We have started to create a spreadsheet of places in Reading for Zero Waste shopping.
I have assembled a list of the Green Tips we have used in our newsletters over the past year in this PDF
And this is a document I created a few years ago to share at Reading Area Green Christian events - some of the links may need updating:
Loving your Neighbour in an Age of Climate Crisis:
A Reading-based Guide
Activism:
Join others in campaigning for a low carbon/sustainable future:
Christian
groups include
www.operationnoah.org;
www.greenchristian.org.uk;
www.tearfund.org;
www.christianaid.org.uk;
www.cafod.org.uk;
arocha.org.uk.
Local
activist groups include www.readingfoe.org.uk
(Friends of the Earth), www.transitionreading.org.uk;
and
www.greenpeace.org.uk/groups/berkshire
– for
more see the website of the Greater Reading Environment Network at
www.gren.org.uk.
Animals:
meat and dairy production contribute more to climate change than the
entire global transport sector. Most of the recent destruction of the
irreplaceably diverse and beautiful Amazon rainforest has been for
beef farming (the UK is a major consumer of this beef), some has been
for soya chicken feed. Intensive farming is not just an abuse of
God’s creatures (cf Proverbs 12:10) but a breeding ground for
disease, including swine flu. For animal welfare, look for RSPCA
Freedom Food labels or Soil Association ratification. Better still
find locally reared organic meat and milk (eg
www.sheepdrove.com,
for Reading Farmers’ Market, the True Food Co-op and Riverford see
below Food)
and cut down consumption so you can afford to
enjoy meat as the luxury it should be in a fairer world. Try going
veggie for Lent or Advent and see what happens.
Banking:
our money is powerful. We can make sure it is not used to invest in
destroying Indonesian rainforests for paper or mining operations that
devastate local eco-systems. Triodos Bank only finance positive
social, environmental and cultural projects (www.triodos.co.uk).
At present they only do savings accounts (by post or online) but
are launching a current account in 2016.
Books:
Greyfriars’ Bookshop has
a small but useful range of green Christian books eg excellent advice
in Ruth Valerio, ‘L’ is for
Lifestyle and C. Foster and D. Shreeve,
How Many Lightbulbs does it take to
change a Christian? For a very wide
range of green books see the RISC shop on London Street: Leo
Hickman’s A Good Life is
a great starting point. Use the library!
Cars:
transport accounts for about one quarter of the UK’s carbon
emissions, mostly from road traffic. Leaving your mobile phone
charging all day uses as much energy as driving your car for one
second.
The RAC and AA campaign for more roads, so change to the
Environmental Transport Association (www.eta.co.uk)
and see their website for advice on greener driving. Try giving up
the car for a week and see what happens. It can prove surprisingly
liberating. www.co-wheels.org.uk
provide
a fantastic car share scheme including
cars at
Cemetery Junction and Addington
Road.
Church:
‘The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it’ (Psalm 24:1) –
what is your church doing about it? See your
denomination's website for advice and inspiration, eg: the Church of
England's site at www.churchcare.co.uk/shrinkingthefootprint,
www.oxford.anglican.org/mission-ministry/environment.
See also
www.ecochurch.arocha.org.uk;
www.ctbi.org.uk
(search
Creation Time);
www.greeningstjohns.blogspot.com,
www.ccow.org.uk, (as
well groups cited under activism),
for ideas and resources to help your church to
respond. Join
Christians from across Reading at outdoor services:
www.stnicolas.org.uk/worship/oakwood-forest.
Compost:
plants, food waste and paper in landfill produce methane (which is at
least 20 times worse than CO² as a greenhouse gas). See Reading
Borough Council’s website for advice on composting and for special
offers for residents on compost bins and green cones (the latter are
for cooked food waste that might otherwise attract rats).
Dirt:
conventional cleaning products for our bodies, homes and clothes are,
or have recently been, commonly tested on animals. They contain
various substances that damage water eco-systems and are hard to
process at water treatment works (requiring greater energy and water
input). All you really need can be bought at RISC, London Street, or
the True Food Co-op (see below, Food).
