The list of ways you unknowingly add to your footprint is daunting: what you eat, where you buy your food, how much goes to waste, how you travel locally, how often you fly, how much energy you use around the house, how often you buy brand new clothes or household items.
Everything we do has some kind of carbon footprint attached and you can work out your personal impact with the aid of WWF Footprint Calculator. But do not despair, because there are several ways we can do our bit for the poor, ailing environment.
Here are some of the best sites for reducing your footprint.
Who Gives A Crap
Recycled loo roll, delivered to your door in totally eco-friendly packaging, whose profits help build toilets for those in need; Who Gives a Crap is a simply brilliant concept. Launched by three Australian mates with a crowd-funding campaign in 2012, the company has been growing ever since. In addition to loo roll, they sell boxes of tissues and rolls of paper towel. Place your first order today. Trust us, you won’t look back.
Oddbox
Around the world, some 30 per cent of food produced each year is wasted which, obviously, is not OK. Enter ODDBOX, the farm-fresh delivery scheme that rescues fruit and vegetables from going to waste. It works with local growers to minimize carbon impact, use recyclable or degradable packaging and donate any surplus to worthy charities and community projects. Each box available on the scheme tells you how much CO2 you have saved and how much water you have not used. At the moment, ODDBOX only delivers in Greater London – but it’s expanding fast.
Little Cherry
Selling eco-friendly party supplies, this is a charming website on a valuable mission. Bamboo cutlery, paper straws, bowls made from polished coconut shells, reusable bunting… it’s all there. They say: ‘Here at Little Cherry HQ, we have a small team of people who walk their talk every day. We run a green, paperless office in an old stone farm outbuilding, we recycle everything, we cycle in the summer and we wear lots of jumpers instead of using the heating too high in the winter.’
Ecologi
Created so that individuals like you can personally tackle climate change, Ecologi, formerly known as Offset Earth, is an inspirational movement that uses its members’ fees to fund valuable climate projects. Described as ‘the perfect-sized plan for an average British citizen’, a basic package costs £1.25 per week. With this money, Ecologi plants a number of trees every month and ensures that one footprint (which it describes as 14 tonnes of CO2) is removed every year. A more expensive plan funds the planting of more trees and the removal of more footprints. Clever, no?
Everybody & Everyone
During years spent in the fashion industry, Veronica Chou witnessed a lot of waste. Her solution was to launch her own label, Everybody & Everyone, selling stylish wardrobe essentials that are made with environmentally friendly materials and processes. In a recent article, Forbes magazine said: ‘Could Chou have ticked off all the boxes in crafting a planet-friendly label? Everybody & Everyone is certainly designed to be a one-stop shop for the classic essentials in a wardrobe. And Chou hopes that with time, it’ll be an integral part of the circular economy, putting back to use what it churns out.’
Haines Collection
‘Interiors lover and waste hater’ Jules Haines founded Haines Collection in 2018 as a way of re-selling high-end fabric offcuts so that they don’t end up as landfill. She acts as a broker between luxury makers who want to sell small volumes of fabric but don’t have the time and canny buyers who are looking for something unique but don’t have a big budget. Do not hesitate to check out this website before embarking on your next interiors project.
1t.Org
You’ve probably heard about President Trump’s battle with Greta Thunberg at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos. (If not, quick précis: Trump proudly announced that the US is to join the WEF’s one trillion trees initiative; Thunberg criticized the leader of the free world for still not doing enough to halt climate change.) Set up to restore and conserve a trillion trees around the globe, the initiative is undoubtedly a good one. Its website gives a platform to the leading governments, businesses, civil society and eco-preneurs committed to serving the global trillion trees community. If nothing else, sign up to its newsletter to stay properly informed. But the final word should probably go to Thunberg. ‘Planting trees is good,’ she said at Davos. ‘But it’s nowhere near enough of what is needed. And it cannot replace real mitigation and rewilding nature.’
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By Becky Ladenburg
Updated August 2021