I've been thinking for a while how to keep myself motivated in efforts to improve the environment. I'm going to try and post once a week with something I've done for the environment that week.
It could be anything: writing a letter to a politician, fixing a performance problem in some software, planting a tree. It'll probably be small, but hopefully it'll be something.
Feel free to ignore (filter by hashtag), or to pick up on the ideas. It's mostly for my own motivation.
This week I finally finished off insulating the loft of my house, bumping its insulation depth from 250 to 400mm.
It's a job I started a long time ago and kept putting off because it's itchy. It's actually fine with a decent face mask and gloves though. The heat loss through the loft is now down to about 4W per degree difference in temperature between inside and outside (U-value 0.11W/m²K), which is good.
This week I planted 11 horse chestnut trees somewhere locally to me. I’ve been growing them in pots for 2 years, from seed (nut??) and now they’re about 20cm tall they’re ready to plant out. It took about 2 minutes per tree.
This week I spoke to my county councillor about cycling provision and protected bike lanes on some of the busier roads near me. The conversation wasn't anything new, but useful to keep things on the radar.
Better cycling provision is important for modal shift away from private car use.
This week I didn't manage to do anything for the environment, as I was doing DIY all week.
Part of what I was doing was increasing shading on the south side of my house, to reduce overheating in summer. I guess that's climate-change-adjacent. I added a small lean-to roof over a door/window.
This week (erm, last week), I wrote to my local councillors about light pollution, asking if they could more widely adopt dark skies lighting principles as part of planning policy.
https://www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/lighting-policy
This would reduce energy consumption, give insects and birds better sleep, and give us better sleep too.
The advice/policies for this are quite well developed now, so should be straightforward to adopt. Let’s see if there’s the political bandwidth.
Cumbria Good Lighting Technical Advice Note To conserve and enhance our dark skies and contribute to a net reduction in light pollution across Cumbria, it is vital that we are all informed and empowered to make good lighting choices when planning new development or installing new or replacement lighting. As part of the Dark Skies Cumbria Project, Friends of the Lake District, together with Dark Source Lighting Design Studio and in conjunction with the relevant local planning authorities, has produced a Good Lighting Technical Advice Note (the TAN) covering Cumbria, the whole Yorkshire Dales National Park and also the Lancashire part of the Arnside & Silverdale National Landscape. On completion in Summer 2023, the TAN won both Platinum and Green Build Back Better Awards. It has also been shortlisted for a Royal Town Planning Institute award. The TAN provides technical lighting guidance to planners, applicants, architects, developers, electricians, property owners, communities and lighting professionals to support them in applying relevant local and national planning policies and good lighting principles when submitting or assessing planning applications or other applications (such as Notifications of Intent and Listed Building) and in making good lighting choices when installing new or replacing existing lighting outside of the planning process. The guidance covers: The importance of Dark Skies to Cumbria; The 8 Good lighting principles; Positive lighting outcomes delivered through getting lighting right; Different forms of light pollution and their impacts; The role of the TAN in the planning process; The planning and lighting design process; What good practice looks like through visuals and examples; Relevant background information in technical appendices, including a Glossary, ‘Understanding Light’ and reference/further reading list. Supporting Documents: Technical Advice Note (TAN) - Full Version (Issuu) Technical Advice Note (TAN) - Summary Version (pdf) Eight Basic Good Lighting Principles (pdf) Eight Basic Good Lighting Principles (print friendly pdf)
This week (er, last week again, I need to get more prompt with these toots) I collected several hundred grams of plastic litter from a local moorland and organised car sharing for a holiday with my friends.
This week (ha, last week) I continued the conversation with my local councillor about light pollution, and he gave me several contacts to get in touch with about some policy proposals
This week I did a point to point running race and organised to get back to the start by public transport. (Most people arrange to have a friend drive and collect them.) The train ride back to the start was very scenic and relaxing.
This week (well, this weekend, which is ending for me now as I type this on a train) I combined cycling and trains to get across the country to see some friends. Everyone else who came drove. I got some work done on the train, and some good exercise and fresh air on the 200km of cycling. It took a while though.
I’ll try and do something more interesting for the environment in coming weeks. I realise these updates are boring.
