Sunny day in London (22may07)

Unusually I didn't have meetings in the morning, so I headed for the Lido on the Serpentine. Delicious 'pain au chocolat' and not such a delicious organic orange juice for breakfast, whilst reading Rosie Boycott's Our Farm, published earlier this month.

A man approached me saying something about the child he was carrying not being his. I was a little baffled until I recognised Piers Russell-Cobb, who is a friend I haven't seen for a long time. He was also enjoying the beautiful sunny morning. He told me his office was close by, so I suspect this is not the first time he's absconded to the park! The baby he had been holding belonged to Eric Bettleheim, whose wife was with Piers. I never knew Eric very well and haven't seen him for a long time but bizarrely his name came up again later in the day. He's involved in sustainable forestry and carbon sequestration projects - as Executive Chairman of Sustainable Forestry Management.

I headed off for a lunch meeting at Marks & Spencer. Went to talk to Mike Barry, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, about Plan A and how they are meeting their targets.

Across the park again to the House of Commons. Drinks on the terrace overlooking the Thames with Peter Ainsworth MP, Conservative Shadow Environment Minister and Steve Hilton (David Cameron's right hand man). Covered a wide range of topics but I always have a feeling with meetings of this sort that there's something really important I've forgotten to mention. A couple of days ago I met Chris Huhne the Lib Dem Shadow Environment Minister at a talk he did in Ilminster. What I find encouraging is that politicians don't need persuading that environment should be high on their agenda, the issue is how best to respond...

On Air and Hair

After 10 consecutive radio interviews I began to wonder whether I was talking complete gibbberish! The BBC regional stations phone into the studio in 10 minute slots - some for pre-recorded interviews and some live. They were all interviewing me on the publication of The New Green Consumer Guide but coming at it from different angles. One of them picked up on my super sales patter - 'the book has been expertly researched' I'd said. Of course it has but actually I realised I was following up on something raised by a previous interviewer.....

Other meetings during the day and a visit to the hairdresser. Bizarrely, I managed to find a hair salon called 'Environment' - and they were able to wash and cut my hair on sthe spot. I couldn't resist telling them that this was the publication day for my book - I was pleased that they decided to have a display copy for customers and sell some as well.

I've not really given much thought to greening hair dressers but was stuck by the huge amount of foil used in bleaching and dyeing. There were a couple of ladies who were having their hair painted with some pretty violent looking colour using foil as backing. I asked my cutter whether they recycled the foil afterwards. Not yet. But I pointed out that making aluminium foil is a very energy intensive process - and recycling it is a big saver.

Back to TV Centre at middnight for the Anita Anand Show on Radio 5 Live. Whilst I was waiting they were discussion the fact that Innocent Drinks hae agreed to sell their wholesome juices in McDonalds. This has apparently caused a huge outcry from many Innocent customers, who feel that it is contrary to the company ethos. I was longing to join the discussion but it was before I was on air.

My view is that it's a good move for two reasons. First, it must be good for McDonalds' customers to be able to order a healthy drink. Second, it's a sign that this corporate giant - whose name is synomous with globalisation - is beginning to think out of the box - and this could be part of the greening of the golden arches.

When it came to me, Anita (the presenter) expressed amazement at some of my views. In particular about the superiority of plastic bags over paper ones. She is not alone. Listeners phoning the programme were equally surprised. It is a firmly held belief that paper is superior to plastic becasue it comes from renewable resources (trees) and because it's biodegradable.

But as The New Green Consumer Guide explains, it takes as much fossil fuel to make a paper bag as a plastic one, they are much bulkier and their biodegradability in land fill sites is not actually desirable. Land fill sites are legally restricted in the amount of biodegradable waste that they can accept, because rotting waste creates carbon dioxide and methane - greenhouse gases. We don't want them released into the atmosphere.

There's more Radio 5 Live to come. They've asked me to come back and be a panellist for the full 3 hours of the show between 10pm and 1am on June 26th... It should be fun...

Shops and Shopping Centres

'I don't think I'm going to be very popular with this audience', I admitted, at the start of my speech to the property retail sector (people who develop shops and shopping centres) at Claridges. 'I don't buy much stuff' I continued, 'and what I do buy I generally purchase through internet shopping'.

