Dale Vince trounces Nigel Farage in debate about renewables (Mar22)
If you want to understand why investing in renewables makes sense listen to this. Nigel Farage interviews Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, who calming and effectively explains why Nigel’s perspective is ill-informed and wrong. Some of the highlights for me are below – this is more or less what was said: Landowners getting rich NF: […]
My Manifesto for COP26 and beyond(Oct21)
I’m delighted that Cop26 is getting a lot of attention. I think it’s great that young people – with Greta leading the charge – are voicing their anger at what’s happening to the climate. It’s incredibly positive that more and more businesses around the world are trying to make meaningful changes. Not so good is […]
Is the EU’s Single-Use Plastics (SUP) Directive better for the environment (Feb21)
No. I don’t think it is – at least not all of it. Mid 2021 the EU is planning to introduce the Single-Use Plastics Directive. The key objective appears to be moving business and consumers away from single-use plastics and towards re-usable solutions. On the surface of it, this sounds like a good environmental move. After all, using […]
TV Clips compilation of Julia Hailes talking about waste and packaging – 1988-1990.
Recycling was probably the most popular green consumer issue because people could really understand what they could do. Quite often it was the only environmental thing they were prepared to do! Here I’m talking about recycled loo paper, overloaded landfill sites, saving energy, recycled materials, Mcdonalds cartons, egg boxes etc… “As we fill more and […]
SMART METERS ARE SMART (Sep19)
My son, Monty, has worked out how we can save over £2,000 per annum on our energy bills – and smart meters are a key factor in the savings. Even more important than that smart meters will play a key role in a shift towards a renewable energy powered UK.. The critical factor in this […]
Battle of the Quooker – hot water tap (May18)
Most people complain that their husband / male partner, doesn’t help enough with the washing up. Mine does too much! He’s obsessive about it. This means he gets up early in the morning to get into the sink before the day starts – and also before the cleaner comes. Another part of the ‘problem’ is […]
Behind the Scenes in Paradise (Feb17)
I’m hoping that my eco-footprint, on our luxury holiday staying at the Six Senses Hotel, Zil Payson, in the Seychelles – is considerably less than other guests! How so? It comes mainly from my aversion to air conditioning. Our residence was one of 30 beautiful villas nestled in the hills and rocks of Felicite Island. We […]
Speech disaster to Bathroom Manufacturers… (Oct16)
My speech went down the plug hole! I spent ages preparing my speech. Had an inspirational idea on how to pull it together. And, I thought it was pretty good on the day! But apparently the audience – at least most of them – were not so impressed. And the Bathroom Manufacturer’s Association – the […]
Shipping needs to be greener…(Aug16)
When I was in Hong Kong, I was horrified by the smog shrouding the city. It could be a sunny day but the sky was barely visible. Some of this, at least, came from the diesel powered ships criss crossing the harbour. I read a very illuminating article from the Guardian which illustrates hows slow […]
I’ve made friends with my heating controls (Mar13)
I’ve often been asked for top tips in greening your home. One of my best suggestions is to ‘make friends with your heating controls’, because if you don’t you’ll be wasting huge amounts of energy heating your house, when you’re not even there – or heating rooms that you’re not using. However, up to now, […]
My LED Lighting Saga (Mar13)
Remember the joke about how many men are needed to change a light bulb. The answer is generally a joke about the number of people standing around watching. But my experience with LED bulbs has become a joke – it’s taken me over a year now and I still haven’t succeeded in replacing all the […]
Challenging Sainsbury’s on environmental standards (Feb13)
Justin King, CEO of Sainsburys I wrote the blog below for the Food Ethics Council before the horse meat scandal blew up. I think it’s even more relevant now. When I challenged Justin King, CEO of Sainsbury’s about not applying the same environmental standards across all the products sold through his stores, he replied that […]