Bog up Bosch:

I was interested to see an advertisement for Bosch dishwasher showing that it uses only 9 litres of water for a full wash - far less than washing by hand. Having claimed eco-brownie points for its water-saving, however, the advertisement went on to recommend washing at 75C as ‘more hygienic’. I could see in the picture that there’s an ‘Eco Option’, which presumably washes at lower temperatures. Are we being made to feel that by using it we’re somehow compromising on hygiene? Thumbs down for this ad . . .

Beijing Olympics:

Apparently the Chinese are making big efforts to clean up in time for the Olympics next summer - but only temporarily. Construction sites will stop working to prevent dust, factories will close and cars banned. But most intriguing, in my view, are their plans to blast rain clouds with anti-aircraft guns. The idea is to make the clouds release their water load before reaching the Olympic venue!

Greener Electronics:

Greenpeace have produced the third edition of their Guide to Greener Electronics. The idea is to rank leading mobile phone and PC manufacturers in terms of the extent to which they have eliminated toxic chemicals from their products. They point out that the use of toxic chemicals is a major factor in complicating recycling of electronics. See Greenpeace International site - www.greenpeace.org/international

Stereos waste energy:

Stereo systems are responsible for £290m of wasted energy each year, far more than televisions.

Australian Big Brother is going green:

They’ve put contestants into an ‘environmentally friendly’ house and will incorporate the green element into the games, with contestants being punished for non-green behaviour!

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=262317

Old fridges must go:

Did you see the stories about people who’ve still got fridges and freezers from over fifty years ago. I wonder if they realise that they won’t be doing the planet any favours. There have been dramatic improvements in the energy efficiency of white goods even in the last 5 years, so my recommendation is to chuck them out and buy another one. Or, if they’re being used as a second fridge / freezer, see if you can manage with just one – I’ve stopped using the old freezer in my garage because I realised it was a real energy guzzler….

Home-grown curry:

ASDA has launched a campaign to grow all of the ingredients needed for a curry in the UK. It’s testing new growing techniques and setting aside land in the hope of producing the UK’s first commercial crops of plants and spices normally only found in much hotter climates. Sounds good but I’d like to know how much energy is being used to heat the greenhouses – probably a lot more than it would take to import the ingredients from wherever they’re grown naturally……

Sustainable fish check:

Have you seen that you can now use your mobile phone to find out if the fish you’re about to order comes from sustainable sources. Friend of the Sea (www.friendofthesea.org ) have set up a project which enables consumers to write the name of the fish and send it to 07781489880 by SMS and they will respond to tell you if it’s a ‘Good Choice’, unsustainable or whether there are any conservation concerns!

John Travolta – Eco hypocrite:

I think that having 5 private jets and an airport in your garden really does preclude you from encouraging people to do their bit for the environment. John Travolta’s carbon footprint is apparently around 800 tons a year, which is about 100 times more than the average Brit. But he claims to be concerned about global warming. I know that we’re all eco-hypocrites to some degree but he really does take the biscuit.

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Standby Off:

Apparently the investor’s on Dragon’s Den had never been united in their desire to invest in a business or product but they were the other night. And the object of their enthusiasm was a specially designed plug that enables your TV, Video, DVD player to power down to zero energy when in stand by mode, thus saving energy. I managed to get a sample of something I thought was similar – it’s called By Bye Standby (www.byebyestandby.co.uk). Actually I’m not convinced it’s as good – you can plug your TV and related appliances into multiple sockets, which can be turned off at the same time. But I’ve already got one of these and they still mean you have to switch things off – it just makes it easier, whereas the Dragon’s Den gizmo seemed to do it for you, which seems to make more sense.

Electrisave:

I think that Electrisave should be paying me commission. I’ve already managed to sell quite a few of these energy-monitoring gizmos – even though they’re quite expensive. You attach a monitoring device to the thick grey wires going into your electricity meter and switch on a small hand-held screen, which looks a bit like a Game Boy. It will then tell you how much electricity your house is using either in kilowatts, pounds or kilos of greenhouse gases per hour. When I got mine, a friend and I ran around the house turning everything off to get the reading to nought. This was more difficult than you might imagine – the final thing was an Ipod recharging in one of my children’s bedrooms. Then we turned things on again one at a time. This meant I could tell how much individual appliances were using, as well as what the base level of electricity my house needed to run fridges, freezers and telephones. All this information enabled me to cut electricity bills by as much as 50% - even more than the manufacturers claim! www.electrisave.co.uk

Eco-fan:

I went to lunch with some friends recently. They had a wood burning stove as their main source of heating. We had quite a debate about whether any of the heat was actually reaching us and there was some competition for the seat closest to the fire. I’ve just seen an article in The Telegraph’s new online section – Earth Channel – about a man who has bought an eco-fan. Apparently, you put it on top of your wood burning stove and it fans the heat around the room. This man says it was the best £60 he has spent on eco-features – and that includes solar and wind. www.gyroscope.com

Interflush:

My favourite water-saving device is Interflush. I’ve had this strange-looking device fitted to my lavatories and it works brilliantly. It means the loo only flushes when you hold the handle down, so you can vary the amount of water used depending on what’s needed.

www.interflush.co.uk

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