As Covid restriction ease and borders open up again, many of us are desperate to escape the unpredictability of the British weather and experience some sunnier climes. However travel, or certainly international travel, feels pretty synonymous with flying and with the associated hefty carbon footprint that comes with that.
Having resigned myself to damp summer holidays in our caravan in an effort to reduce our carbon footprint, it was brilliant to chat to Georgina Wilson-Powell, all about her new book, The Eco Conscious Travel Guide, about all the amazing adventures on our doorstep, travelling both with the UK, and around Europe via train. 

After reading the book and after our podcast chat, I’m actually getting really excited the thought of planning a European train adventure with the kids next Summer, one where the travel becomes part of the holiday, and that enables us to really see the countryside we’re passing through and to soak up more of the culture of different countries, rather than simply flying over them.

Enjoy!

It's very very easy to feel despondent about the climate crisis and the state of the planet.
And it's very very easy (and I think very natural) to feel overwhelmed and powerless to make a difference to such a big and complex issue.

Those of you who have been following for a while and paying attention(!) will know that I bang on a LOT about individual actions and the power that we have to make a difference. In a general, we may only be a drop in the ocean, but all those drops make up the ocean type way. But in terms of quantifying how much of a difference we can make, how much of a contribution we can make, as individuals and households, I haven't come across much in the way of science and stats.

But now I have!
In this episode, I'm chatting to Tom Bailey, the co-founder of an exciting new project called The JUMP - "a grassroots project created by normal people, The JUMP is for anyone worried about the state of nature but are not necessarily ‘environmentalists’."
It was created after a a group of organisations got together to research what difference individual actions could make, and which actions would be the most impactful. I love the science and the facts that Tom shares, and I  really really love the approach of The JUMP around making these changes accessible and joyful – something that everyone can get involved in.

Listen in to find out:

• What proportion of the emissions cuts needed by 2030, individual actions can account for
• The 6 'shifts' that The JUMP have identified as being the most impactful we can make
• Oodles of inspiration for how to get involved, and how to get your school/workplace/community on board too!

DID YOU KNOW?

• We have lost over a million acres of wild landscapes in the UK since the end of WW2
• The total garden space in the UK is greater than all the nature reserves!
• Our gardens have huge potential to be havens for wildlife and pollinators

I'm very much not a gardener, but I'm super aware that our garden could be working harder for nature and wildlife. So it was great to get to chat to Paul Jupp from Meadow in My Garden, all about how to do it!
Paul is just brilliant - his passion and enthusiasm for not just wildflowers, but for the power of planting a seed as a hopeful act and a way of helping nature and also communities is infectious!

There's a LOT of information out there isn't there? 
On the internet, on the radio, in our newspapers, on the tel-box.
And a helluva lots of opinions too.
About everything, including climate stuff.
So how do we know who to trust?
How can we tell when we're reading what is essentially an opinion piece from a journalist or a publication with an agenda, and what is actual climate science?

It's hard right?
That's why it was great to chat to Jack Marley, the Environment and Energy Editor of The Conversation in this episode of the podcast. The Conversation is an online publication with the tagline "Academic rigour, journalistic flair' and they provide a platform for scientists to share their peer -reviewed research findings with a wider more mainstream audience than your average scientific publication might normally get. It aims to re-build trust in journalism, as an independent source of news analysis and informed comment written by academic experts.

Jack and I chat about all kinds of things in this episode - frequently both diving off on tangents, but I think that's often how the best conversations (no pun intended..!) happen.

Enjoy!

In this episode I'm chatting to Steve Shaw who is the Director of Power for People, a not for profit organisation campaigning for the UK to rapidly transition to 100% clean energy and for this to benefit local communities.
Steve has been on the podcast before, way back in Episode 44, talking about how to get your MP to take action on the climate crisis. If you haven't listened to it already, do - it's especially helpful if you're a bit like me and not entirely sure how parliament works and how new policies and laws become a reality.

Power for People's latest campaign is called The Local Electricity Bill, and I know that that has the potential to sound a teensy bit dull. BUT IT'S NOT! Local energy production is actually super interesting, and feels really very relevant in the light of the gas price crisis we're currently experiencing.
AND this episode gives us all ONE simple easy thing to do: Write to our MPs to ask them to support the bill.

I know that sounds super grown up, and it can sometimes feel totally pointless writing to your MP, especially if they're in a safe Tory seat like mine, but it only has to be a couple of lines, and whatever reply you get back from your MP, forward it to People for Power and they'll help you follow up.

Here's what I've written to my MP:

Dear Dr Murrison

I am one of your Warminster constituents and I'm writing to you to ask you to give your support to The Local Electricity Bill.
The bill currently has cross party support from 300 MPs, with David Johnston and Peter Aldous, both Conservative MPs, sponsoring it.
Community renewable every schemes have huge potential to enable access to not only lower cost clean energy, but also to create green jobs with local economies. However it is currently hampered by huge costs and unfair regulations, making it very difficult for such schemes to be economically viable.
Allowing community energy schemes to start up and run more easily will go a long way to helping us to meet out climate goals, and it feels especially pressing at the moment with the war in Ukraine to do everything we can to help the UK gain as much energy independence as possible.

There is an MP briefing provided here which you may have already seen, and which should hopefully answer any questions that you have.

This bill really does feel like the proverbial 'no brainer' in terms of climate wins for the government - I would love to know that it has your support.

Kind Regards

Jen Gale

Honestly, this has the potential to be HUGE.
So often the climate crisis feels overwhelming, and often it seems like the government are moving in entirely the wrong direction, but we feel very powerless to do anything about it. THIS IS SOMETHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT!!
With the support of just a few more MPs this bill could really get some traction and become a reality, helping to transform the energy landscape across the UK and make it much easier for communities to set up local renewable projects that have benefits for local people in terms of job creation and lower energy bills. Total win win right.
Let's make it happen.

Please please please do write to your MP after this episode - I think we usually have about 1000 downloads - 1000 letters to MPs would make a HUGE difference.
If you're not sure who your MP is, you can find out here.

Do leave a comment to let us know if you do write to your MP - and also share that you've done it on social media (do tag me, @sustainableish)  Share this episode with friends, family and colleagues and ask them to write too.

Let's do this!!

Today we’re talking food. Specifically vegetables. But maybe not in the way that you might expect.
We’re all increasingly familiar with the narrative that we need to eat more veggies, and less meat and dairy, both for our own health, and also for the health of the planet. But today we’re talking about specifically about eating vegetables that are in season – why that’s important, and how we can actually do it. Because I don’t know about you, but I find it really hard sometimes to figure out what’s in season when, because it’s all available all year round in the supermarkets. I know the obvious stuff like strawberries and asparagus, but after that I have to confess to getting a bit lost.

It was great to chat to Dan Parker who is the chief exec of not for profit Veg Power – some of you might have seen their ‘eat them to defeat them’ ad campaign for vegetables  in cinemas a little while back.  Veg Power are on a mission to increase the UK’s veg consumption and whilst eating more veg at any time of the year is great, knowing what’s in season when, can have significant benefits when it comes to cutting carbon emissions too.

Enjoy!