It’s been several months since my last update and I have to start by giving my congratulations to Ger, although he has been evicted he did do a great job while participating. The competition is really hotting up now were down to the last 3. The other contestants Fiona & Mairead are fantastic so it will be a hard race to the end. The current task is hard going in my opinion, we have to get as many people to log into the www.Change.ie website find the carbon number and then join our group. If you don’t know your carbon number please check the site out, it only takes a few minutes.  (Please join all of our groups). We’ve been in all the local papers recently promoting the competition and we hung posters up in work and all over our village. And I must give a big thank you to our ‘campaign managers’ Terry & Donna, they have been literally dragging people in off the streets in Clondalkin to vote for us..  We’ve become the talk of our village in regards to our Green efforts. I really hope our message is getting our there in regards to the being greener and not just for this task..  By the way I have to mention that although there was no Easter task we decided to make all of Easter eggs this year which was messy fun. The kids loved it (even the very big ones).

Our most recent tasks have been a consolidation of everything we’ve done so far. For example we recently completed a water a waste reduction task.. This let us show the judges how far we had come in each instance.  I have to stress at this stage that being GREEN is not only the right to do but it is easy and can be fun. It not only saves the planet but it can save on the wallet which in these troubled times can only be a good thing. Here are some of the tips we’ve picked up since beginning the competition in regards to Water and Waste. 

Water (Rates are coming so get prepared now..)
Toilet/Bathroom:

Take a Milk Carton (normal two litre will do) cut the top of it and place it in you water cistern (make sure it fills up and place it cut side up), you can save approximately 1-1.5 litres of water with each flush by doing this (and Yes the bowl will be clean!). Both Tracey and I know take short showers instead of baths, we both also fill a glass of water up when brushing our teeth instead of leaving a tap running If your kids are anything like mine the probably love water and splashing around in baths as often as they can, I’m glad to say that we haven’t taken away all of their fun away but have made some modifications to way the get their fun.. We know placed a plastic baby bather bath in the end of the shower it catches all of the water from the shower and keeps the kids entertained for hours.. There are loads of little gadgets you can but such as green shower heads and hoses but I wouldn’t recommend buying these until you actually need a new one. They are a little expensive.

Kitchen

Again simple changes, we very rarely use the dishwasher now and we don’t miss it, if fact washing dishes by hand can be therapeutic although if you’re really stressed maybe being near dishes is not a wise option..  When washing cloths we now Fill the washing machine so no more cleaning two shirts or a coupe of pairs of jeans when in a hurry. Another easy win is filling the kettle with only what’s required, not only are you saving energy but your tea comes faster (if that’s not a result I don’t know what is).

Garden

I know! why do we need to save water with our climate but lets live in hope that it will be 3rd time lucky this summer we actually have a need for these savings..

If you do have some spare cash a water butt can be picked up for approx 30-40 Euro. They hook up to the gutter pipe and collect rain water which can be used to water flowers or washing the car or bikes etc..  if you use a hose, shame on you (I’m just kidding) they’re fine as long as you put a trigger on the top which stops the water flowing when you not using it.. Again these are pretty cheap. We’ve invested in watering cans as you can see from this picture. If we do get some sun it’s worth remembering that watering in the evening is the way to go, the water will not evaporate in the evening..

Waste:

Sometimes pictures tell a thousand words so here are our changes for you to view.. (Remember the 3 Rs Reduce, Reuse, Recycle)

Shopping: Local fresh and Green (not literally)  (Reduce)

Garden – Compost everything you can

Power: Move to Airtricity (Do it now.. I don’t have a pic for this)  rechargeable batteries are cheap now aslo –

Recycle (everything possible)

 

Reuse Reuse Resue Reuse (remember what your mother told you)

(yes we do like chocolate)

Friday was the first elimination from the Know your Number competition. After three tasks, including bootcamp, the quiz and the green shopping task it was time for the first elimination on Friday.