Traidcraft also have a good range of
cleaning products.
Electricity:
the single biggest thing you can do to reduce your individual direct
carbon emissions is change to a genuinely green electricity supplier
(don’t be fooled by the ‘greenwash’ of the major energy
companies and their ‘green tariffs’ - they
are legally obliged to use a certain amount of renewables, don't let
them charge you extra for it).
Ecotricity provide
Britain's greenest electricity and have started building green gas
mills too. www.ecotricity.co.uk,
mention Christian Aid when you switch and they’ll get £60
too (£150
for businesses, schools and churches).
Food:
Half of all the food produced on British farms is thrown away. At
least 1 in 8 people on the planet are undernourished. A similar
number are obese. Yet simple, home-cooked food can be one of the deep
pleasures of life, echoing sacred meals under the oaks of Mamre or in
a house at Bethany.
Use
your LOAF: Locally produced, Organically
grown, Animal Friendly, Fairly
traded.
Where
to buy it?
Reading
Farmers’ Market: on
the 1st
Saturday of
the month, 8.30-12, The Cattle Market, Gt
Knollys Street for local food and a chance to meet the growers
themselves
The
True Food Co-op:
61
Grove Road,
Emmer Green, www.truefood.coop,
for organic (often fairtrade or vegan) wholefoods, fruit, veg, dairy
and pre-ordered meat plus green cleaning etc at low prices with
minimal packaging.
RISC,
London Street; Greyfriars Book Shop
and Oxfam Books,
8 High Street, sell fair trade foods and other goods.
See
www.mapledurhamwatermill.co.uk
for flour from Oxfordshire wheat (making bread can be a wonderful
space to de-stress in, even to pray. See also
www.sustainweb.org/realbread).
Veg
boxes
are much
more local
than
supermarkets
and guarantee our farmers a fair price. For very local, see
www.tolhurstorganic.co.uk,
or (if you want to be able to choose what arrives and have a wider
variety) www.riverford.co.uk.
Support
your local Co-operative shops too: they’re officially the ‘greenest
supermarket’.
Grow
your own:
whether it’s sprouting seeds on the kitchen window or working a
whole allotment, most people find such creative acts good for their
relationship with the Creator. They can also reduce food miles and
make for a better understanding of the planet. Why
not join a horticultural
association for
talks,
visits etc and trading
sheds for competitively priced essentials. See
www.readingfoodgrowingnetwork.org.uk.
Remember to look for peat free compost and growbags.
Heating:
a typical home wastes one third of the heat produced by its central
heating system through the roof and walls. Check
out possible free insulation installation. Add thick curtains in
front of doors, radiator boosters draw heat into the room. Berkshire
Energy Pioneers are a Community Benefit Society helping community
organisations to install solar PV onto their buildings.
Paper:
forest loss caused by paper production is a bigger cause of climate
change than flying (it’s also driving the orang-utan to
extinction). The True Food Co-op (see above, Food)
and high street stationers sell recycled printer paper. RISC,
Traidcraft, the Co-operative and the True Food Co-op also sell
recycled paper goods like toilet rolls. To cancel unaddressed mail,
write to Door to Door Opt Out, Royal Mail, Kingsmead House, Oxpens
Road, Oxford, OX1 1RX; to cancel addressed junk mail, ring the
Mailing Preference Service on 0845 7034599; to cancel free papers,
find their phone numbers inside; put up a note for the menu
deliverers. Re-think your buying of magazines etc. Re-use as much as
possible, then compost if possible
or recycle. Be inventive – old maps make
great wrapping paper.
Travel:
Join Reading Cycle Campaign to help make cycling safer and for
discounts at cycle shops: www.readingcyclecampaign.org.uk.
Reading
now has an extensive network of cycle lanes so that cycling is often
the quickest route for journeys into the town centre. www.seat61.com
gives
advice on alternative travel arrangements to avoid flying to many
destinations. Network or Family&Friends Railcards make for
significantly cheaper train travel (as does booking in advance or
group travel).
