be a few days where you can’t access the site or the blog, but I’ll be posting again next week.

Cheers,

Julie

While I’m away, I thought I’d just link to a cartoon by Tom Toles that appeared in the Washington Post just over a year ago. Not much has changed since then, but it still made me smile a bit at human nature.

In Case Of Global Warming

I’ll be back later this week, see you then!

The Redefining Progress environmental footprint calculator has been updated: it now takes into account more recent information about local averages and new options like hybrid cars and water-saving devices. You might like to give it a whirl to see what it’s like.

Footprint calculators are a way to get a rough idea of how you’re doing with your environmental impact. They estimate the area of land and ocean needed to provide your food, goods, services, housing, and energy as well as absorbing your wastes. They’re not perfect by a long shot, but they can help people understand the consequences of their choices. The Redefining Progress one can also compare your impact to the averages for your own country (you can read more about how RP calculates their figures here: FAQ).

My footprint is much smaller than the Aussie average in greenhouse gas emissions, and a bit smaller than average for food, goods and services, and housing. Even so, if everyone lived the way I do, we’d still need more than 2 planets to provide for us all. Luckily, I’m not done yet with improving my house and food, and I’m finding more and more eco-friendly shops for when I do need to replace things.

You might have noticed that I’ve added a new blogroll to the sidebar of this site, showing the Australian environmental websites I regularly read. I thought you might like to see what else is going on for greenies in Australia.

• Greenfoot - Trina is living sustainably in Sydney, and is always up to date with green news and events
• The Greening of Gavin - Gavin discusses the whys and hows of living a more sustainable life
• O2 WA - Wilma runs the Perth branch of the O2 network for sustainable design, and organises the Perth Green Drinks every second month (next drinks are in May!)
• Ockham’s Razor - Clare knows heaps about green gardening, and native flora and fauna

Other Aussie blogs I like that aren’t specifically about the environment, but do cover environmental issues:

• Larvatus Prodeo - a politics blog with frequent posts about environmental issues in Australia
• Cosmos magazine - science news including biodiversity, pollution, climate science and so on among the rest.

If you’ve got a favourite green blog or website, please share it with us in the comments

I’m off to Melbourne this week for work, so I won’t be able to respond to comments as usual. However, I’ve pre-posted a couple of entries to keep you entertained while I’m away. Have fun everyone!

Are you conserving water?

Originally uploaded by RXAphotos

Given that I haven’t done anything about water efficiency in our house, even though I made a resolution about it, I thought it was time to come up with a plan of action. I’ve had a look at the usual water-saving websites and come up with a series of things I can do, roughly in order of difficulty.

1. Find out total water use for 2007, so we can tell when we’ve actually made a significant change.
2. Check for leaks and fix them.
3. Check how we use water: this means going down the lists of water-efficiency steps like shorter showers, only running the washing-machine on full, etc and making sure that we actually do them.
4. Get flow aerators or something similar for our taps.
5. Get a shower-head with at least a 3-star water-efficiency rating.
6. Change our toilet to a dual-flush.
7. See if it’s worth upgrading our washing-machine to a more efficient model or not.
8. Make the garden more water-efficient. We already mulch and only water on our scheduled days, but I’d like to look into rainwater tanks, greywater systems and so on.

Tips, recommendations and suggestions are all welcome! Let us all know if you’ve got some good water-saving advice.

If you’re interested in getting a photo-voltaic solar energy system for your home, and you live in the Perth metropolitan region, you might like to check out the RenewableLogic website. They’re going to buy 1500 systems in bulk and install them, lowering the usual cost from about $4500 to $1500 after you get all the usual government rebates. They’re only offering small systems at the moment, in a limited area, but have had a huge response so they may expand their range later on.

Our house is in the right area, and a small system would suit the two of us just fine, so we’ve put our names down. We’re a bit concerned that our roof might not be suitable (possibly the wrong angle), but it’s only an expression of interest so if we don’t work out then they just move on to the next person on the list.

We hadn’t considered getting a PV solar energy setup, because it was way out of our price range for home improvements. However, if this works out, we’d really like to give it a try. I’ll post updates as I find out more.

At the beginning of the year I came up with 3 resolutions I intended to keep in 2008. I thought I’d better check in and see how I’m doing…

Switch to reuseable bags

I was given an Envirosax bag as a Christmas gift (thanks again, Chris!) and it’s been fantastic. It just sits rolled up in my handbag until I need it, and then I whip it out at the shop counter before the salesperson puts my purchases in a bag. I’ve used it a couple of times for picking up a few groceries after work, but mostly I use it at bookshops and clothes shops.

At first Dave and I weren’t doing too well with remembering our green bags for our weekly grocery shop. We only brought them once in January! After that we got better at it, and we haven’t forgotten them since the end of February. I think that remembering to put them back in the car was the hard part, but once we got the hang of that it all started working better. We’ve now re-used about half of the old plastic bags we’d saved from grocery shops, so by the middle of the year I don’t think we’ll have any left at all (fingers crossed!)