In the end Larry was the contestant on the lowest score and was duly eliminated by judge Davie Philips and Matt. You can hear all the events from Friday here. Check out the full competition page and dont forget to enter the competition to win a Wattson.

Next up is the Green Christmas challenge, details of which will be posted later today.

[Listeners will know that we have set the contestants a green shopping task - if you want the list Listen here]

Larry’s blog

The Jones family are enjoying taking part in the competition as not only are we trying to make a difference to help protect our environment, we are trying to educate my family and friends about climate change, both through lending them the DVD ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, and book ‘Carbon Detox’ and directing them to the change.ie website. There are three generations living in my home at the moment; Angela, myself, my daughter Laura and my grandson Josh, because it’s everybody’s continued support and help that keeps us in the competition. We all feel proud to lead by example and help make the world a nicer place for them to live in. With the support of my family I am determined to reduce our carbon number and introduce more sustainable choices to the way I live my life. Some of the changes that we have made is as follows; not using the dishwasher, only using the washing machine occasionally, changing to energy saving light bulbs, turning the central heating down and car pooling to reduce mileage.

Bootcamp was educational and an eye-opener as an introduction to what was happening out there. There was a quiz after - must do better next time! The second quiz on the DVD and book was not that hard but on the day, knowing that you’re on the radio, everyone else’s question seems easier than yours, but that's life, you take the good with the bad and move on to the next stage – Green Shopping, we shall see…

 

We’re gearing up for the first evection next week, so needless to say I hope this is not my last blog update…  

We’ve just completed our latest task ‘the green shop’ and I’m a little surprised to be reporting that green shopping is not as difficult as you might think. Before I start for those of you not aware of what the task involved it was as follows. We were given a budget of €35 (out of our own pockets in case you think we’re being spoiled) to buy several items which we would have normally included in our shopping list. These were items such as milk, meat, fruit, veg, bread, eggs and cleaning products. The idea is to see who could best collect the items in the greenest possible way. The judges will take into account the distance the food has travelled and the distance we have travelled to purchase it.

Our village is only a stones throw away so we took a walk to the local butchers shop (Camillus Cleary in Killucan), we explained what we were doing and the butcher was extremely helpful which was nice considering we’d never been in the shop even though we’ve lived there for two years.. We managed to buy some really high quality meat, eggs and even local spuds there. All of the products were locally produced and I have to say for the little extra you pay there is a big taste difference…I’ve never seen a Chicken stripped so fast (think Piranhas). We were also successful with bakery shopping which we got from the local Supervalu who had a nice range of local breads and biscuits. My wife Tracey then came into her own, she got the names of local farmers in the area and tracked one down, we got fresh milk direct from a local farm and we’ve managed to meet several other farmers who will now take care of our meat and veg requirements in future.

We did find it a little more difficult to source green cleaning products until we went online and discovered www.econatural.ie Ann who runs the shop was only to willing to help, we were coming close to our budget constraints and we conscious that the premises was based in Dublin (the delivery charge would have brought us over the budget), but thanks to the kind heart of Ann we managed to do a deal which meant Ann delivered the products with no additional shipping charge to my mother in-laws house in Clondalkin which is on my route home from work. In turn I promised her a plug so here you are Ann (Thank you). The website is worth checking out and all of the products are very eco friendly.  

So really to summarise, the green shop has been our most fun task to-date, we made several new friends along the way and we managed to source great food that didn’t cost the world, in all cases the products we bought were of a much higher quality then those we usually choose at the supermarket so we’ll definitely continue green shopping in future.  

We don’t get the results of the task until Friday so I’ll let you know how the got on then.   Trevor/Tray/Alex/Aaron

The contestants on the Know Your Number competition are in fine fettle after the quiz - they are currently undertaking their green shopping task with someone getting elminated during the month. Trevor Gleeson and the contestants are going to start using the blog to keep listeners updated on how they are coping.