What I relaise is that, if everyone shopped like me, retail development would stop in its tracks. As I explained to the audience, this wouldn't be such a bad thing. I opened my speech describing the new Tesco supermarket being built in Ilminster. The site was apparently bought around 6 years ago and has been contentious ever since. I ran through some of the issues troubling local residents and traders such as: how will it affect existing businesses; will it fit in with the local vernacular; and what would houses across the valley think about looking onto an extensive white flat roof.

The real point of telling this story was not to protest on behalf of Ilminster but to give an example of something that is happening all over the country - and not just by Tescos. My view is that this sort of bog standard development should stop. Currrently there are only a few examples of state of the art environmental developments - but these should become the norm. We want energy-efficient buildings; green roofs (where plants - and even vegetables are grown on roof tops); day light lighting; water saving measures; solar panels; electric vehicles; innovative waste solutions; less building waste - and a whole host of other things too.

Of course, the key to getting good green developments is customer demand. Apparently the supermarket sector is beginning to feel this and consequently more of them are moving in the right direction. Surely, in PR terms alone, it would be better for companies like Tesco to be welcomed by local residents rather than vilified - even if they get plenty of customers when the store comes to town.

Cut flowers and newsagents

The lady sitting next to me on the upper deck of a bus from Hammersmith to Oxford Circus was clutching a bunh of lilies with a very powerful perfume. She was taking them as a thank you to someone who had helped with her accounts. I couldn't help commenting that the website for my book (www.newgreenconsumer.com) has a section headed 'I hate cut flowers'.

It transpired that she didn't need much persuading about the environmental impacts of cut flowers - even though her job was arranging them in hotels. Apart from the energy impacts of importing cut flowers by air and truck, or growing them in greenhouses, she pointed out that the industry was extremely wasteful in the amount of packaging they used. And in chucking out flowers before they had actually died, because new displays were being erected. She said that her colleagues were amused by her 'rescuing' flowers and giving them to people to take home rather than chucking them away.

I got off the bus in Oxford Street and found a newsagent to get Thursday's edition of the Telegraph. To my delight I found that my eldest son Connor and I were on the front page - one of those little icons identifying an article within. In fact, I was so pleased that i couldn't resist telling the Indian man serving me in the newsagent. He was equally enthused and spread the word to his colleagues and other customers, who all wanted to see. It was very funny... but I suspect it won't happen very often, so I have to make the most of it!

Aga Saga

Probably the issue that got most response in both my interview and serialisation of The New Green Consumer Guide in the Telegraph, was about the aga. On the one hand a number of people have been critical of me for being an aga owner and having the nerve to preach about green issues. I agree. As I say in the book 'I have one of the most inefficient cooking appliances known to man..' On the other hand people have welcomed the fact that I'm not a perfect green because it makes them feel there's something everyone can do to improve.

The really frustrating thing about my aga is that it was quite a logistical nightmare getting it installed - and now I wish I hadn't done it. I can't say that I thought it was a good eco-measure at the time but I didn't realise quite how bad it was. That discovery came about when I had it serviced and asked the aga repair man how much oil it got through each week - 35 litres in the case of a four door version. This is more than an average family uses for all their energy needs. Oh dear.

Bill and Betty Swords sent me an email saying they thought they were much more environmentally-friendly than me - they were clearly unimpressed by my aga. To atone for my sins I actually turn the aga off for at least half the year - and I avoid turning the central heating on until my fingers and toes have gone numb! Actually, once you get used to a relatively cold house, it's not so bad -a few minutes of real discomfort when you emerge from under the covers in the morning, otherwise warm clothes do the trick.

Returning home from a speech-making trick last week, I spotted a lady on the train reading the final part of the Telegraph serialisation. I asked her what she thought before admitting that it was written by me! She was particularly interested in the story about my aga - it made her think about how much her homely cooking appliance used. I may not be Joanna Trollope but I've managed to produce a very different type of aga saga....

EU Bureacratic nightmare...

It's been a long time since I've done any work for the EU. I hope it will be even longer before I do it again. Having agreed to speak at a conference on 'Climate Change and Civil Society' in Brussels, I felt I couldn't back out. But the administration required to claim back the modicum of expenses was ridiculous. I had to write to my bank for a stamped form verifying my identity, as well as getting copies of my passport, my VAT form and anything else they could think of!

