Green Gizmos

“Green” and “gadgets” are not two words that you would immediately place together. It’s fair to say that the impression that people get when they hear the word “gadget” is somehow more to do with shiny little boxes that make life easier for the owner, helping them to switch on their stereo or TV (or both at once). Convenience is a fashionable thing, and given that the latest mobile phones allow the owner to not only make calls, send texts and take photos, but now allow you to download music and get directions to a postcode in another part of the country, it’s safe to say that many people either don’t view Green issues as a major influence on their gadget purchasing, or if they do put it quite low down on their list of priorities.

There is, however, a completely natural synergy between convenience and ecology, perhaps most succinctly summed up in the phrase “saving energy”. The benefit for the user is that they can perform a task with a minimum of fuss, while the environment benefits due to the decreased demand on resources. One gadget doing an excellent job for the consumer and the planet is known as the Bye Bye Standby, a motherboard into which all household electrical equipment can be plugged and, at the touch of a remote allows you to power these items down in one go.

There is also a new generation of solar rechargers which allow you to top up the energy required to use a number of gadgets. Very often you’ll encounter someone who has their mobile phone constantly plugged into a charger running from the wall socket. Some people don’t realise just how much energy is being used by such a small piece of equipment, but given that an hour a day of charge will be more than sufficient to keep the average mobile phone running, a solar-powered recharger will cut down on senseless waste. Along with a reappraisal of the use of wind-up technology – chargers, media players, torches and digital radios among other items are all available in wind-up form – these innovations in renewable energy makes waste more avoidable every day.

I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas

It is traditionally a time of excess and merry-making yet there is no reason to forget the plight of the environment at Christmastime. View it as a chance to spread a little Yuletide joy to the planet itself and make this Christmas not just a white one, but a green one too.

The most obvious way of doing your bit for the planet at Christmas is to buy a fake tree. Fake trees are no longer synonymous with tackiness; now they are viewed as practical and sensible by most and in most cases are just as attractive as a real tree. But if you can’t resist a real one, then at the end of the festivities plant it in your garden and use it year after year – then you’ll get the benefit of it’s beauty all year round.

What you put on your tree is important, too. If you can’t resist flashing fairy lights, then use a plug timer and just have them on when needed, and mainly at night. The best option, however, is to decorate using baubles, tinsel and all other associated paraphernalia that looks nice without using a huge amount of electricity. There’s also the benefit that these items look good during the day, whereas fairy lights only really look festive when it’s dark. Also, always turn the lights on when you’re not in the same room – this is a good tip for anything running off electricity.

One area to focus on when trying to make your Christmas more eco-friendly is Christmas cards. Try and reduce the number you send to lessen the impact on the environment, perhaps substituting them for e-cards for non-family members. If you send a lot of cards to colleagues, why not suggest everyone at the office puts the money they would usually spend on cards into a tin and donate it to a charity? That way a charity and the environment benefits. For those cards you do receive, ensure you recycle them correctly instead of just throwing them in the bin.

Essentially, Christmas is a time when you put into practice all those little lifestyle changes that help the environment. It’s easy to get distracted during the festive period and forget to recycle food and cards and to keep electricity usage to a minimum – but remember, waste and electricity usage is in abundance at Christmas, so it’s possibly the most important time of the year to remain vigilant.

The Green Pound

Shopping doesn’t have to be an entirely selfish pursuit, contrary to the rather clichéd belief widely expressed in the media. Of course it’s nice to spoil yourself every once in a while (but not every day, or it stops being a treat and becomes an addiction), but in this day and age shopping also offers many opportunities to have a positive impact on the environment. This begins with the obvious – purchasing environmentally-friendly products which have been produced ethically, organic food or energy-saving items, but includes other aspects in terms of packaging, transport and lifestyle.

If you have shopped in a supermarket recently, then it is likely that you have encountered the concept of a “bagless checkout” – where once you have put your items through the checkout you do not put them into readily supplied plastic bags, but into a “Bag For Life” (something which has been around for some time now) or into a bag that you yourself have brought. It is now fashionable to take with you a fabric bag, lessening the need for a handful of plastic bags which don’t biodegrade when disposed of, causing a real problem in the environment. For the shopper a bag like this has the added convenience of being easier to carry – it can be slung over your shoulder, ending the problem of heavily-filled, thin-strapped plastic bags which cut into your hands.

Many people now are doing their shopping on the Internet. This is helpful to the environment in a number of ways, from something as simple as grocery shopping – multiple deliveries in a single van is much better than several individual cars sitting in traffic jams en route for the supermarket – to one-click shopping at online stores which saves the customer a potential wild goose chase to find a single item and may well necessitate them starting and stopping their car several times in a few hours. This also allows the customer time to consider their purchase, being a much less rushed process. While many people complain about the expense of green products, being able to shop around on the Internet allows them to find a better deal – better for them and better for the world.