What are we doing for climate change - interim results

Last week we started a poll in what we are doing for climate change - here are some interim results. We asked you to tell us what actions you have taken that make you feel you are making a difference. We are impressed by the results - you can judge for yourself. The poll has only been out for a week (and it was in the newsletter only 5 days ago) so this is early days yet. If you haven't filled it in already, please do so. It only takes a couple of minutes. Here is the link.

What are the most popular actions

The top actions so far are these:

1. Eat less meat/eat no meat (combined)
2. Minimise holiday travel (especially by air)
3. Buy less new stuff - repair where possible
4. Buy local/organic food as much as possible
5. Minimise food waste
6. Improved the energy efficiency of my home (for example with insulation)

They all got ticks from 80% of you or more. It just goes to show that pretty much everyone can do something to make a difference - and lots of us are.

We had asked you to tick those actions which you felt had the most impact, but it seems that most people have just ticked everything they did - the number of ticks ranged from 5 to 17 (out of a possible 20) with an average of 12. Amongst the more active people (those with more than the average number of ticks), these actions were also very popular, with more than 80% ticks.

1. Buy pre-loved stuff
2. Grow my own food
3. Minimise my car use
4. Buy things to last
5. Optimised my heating controls at home 
6. Donating to environmental causes
7. Influencing friends and family to live more sustainably.

So it looks like these are harder to do - but still quite a lot of us are managing them.

What are the less popular (harder) actions

The less popular actions (across all responses) so far are these:

1. Installed zero carbon heating 
2. Use an electric car
3. Eat no meat - vegetarian/vegan

Things we missed

Several of you talked about water saving actions as being important too. E-bikes were mentioned, and also limiting your family size. Though for quite a lot of us it is a bit late to decide that now.

Things we intend to do soon

We have lots of plans for what to do next, from more water saving (rainwater harvesting, composting loo) to planting trees. One person would like advice on insulation for their home. (That is something the energy group might be able to help with; we can put you in touch with someone at Ecofurb who could help.) Also there are several mentions of heat pumps or other zero carbon heating, and buying an electric car.

It is great to hear about all this - do keep them coming. Once again, here is the link.