'Money laundering regulations', they said, when I complained. But I haven't had to do this for any business clients. Why not? I've discovered that quite a lot of people decide it's simply not worth the hassle and don't bother claiming expenses. Unfortunately this doesn't mean the EC is economical. Rather the reverse - their bureaucratic systems are wasteful and even worse have bad environmental repercussions too.

An example of this is the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), who set up the conference on climate change. Apparently they have more than 300 members, most of whom travel to Brussels weekly from different parts of Europe, often for just one meeting. Here's the shocking bit. They only get paid a flat rate for attendance if they come to Brussels. They also get reimbursed the expenses they actually incur or a sum based on how far they’ve traveled – and many choose the latter because it’s quite generous.

What this means is that many of them will simply be coming to Brussels to get remuneration - they have absolutely no incentive to set up teleconferencing and cut down on air travel. How mad is that? This doesn’t just apply to the EESC – the European Parliament work with the same system and there are 785 of them!

Another thing on the cost side are the huge sums of money paid for translation and interpreting services - 60% of the EESC budget of 130 million Euros is spent on this. One reason for this is that EU policy stipulates that all members have a right to read documents and listen to discussions in their mother tongue even if they are fluent in the working language. Oh dear.

If anyone feels they can change the system - please give it a go. I'll certainly be looking for ideas on how to stop all that pointless flying...... Incidentally I discovered that taking the train from Brussels to London is at least as quick as taking the plane. If I do the journey again, I'll certainly be on the tracks - I had thought it would take at least 5 hours....

Photos in the bath!

I’ve never been tempted to be a film star – for a start I’m no good at either acting or singing. But I’ve now discovered there’s another star quality that I lack – looking good in the bath!

Over the weekend I spent about 12 hours having my photograph taken for the Telegraph, who are serializing The New Green Consumer Guide, starting with an interview in Weekend Telegraph (12th May 2007) (www.telegraph.co.uk/earth). You may well wonder why they wanted to feature one of me in the bath. Guido Galante who came to pick up his son at midday on Sunday morning was certainly baffled when I appeared at the top of the stairs with a towel wrapped around me and told him what I had been doing. He looked rather relieved when I said that my youngest son Monty was also in the bath – I assume he was reassured that I wasn’t posing for Playboy!

The reason for the bath pose was to illustrate the compromises even a dedicated green consumer makes in eco-living. I explained in the book that having a shower (as long as it’s not a power shower) generally uses less water than having a bath. Even so I continue to have a hot bath most nights. But I do reduce water and energy use by sharing my bath with other members of my family – and sometimes friends too – hence Monty being included in my bathroom photo shoot.

Luckily for me the Telegraph agreed that the photos weren’t very flattering and so won’t be using them – at least not as a main picture (see photo above). Part of the problem was my prosaic approach in putting my hair up, and not putting make up on but another issue was trying not to be indecent, which meant the photos had to be taken from an unflattering angle – even when we put Fairy Liquid in to hide my nipples! (should I use that word in my blog?)

Rosie Boycott - Our Farm

Now Rosie's really skilled at PR. She's managed to launch her book in London, Taunton and Ilminster and get reviewed or interviewed in every paper under the sun. I realise I've got a lot to learn from her in relation to my book, so luckily she's very kind and offers advice!

Went to the Ilminster launch of Our Farm, just down the road from the farm itself - and very close to where I live. I haven't yet read the book but I think many local people who featured came to the Friends Meeting House in Ilminster to get their copies.

Otherwise it was a wet weekend spent mostly at my desk trying to catch up on all the speeches and articles I am supposed to be writing. Had a break to go and watch Rowan Atkinson in Mr Bean on Holiday at the cinema. Another big distraction was discovering Google Analytics - it allows you to find out how many people visit your website, at what time of day and roughly which part of the world they come from.... I think it's rather addictive...

Personal Carbon Allowances

In principle personal carbon allowances seem like a good idea. Everyone in the country would be allocated a certain amount of carbon that they could emit from their homes and for travel. If they exceed this limit they would have to pay someone else who has not used so much. This is called carbon trading.