 

 

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Well what I can say about our journey to date? To start with we’re really enjoying our participation in the competition so far (except being on the radio which is really quite nerve-racking). If you’ve been keeping tabs on the competition you’ll know by now that I’m the one with the really high number (a pretty scary 22) and as has been mentioned several times (and yes it’s true) we really do have six tv’s. In a short space of time we’ve been through so much and I really have been amazed at just how easy it is to make significant changes. I have to mention my wife and kids also, we have faced all challenges as a family, starting out I really did believe my kids (Alex & Aaron 5&2) would be to young to get involved but I’ve been very surprised at just how much they’ve learned through our participation in the challenges and I’m sure this is a valuable lesson they are learning at and at such an early age which is great

Here are some of our highlights so far;

The Bootcamp: it wasn’t as harsh as it sounds, I’m glad to report that we didn’t get beaten up because of our high numbers, we didn’t even have to hug a tree on the way in, in fact the lessons we learned were all delivered in a make your own mind up way by pretty normal people (can you believe it, not a hippy or even dreadlock in sight). We were also given a Watson which shows the consumption of electricity on a real time basis, it’s amazing to see how much it jumps when you turn on appliances such as cookers or tumble dryers.. (I’ve attached a picture of ours up and running if you would like to see it in action.) But don’t worry if you don’t have one of these it easy to see how much electricity you are using by logging on to the ESB website and using their calculator. We were also given books and DVDs to study for an upcoming Quiz.

The Quiz: Firstly let me say that I got all of the difficult questions (lame excuse right), but I although I tried my best I ended up in the middle with 3 out of 5 right and to be honest it was my own fault I didn’t read the criteria correctly and missed the fact that I should have been studying the www.change.ie website also. By the way the website is a great place start if you want to make real simple but real significant changes. Look at me I preaching the message of change, when I started I was very skeptical and believed the financial benefits were all I would take from the competition.

The prescription for change: Before we started, we had one of the judges come to our house and check it for potential improvements, energy, heating, insulation etc etc.. When we got through to the last five we were each given a prescription which detailed what we should be doing to improve our home to make it more efficient and therefore greener. These recommendations were categorised by expense, with ideas like insulating windows being cheap, while insulating your walls being expensive. We have managed to insulate all of our windows for a cost of less the €30. I’ve attached a picture of me do this if you want to see it. There are loads more example of cheap (or even free changes). For example to save water you can either put milk container (with the top cut off) into your toilet and save a litre of water on every flush. Another surprisingly cheap fix was the replacement of all our old light bulbs, we picked up top brand energy saving bulbs for 90c each, considering you save €18 a year on each bulb it’s a no brainer really.

That’s it for now, we’re in the middle of our latest task which is the green shop and I’ll update you on our progress next week.

Trevor/Tracey/Alex & Aaron

Being chosen and being involved in this competition has had a great impact on my life. It has given me another topic of conversation other than the recession, and working through the tasks has helped me see how to reduce my household bills. It also makes me look at how we are living our lives on a daily basis. This may sound serious but it has been a lot of fun. I live in a small town in Mayo called Kiltimagh and it has been amazing the amount of community support both myself and my daughter Saoirse have received from everyone. From the Bootcamp to the Quiz to now the Green Shopping task, every week it’s something new.

 

Myself, Saoirse and my sister Barbara went to Bootcamp in Dublin, where we were made only too aware of the cost of public transport and the policy issues that Iarnród Éireann have on their pricing. I am still enraged that we can’t buy a one day return ticket on a Friday or Sunday from Mayo to Dublin and as a result had to pay an additional €14.00. That really supported the reduction of my carbon footprint, but undeterred we continued.

 

Saoirse has been discussing the quiz with teachers in school and has been working on many subjects researching the issue.

 

When we came home from Bootcamp I had to set up the Wattson (device to measure the amount of electricity we use), and was surprised to see it was not working. I found out later that it was attached to the earth wire, problem solved! Watch it now glow red when using a lot of electricity and mellow blue when using very little. Showers, the oven, and the dishwasher use an awful lot of electricity.

