Do you have any green resolution?

What a predictable bunch we are. According to a Mintel survey, this year’s most popular New Year’s resolution is to exercise more. I’ve got nothing against the odd walk in the park, but really, have we nothing better to do than improve our waistlines?  Apparently, only 28 per cent of us plan to reduce our energy use and a mere two per cent of us are going to cut back on how much we fly. Odd, really, when eating beansprouts and sweating in the gym is much less fun than taking slow train journeys across Europe, making your own compost and having minuscule electricity bills.

Your green resolutions, please? Mine are as follows:

Get involved with community green action. So far, I’ve been a lone warrior. Time to team up with other eco-conscious types in East London.

Revert to Ecover laundry liquid. After taking part in an eco life swap for RED magazine and living like a non-green for a week - which involved buying non-green products - I have got hooked on the sort of fabric softeners and sweet-smelling (but plastic encapsulated) liquid pods that I previously had not allowed myself to consider.

Eat less meat – and when I do, only the most ethically virtuous organic, corn-fed variety.

Sort out the weedy no-go zone of my garden. What I’d really like to do is shadow a gardener for a couple of hours and watch green fingers in action in my own garden, or join an affordable horticultural evening class. Anyone got any ideas on how to go about finding either?

Comments

[Derek Wall]

Hi Anna,

just blogged mine...a bit more vegan is one, a bit more gardening is another but they should be enjoyed not seen as suffering.

Getting aware of how much of the world's rainforests are being chopped down for palm oil should be the big priority

my resolutions here http://another-green-world.blogspot.com/2008/01/green-new-year-resolutions.html

happy 2008!

[Derek Wall]

Hi Anna,

just blogged mine...a bit more vegan is one, a bit more gardening is another but they should be enjoyed not seen as suffering.

Getting aware of how much of the world's rainforests are being chopped down for palm oil should be the big priority

my resolutions here http://another-green-world.blogspot.com/2008/01/green-new-year-resolutions.html

happy 2008!

[Derek Wall]

Hi Anna,

just blogged mine...a bit more vegan is one, a bit more gardening is another but they should be enjoyed not seen as suffering.

Getting aware of how much of the world's rainforests are being chopped down for palm oil should be the big priority

my resolutions here http://another-green-world.blogspot.com/2008/01/green-new-year-resolutions.html

happy 2008!

[hedgewizard]

Switch to working from home / find work nearer home, that's got to be the biggie. Create or nurture a local transition town project. Meet deadline for publishing book.

Regards your garden Anna - join a local timebank or LETS scheme and get others to do it for you. Buy now, pay later kind of thing!

Happy New Year!

[Eco Worrier]

Good idea, Hedgewizard. I'll try LETS...
Derek Wall, ok, ok, I get your message. Geez, how do I delete some of your repeated messages?

[Jamie]

Great list. One thing I'd change, though: Grass-fed beats the pants off corn-fed, both for the animals' health and for yours!

[Jamie]

Great list. One thing I'd change, though: Grass-fed beats the pants off corn-fed, both for the animals' health and for yours!

[Simon The Horrible]

I resolve to eat more red meat.

That will result in less cows farting and screwing up the weather and killing polar bears.

[Joanna]

One of my resolutions is similar to your first one here Anna - to get together with other people to help make my community greener. I blogged about it here:
http://www.biggreenchallenge.org.uk/blog/2008/01/03/a-new-year%e2%80%99s-resolution/

Anyone with a similar resolution should take a look at the Big Green Challenge - a £1 million prize fund that challenges people from across the UK to work together to demonstrate new ways to reduce CO2 emissions in their communities. The application deadline is 29 February.

http://www.biggreenchallenge.org.uk