Five Tips For a Greener Home

Five considerations and potential changes we can make at home, if we’re serious about helping the planet.

ONE - What materials are your furnishings made from or containing?

You’re redecorating that front room or bedroom, looking to pick up on the latest trends to make it stylish, homely and aesthetically impressive. But wait, are those soft paint colours and shades environmentally friendly, do they promise they are non-toxic, did you select the vegan option? Even consider whether the materials contained in that wicker chair or sideboard are sustainable.

Keep a lookout too for the chemicals and treatments applied to furniture. Some items in the home – mainly those imported – are found to have been treated with chemicals that have been linked with endocrinal interruption, this is when chemicals mimic a natural hormone, fooling the body into over-responding to the stimulus.

The message is this - be sure to research the materials you are bringing into your home.

TWO - What size is your carbon footprint?

Our carbon footprint is created by a wide variety of contributing factors, but recent focus has turned to our laundry habits.

Washing and drying laundry releases more than just dirt into the water and the environment: detergent chemicals and synthetic fragrances, genetically modified enzymes, carbon dioxide and microplastics. As far as the latter goes, it’s estimated that as many as 700,000 microscopic plastic fibres can be released on every wash!

Lowering our wash temperature to 30°C would help reduce the carbon emissions by the equivalent of 400,000 motor vehicles.

THREE - How awesome is your air?

Are you someone who has your windows open almost all year round? The assumption may be that your air quality is being optimised, though this is only the case if ventilation is good.

Purchasing an air quality monitor that quickly and accurately monitors chemicals, dust and allergens, will tell you exactly how good your air quality really is.

FOUR - Are you an energy monster?

The world in 2021 is obsessed with technology, yet the efficiency of our gadgets and devices, combined with awareness campaigns over what we use, has actually led to a 20% decrease in energy consumption over the last decade-and-a-half. Yet if you’re the type of person who leaves lights on when we go out, keeps appliances on standby, or simply runs a dishwasher half-full, more can be done.

FIVE - The heat is on!

Although the winter months will necessitate artificial heating in every single home in the UK, the way we heat the space around us can usually be made more efficient.

Keeping your home at a constant temperature is more efficient than bursts of heat, while isolating certain rooms that you use infrequently will ensure heat wastage is minimised, as are bills!