Almost everything we do has some form of environmental impact associated with it. The more aware we are of how the things we buy and services we use effect the ecosystem, the more we will be able to make informed choices about how to spend our money in the greenest way possible.
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Energy |
Almost a billion pounds of electricity is wasted in the UK every year by people leaving appliances on standby!
[source: Energy Saving Trust]
One energy saving light bulb can reduce your electricity bill by up to £9 per year, or £100 over the bulb’s lifetime.
[source: Energy Saving Trust]
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Water |
Around £120 million a year is spent removing pesticides from the UK's water supply – mainly as a result of the chemicals used in conventional farming.
[source: Pretty, J.N et al. 2000, pp.113-136]
The UK has less available water per person than most other European countries. The South East of England has less water available per person than the Sudan and Syria.
[source: Water Wise]
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Food |
Habits in food and drink consumption have a significant impact on environmental resources. The most significant one comes from food production and processing: About one third of households’ total environmental impact is related to food and drink consumption. It comprises the indirect or direct effects of livestock agriculture and industry on water, soil and air, the overuse of fish resources, the increase of food transport and packaging waste.
[source: EEA]
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Waste |
On average, each person in the UK, throws away seven times their body weight (about 500kg) in rubbish every year.
[source: Waste Watch]
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Electrical |
Through Fonebak, the 3.5 million phones that have been collected have diverted some 1,750 tonnes of potentially harmful landfill.
[source: Fonebak]
In the UK, the average consumer replaces his/her mobile phone every 18 months and it is estimated that some 15 million mobile phones are replaced each year in the UK alone.
[source: Fonebak]
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Transport |
The UK air transport industry emits CO2 at the rate of 1.22 tons per second every day of the year.
[source: UK National Statistics 2004]
The average UK driver emits around 4 tonnes of CO2 each year. That's the equivalent of filling one medium hot air balloon with pure CO2.
[source: Target Neutral]
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To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them.
(Theodore Roosevelt) |
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