Reduce household water use by 25%

I have to confess that I haven’t done *anything* about this one, which is pretty pathetic really. Next week I’ll come up with a plan of action so I can just work my way down a list of things to do to cut our water use.

Keep writing to politicians and businesses about green issues

I’ve done an ok job on this, but nothing spectacular. Because I’m a GetUp regular, I get notified of their email and letter-writing campaigns, so it’s easy for me to join in on their environmental ones. However, I haven’t written anything without being prompted by them first. Could do better on this one, I’m afraid!

How are you all going on the resolutions you made? Have you forgotten them, or finished them already?

Last week I wrote about making your bills paperless, but the biggest source of mailbox waste is probably junk mail. I used to fish mine out of the letterbox every day, and drop it in the recycling bin before going inside. My recycling bin was full of catalogs and flyers, which seemed a bit stupid since I’d never asked for them in the first place.

According to the Australian Conservation Foundation, “Australians receive on average 7 billion unaddressed flyers, leaflets and catalogues in their letterboxes every year. If your household said no to junk mail that could save almost 1000 pieces of unwanted junk each year!” Here’s a few ideas to reduce the junk mail you get:

Put a ‘No Junk Mail’ sticker on your letterbox

I got one for free from the Australian Conservation Foundation as part of their Act Now On Climate Change kit, but it doesn’t seem to be one of the current goodies in the bag. However, you can get them in all styles from hardware stores. You’ll probably find that a few persistent junk mailers will continue to leave stuff in your mail box, but I’ve found that a quick email to the business explaining what the sticker means should make them stop.

Use the ADMA’s Do Not Mail service

The ADMA has a free Do Not Mail service, which will remove you from the mailing list of many direct marketers. If you don’t get a reduction after 30 days you can lodge a complaint.

Of course, there are still some bits of junk that will get through, usually from companies you’ve done business with. Before you recycle it…

Reuse it

• as a bin liner if you’ve given up plastic bags
• in your compost; shred it and chuck it in, but don’t add too much
• as art for your home
• as a huge art installation, if you’re up for it

Naturally, the one company I wish would ignore the No Junk Mail sticker always obeys it, so I never get Ikea catalogues anymore! However, they’ve got theirs online, and I can pick one up from their shop, so that should sort me out. Most shops and businesses have email lists now so you’ll still be able to keep up to date on their latest products and specials if you’re a frequent customer, only now without the wasteful paper.

Like most people, I find it hard to remember to pay bills by going directly to a company’s offices or Australia Post. Either I put the bill in my handbag then forget to go anywhere near the post office, or I slap my head when I see the office because I’ve left the bill at home. The number of Aussies using BPay to pay bills is increasing every year: it’s not only more convenient to pay from home, it’s a real time-saver compared to the queues you endure when paying in person.

Something you might not have thought about is that paying your bills online or by phone is one of the little things you already do (or can easily start) that’s good for the environment. As well as saving time, you save the petrol/pollution it would have taken you to drive to a company’s office or Australia Post. It also saves paper compared to the old-fashioned method of paying by cheque.

Save more trees: go paperless

If you pay by direct debit you can save the biller the trouble, trees and petrol it takes to print the bill, stuff it in an envelope, and deliver it to you. The disadvantage of letting a company have your bank details so they can just withdraw the money as the bill falls due, is that you could end up overdrawn. And even if having the money withdrawn from your account isn’t a financial concern, it’s still a bit disconcerting to have it disappear without you knowing about it.

This is where paperless billing comes in - I get my Telstra bill emailed to me instead of using snail mail. I get to review the amount, then click a link that will allow me to pay on the spot via credit card or a one-off direct debit. This still saves me time and prevents the wasted paper, but also gives me control over when the money is withdrawn from my account. And honestly, I’m more likely to just get on with it when I’ve got the email right in front of me, and it’s as easy as clicking a link

Any mail I’m not keeping, like bills and their envelopes, goes into our recycling tub or sometimes into the compost. This is better than just sending them to landfill, but obviously it’d be best to save the effort and waste of making and sending them in the first place.

If a business offers paperless billing, you’ll need to provide them with your email and a secure password, and then you’re ready to go. If someone who bills you doesn’t offer an email or SMS alert for your bill, then write them a letter to ask them when they’re going to start.

There are very few companies now who don’t offer BPay via phone or online now for their regular payments. Most phone companies offer an email or SMS notification service as well. Think about the bills you pay - insurance, electricity, gas, rates, etc - and see how many you can make paperless. My gas company only offers regular direct debits, but I’ll be switching my insurance and electricity to paperless bills this week. After all, I don’t actually enjoy getting bills in my letterbox!

Edited to add: I’ve just come across this post about The green impact of going paperless at Greener Pastures blog. The quantities of paper, etc are in pounds and gallons, but I think it’s interesting to see anyway.