Having attended a number of workshops exploring the potential of this idea - and looking at how it might be trialled - I'm not so sure it could ever work in practice. Just look at the fuss the public and the papers have been making over fortnightly bin collections. Having your carbon emissions monitored and effectively being fined if you emit too much is far more intrusive.

But it has its attractions too. On the social front, it might be an effective way of re-distributing wealth. The richer you are the more energy you're likely to be using - so you'll be paying over money to someone with a less affluent life style. A scheme of this sort could also make us much more aware about the choices we are making. Do we really want to holiday in India and use up our carbon quota for the year or shall we make do with taking the ferry to Biarritz?

I went to Oxford earlier this week to talk to the Environmental Change Institute (www.environmental-change.oxford.ac.uk) who are preparing a report into the potential for trialling a Personal Carbon Allowance Scheme. The work is being led by Brenda Boardman and carried out by Catherine Bottrill and Tina Fawcett.

Followed this meeting with a trip to London to talk to a market research company about a green product launch they were planning. It was all highly secret so I won't elaborate!

Train journey home late at night was marred by having to transfer to a bus for the last part of the trip. Climbed into bed at 1am... glad to be home

Selling The New Green Consumer Guide on Amazon

It's taken me ages to work out how to get this nice little icon selling the New Green Consumer Guide via Amazon onto my website. Now it means you can buy the book through Amazon from my link - and apparently I get some commission too. If you want to sell the book on your website, you have to become an Amazon Associate. Please let me know if you want some help.

Green Funerals Exhibition (28apr07)

My sisters is so amused by the fact that I was the key note speaker at the Green Funerals Exhibition that she says she'll put it on my tomb stone. But I've had to tell her that tomb stones are not very green! I'd prefer to have an internet memorial site and to have my body buried in a shallow grave, preferably without a coffin.

My view of 'green death' is to use the minimum resources possible - and that includes land space. We're running out of burial grounds and need to recycle the ones we've got, but this is apparently hugely contentious even though it was common practice a couple of centuries ago. Grave diggers would start on one side of a churchyard, work their way across and then start again when they'd filled up the spaces.

The Green Funerals Exhibition was organised by the Natural Death Centre (www.naturaldeath.org.uk). There were a variety of coffins in display from plain cardboard and chipboard to more exotic ones made from bamboo and even banana leaves and water hyacinths. Actually I wasn't convinced the latter one was particularly 'green' and to be fair their main claim was that it was 'natural'. It had a solid wood frame, so it didn't transport very well from the exotic location where it was made and had a cotton lining. Made me realise that coffin linings would be a great way of using recycled textiles - where there is more supply than demand. Was sorry that my favourite coffins - Ecopods (www.ecopod.co.uk), which are make from recycled newspaper, were not on display....

One of the issues in my speech that caused the most stir was explaining about the process of embalming. Both the leading funeral companies in this country embalm bodies as a matter of course - they call it 'hygienic treatment'. What this actually means is that they remove the blood from the body (one funeral expert said this was then chucked down the drain - can this be true?). The blood is then replaced with a pink coloured formaldehyde, which is a toxic ingredient. The idea is to make your body look more 'life-like' - that's why it's pink - and to preserve the body longer. But even the people I've talked to in the funeral trade say that it's very rarely necessary from a practical point of view. I've covered this issue in The New Green Consumer Guide.

Whether embalmed or not most people nowadays are cremated (70% in the UK). But crematoriums are in tricky times. By 2012 they're supposed to have installed hugely expensive pollution control equipment to clean up their emissions. Did you know that 11% of mercury pollution in the North Sea comes from crematoria and this is predicted to rise to one third over the next decade because of the increased number of fillings in people dying - I've got lots.

The main point to make is that it's worth thinking about your funeral before it happens! It's very difficult for grieving relatives to know what their loved ones would find acceptable and when they're in mourning it's the worst time to have to make difficult decisions.

I plan to keep up to date with 'green death' issues - it will be one of the key subjects on The New Green Consumer Guide website, which is being designed at the moment. One problem I had on the day though was deciding what to wear. As you can see in the photo above I decided to be colourful rather than funereal. Then I saw a couple of chaps on Waterloo station on my way back who were even more colourful in their attire - see below.




Addendum: I got the nicest thank you card from the Natural Death Centre for my speech at their conference. It was signed with a personal message from each member of their team!