What can I do for the planet - now?

Which? magazine says we can all make simple changes to our lifestyle - now - to help the planet.  Below I combine their specific advice from the new Which? publication "How to live sustainably" with my personal learning:

Grow your own salad and herbs to save travel miles and containers

Heat

• Heat the room you most use to a comfortable temperature, for the evenings. Have blankets to hand.
• Feeling chilly during the day? Put on extra layers of clothing during the day. 
• Turn down your themostat to no more than 18 degrees centigrade during the day (not below as cold can induce strokes in the elderly). Turn it to 19.5 in the evenings and turn off for an hour, when cooking and eating, in a kitchen area
• Take shorter showers and/or fewer of them i.e. find more sustainable and heat free ways of keeping just as clean as before
• Fit a water saving showerhead, with finer spray;
• Wash your hair less frequently. Women can prolong an acceptable hairstyle by curling it and leaving it for up to a week
• Try washing laundry and dishes in lower temperatures and rinse plates in cold water
• Switch off your laptop when not in use as this saves a lot of power over the course of a day and does not harm the laptop. Laptops also generate heat.
• Fit a smart meter to tell you how much carbo each activity is producing
• Master your thermostat - and use it 
• Devote one minute a day to preschedule and reset your heating programmer with your household movements for that day, turning off all radiators which are not needed. 
• Dont heat rooms which are no in use for more than one hour a day (but be aware of ice forming which can crack pipes and heat for one hour to prevent ice forming)
• In the longer term, consider fitting solar panels, heat pumps and improve glazing and insulation

Electricity

• Avoid using uplighters which light the ceiling (which are heavy on power). Avoid patio heaters and halogen bulbs. Install LED bulbs 
• Buy timers for all side lights and so they automatically come on at a pre-programmed time and turn off too.  To know the time for sunrise and sunset see timeanddate.com website
• Don't annually upgrade to new electrical devices and smart phones.  Hold off and use your current one until it breaks
• Repair old appliances rather than buy new ones.  See therestartproject.org for tips

Food

• Eat beef or lamb meat once or twice a week at most; use very little red meat in dishes, such as in bolognese sauces
• Buy local vegetables and fruit, in season.  For lists of seasonal foods in the UK see: Eattheseasons website which also offers seasonal recipes
• Grow your own herbs and salads in containers.  Buy simple containers, line with mesh which prevents slugs and allows drainage and fill with John Innes Number 2 compost. Best to plant seeds in spring
• Recycle waste food into biogas through local collection schemes run by your locality

Products

• Switch to recycled toilet and kitchen paper
• Don't put teabags in food waste buckets as teabags can contain plastic, even paper ones
• For packed lunches, use squashable, reusable silicon containers, not plastic freezer bags
• Make you own cleaning products in spray bottles e.g. a few squirts of white vinegar in water for cleaning patios and windows;  Mix bicarbonate of saod with winegar and water for all purpose cleaners for bathroom and kitchen
• Apply the '30 wear rule' to all new clothes purchases.  Will I wear it 30 times, at least?  If not dont buy it - unless for charity.  Also apply the rule "Will I wear it in three years?"
• Avoid black plastic in tray packs as black plastic is hard to sort and ends up in landfill
• Click and collect from your local corner shop of post office to save on petrol for deliveries

Travel

• Walk, cycle, take bus or train where you can and particularly if alone as it is likely that with a rail discount card that it is cheaper than taking the car. Buses contribute just 3% of UK travel emissions and trains emit 2% of it. Cars emit 72% of UK's total travel emissions
• See advice on electric cars from www.which.co.uk/best-electric-cars and government grants from gov.uk/plug-in-car-van-grants.  
• One can buy a secondhand electric car for a reasonable cost e.g. around £6500 for a local runaround car
• One can fly once a year shorthaul guilt-free (and more if not very mobile and seeing family) but one can also consider booking ahead with advance deals on trains nationally and internationally, intelligently consolidating places you want to see.  Hire a car at the other end.
• Look out for low carbon travel websites. 
• Plan walking holidays and walking tours for city breaks.