This weekend I sorted out all the mixed rubbish from our weekend away of 8 people. 10g had to go to landfill, the rest (about 3kg) could be recycled or composted.
I’ve lost the link, but last time I looked this up I think the emissions from landfill were on the order of 1kgCO2e/kg of waste
This week, due to continued dry weather in the UK, my plants needed watering. I watered them from water butts (and have been doing for weeks now). I’ve got 300l of capacity, and it’s now almost empty because of this extended period of dry weather.
If you’re in England, you can likely get discounts on water butts from your water supplier. (For example, https://www.savewatersavemoney.co.uk/products/garden)
Last week, I managed to spend a bit of time at work pushing forward some performance improvements to software. Not big improvements, but improvements nonetheless.
Last week, I car shared to a local fell race one evening. Meant a slightly longer travel time, but far lower emissions and much less parking congestion. This should be the default.
Last week, I started the process of getting environment statistics recorded for #GUADEC2025. For the past few years the sysadmins have kindly recorded server usage data (for streaming, remote participation, etc.) and the organisers have kindly included travel questions in the post-conference questionnaire.
This data has been valuable to quantify the #GNOME project’s environmental footprint, and comparing it between years (and different models of conference organisation).
Last weekend, I helped a friend replace the fixed anchors in a local cave, as they were loose. We could have just put new anchors next to the old ones, and saved a lot of time, but instead we drilled out the old ones and re-used the holes to resin in the new ones. This avoided damaging the surrounding rock further than it already is.
This week I took some old laptops and tablets off some friends, in order to wipe and reuse/recycle/strip them for components, to get more life out of them. I haven’t assessed what state they’re in yet, but hopefully a few of them can have a second life in someone else’s hands.
This week I replaced the tap nozzles in a building I help maintain with Neoperl low-flow aerator ones. Same efficacy for washing your hands, but about half the water usage.
(Also, several days early in posting this! Might make up for some of the times I’ve been late.)
This week I repaired a kitchen cooker extractor hood where the motor had died. One new motor needed, but most of the hood could stay in place.
This week (ha, I’m early again!) I spent a few hours removing Himalayan balsam from a local area before it sets seed and smothers out more other plants.
Had a few nice chats with people who went past and asked what I was doing.
This week just gone I did more balsam removal. That might be all I do for the next week or two, trying to get as much as possible before it sets seed.
This week just gone I litterpicked two old foil helium balloons from a moorland, at 500masl. They float away from whatever party/funeral they’re at, slowly lose buoyancy, and come to rest on a moorland fence ready to spread plastic everywhere.
This week I repaired a second-hand belt sander; all it needed was a couple of replacement bearings, which were very standard. Avoided this going to landfill.
This week I repotted about 50 oak saplings I’ve been growing, as they’ve now outgrown their tiny pots and are off to big plant pot land.
Hopefully maybe half of them will be ready to plant out in the big scary world this autumn. We’ll have to see.
This week (well, last week) I took the bus to go camping for the weekend, even though taking the car would have been easier. Got to read a book on the bus and generally have a much more relaxed time.
This week (ahead of schedule!) I fixed the dodgy right-click button in my mouse with a new microswitch, rather than getting a new mouse.
This week I provided feedback (OK, complaints) about news coverage given to different political parties in one article, and about how to cool a house down in another article.
If you’re going to write an article about drilling for oil, maybe don’t put the quote from the Green party right at the bottom.
If you’re going to cool a house, there are much less energy intensive ways to do it than air conditioning.
Last week I fixed a dodgy connection in some small consumer electronics (a night light) which meant it would otherwise have been thrown away.
Last week I spent a few hours planning for increased water storage capacity (both potable and grey) for a remote building which has suffered from drought on its spring fed water supply in recent years.
Last week I had a friend stay over so we could go to a fell race together, allowing him to get there by public transport. It helped as the parking field for the race was small and quite slippery. I still could have done better at lift sharing though (two spare spaces in the car).
This week I persuaded some friends to borrow or hire a decent quality tool rather than buy a cheap one for one week of work (and it inevitably get binned afterwards).
This week I did all my baking for the week during a 2h period of super-low-carbon electricity in the UK’s grid (due to windy weather). Low embodied carbon cakes, and also free electricity 🥳
Philip Withnall
Johannes