Let's be eco-friendly in Hendon

Everyone in Hendon needs to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions they cause and adopt a more sustainable way of life to help in the worldwide fight against climate change. Why not start in 2010 with a 10 percent cut in your carbon "Perkin - the purrfect draught excluder" footprint? And there's no need to be miserable. We can still have fun while we adapt ourselves.

ANDREW NEWBY'S 10 WAYS YOU CAN LIVE MORE SUSTAINABLY IN 2010:

Food and clothing:

1/ Eat food grown in Britain when possible, to save on 'food miles' -- energy used in transporting imports. Eg, don't give up bananas but when you eat an apple make sure it is a British one.

2/ Eat meat no more than once or twice a week. Producing a kilogramme of beef uses ten times the resources needed to produce the equivalent amount of vegetarian food.

3/ Grown your own food. Grow fruit and vegetables in your garden or on the patio, where tomatoes, peppers and chillis will ripen nicely in pots. In a flat, grow herbs in pots on the windowsill.

ECO-FUN: 4/ Fed up with your clothes? Swap items with your friends instead of buying new garments that need a lot of energy to make and to import to Britain. Hold a clothes swap party!

Transport:

5/ Walk or cycle as much as possible, eg when going to the shops. It is good exercise, it will save you money and you will see sights and hear sounds you would have missed inside a vehicle.

6/ Use Hendon's many bus services or the train or underground instead of going by car. You can relax on buses and trains by reading or sleeping. If you are tired (or drunk!), public transport is the best way home.

ECO-FUN: 7/ When planning a holiday see if you can avoid travelling by air, which has a high carbon footprint. Try the Eurostar train to Paris – it's luxurious and can be cheap as a bargain flight.

In your home:

8/ Close your curtains at night. Day-to-day habits like closing your curtains and internal doors can lower your gas and electricity bills. You can save even more money by ensuring the loft and walls of your home are well insulated and by installing high-grade doubling glazing.

9/ To make a meal use a microwave instead of the oven, when suitable. On average, cooking a meal in a microwave uses only half the electricity of cooking the same food in an oven.

ECO-FUN: 10/ Sit under a duvet to watch television instead of turning up the heating in your living room. Better still, invite a friend to sit under the duvet with you.

Www.barnetgreenparty.co.uk
Http://hendongreens.blogspot.com