Julia Hailes MBE

Sustainability Pioneer

Radio 2 – Jeremy Vine show (May09)

Fierce debate about food waste and the merits of ‘slop bins’ or garbage pages as I prefer to call them.  I’m being challenged by a chap who didn’t impress me much with with his views on food waste, recycling and climate change.   Link?

M&S Plan A (Mar09)

M&S launched their Plan A scheme in 2006.  CEO, Stuart Rose heads the team and they have a very impressive list of actions and initiatives covering issues across the board from transport, packaging and re-usable hangers to food waste, refrigeration and laundry labels in their clothes.   I’ve been to the progress reports for Plan since […]

Snow crash (Feb09)

I would have abandoned the idea of school if I hadn’t run out of oil. I’ve been lasting a year on one tank – and I lasted a bit too long. Of course it ran out over the weekend before the snow hit. Actually the house wasn’t that much colder than normal. During the day […]

Chilling facts about supermarket refrigeration (Feb09)

  I’ve been working with the Environmental Investigation Agency on a campaign to highlight the climate change impacts of supermarket refrigeration. The HFC cooling gases used have a global warming impact that is about 4,000 times worse than CO2, so this is a huge issue. Here’s an article that I’ve written on the results of […]

Bee in my bonnet about fuel efficiency (Jan09)

Green expert Julia Hailes tries out an ‘environmentally friendly’ BMW. How does the new BMW perform as a green family car? I’ve got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about the fuel efficiency of cars. I can’t understand why they’re not a whole lot better than they are. Article originally written for Telegraph online.

Wasting heat through open doors (Nov08)

This week I had a meeting with the Carbon Trust, a government-funded organisation that helps businesses move towards a low carbon economy. They offer advice on saving energy, so I thought it was rather ironic that the doors of the large office block where I went were wide open – letting the heat out and […]

Quantumly awful (Nov08)

I’m not planning see a James Bond film again unless it’s radically different from Quantum of Solace. It was awful from beginning to end, starting with a car chase that was impossible to fathom. Which car was Bond in? Who was chasing him? What was happening? Nothing was clear. Part of the problem was the […]

Turning on the heat… (Nov08)

  My eldest son sent me a text ‘demanding’ that I put on the heating for half term. I resisted because I’d decided to hold out until November – and even then only when it was really needed……….. Five-and-a-half per cent of UK greenhouse gas emissions comes from home heating. I don’t recommend that everyone […]

Family friendly films – a rant (Aug08)

This is a rant! Why make a Batman movie that’s not suitable for children – and show it all through the summer holidays? I have to admit that I haven’t seen it but I’ve read enough to know that I don’t want to – and I’m not very keen on my three boys watching it […]

Woman’s Hour 2007 – 2008 (Jan08)

At the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008 Woman’s Hour ran a series of interviews with me about greening your home.  Links below are no longer working but we’re trying to resolve this!  /// •Recycling • Green Fashion • Water • Lighting • Laundry • Electricity