 

The next task was the Quiz. There was a lot of discussion among family and friends about what our Carbon footprint was and what we could do to reduce it. This fitted in nicely with my other sister, Caitriona, whose wedding was coming up, so as you can imagine there was much heated debate, discussion, laughs and ideas including do we light the church with candles because we are trying to reduce our Carbon footprint…..During all the wedding planning I watched the Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and also read a very good book called Carbon Detox, in preparation for the quiz. I felt like I was on a radio version of Mastermind during the quiz but looking back now it’s amazing how much knowledge I had taken in, and even better, remembered, considering I had been preoccupied with the wedding.

 

It has been a great experience to share with Saoirse and the change in our approach to how we live has been dramatic. I would have been a little resistent in the beginning, unsure of how much difference one household can actually make, but now I can see that a little bit by everyone can make huge changes. The problem of carbon emissions belongs to all of us.

 

This week we are going Green Shopping. I think it is all about shopping locally - thinking about how far the food has travelled and how much packaging is used. I have started car pooling with family and friends to do the shopping so it makes the experience more fun. Mind you, I hope that security won’t have a problem with the photographing of the experience…

 

So what have I done to date?

1. All the light bulbs have been changed except for the dimmer switch and halogen
2. The Wattson has been put in place
3. Reduction of water in cistern of toilet
4. Reduction in the heating on the radiators and the times that I use oil (trying not to waste)
5. Saoirse and I are obsessed with turning off light and appliances that are not in use.
6. Recycling waste
7. Having showers before 8 o clock in the morning
8. Actively car pooling
9. Only use appliances when full and try and avoid now.
10. Only boil how much water we need.

 

Listing them out makes me smile as now they are the rules of living in our house. After only a few weeks, I can see a huge change in all of us. Off to do the shopping now….

Fiona’s Blog

 

Our prescription for change set out various ways in which we could reduce our energy consumption and, hence, our contribution to climate change . There are forty recommendations in our prescription and, very interesting to note, twenty three of these involve no cost, Ten are at low cost ( €1-€50 ), four are at medium cost ( €50-€250 ) and three are of a high cost €250 or above. So for people for whom cost is a concern, so many effective measures can be taken which don't cost the earth, and yet really contribute to saving the earth and the people on it.

 

Our children know they are playing their part. There was a horrific photograph in last Saturday's " Irish Independent " of a starving four year old child in Haiti, where storms have caused, among other things ,crop failure and, hence, starvation. They understand that such catastrophes and suffering are the result of climate change, and that the little things we are doing are helping to reduce carbon emissions which cause climate change.
 
We've made a significant number of changes in the way we live at home to reduce our emissions - from simple things like pulling the curtains across in the evenings to retain heat and reducing our consumption of gas and turning radiators off in rooms not being used (examples of no cost measures). We have also switched to CFL bulbs where possible - we have spotlights downstairs which just glug electricity, even when using the dimmer so we leave these off now most of the time, having put lamps with CFL bulbs in these rooms. We've insulated the hot water pipes and put insulating reflective foil behind the radiators which are fixed to external walls - both low cost measures. We put litre bottles of water in the toilet cisterns to reduce our water consumption. We now use the composter which reduces waste going to landfills and so reduces greenhouse gas emissions. These are just a few examples of the changes we've made.
 
The wattson which we received at the Bootcamp is invaluable in assisting us in limiting our use of electricity . Our children have great fun monitoring it - when they see the numbers of watts being used increasing they race around the house to see what could be causing it and who the culprit is and report back !!! They really enjoyed the Bootcamp, and the use of the bicycle to illustrate the energy which has to be generated to toast two slices of bread really made an impression on them. I want to thank all those involved in organising it - it was a great experience for all. A special thank you to Neasa and Joyce who were just great with the children.
 
It's great being involved in this and we will never go back to our old ways of consuming energy without thinking of the consequences !!  A very big thank you to Today FM and to the Change campaign.