Episodes

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG....!It is with HUGE excitement that I bring you this very special mini-series of the Sustainable(ish) podcast to celebrate, and to count down to, the launch of The Sustainable(ish) Living Guide - everything you need to know to make small changes that make a big difference.This book is pretty much the distillation of the Sustainable(ish) ethos and is being published by Bloomsbury on January 9th 2020 , and to mark such an auspicious occasion I've put together 12 shortish episod...

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG....!It is with HUGE excitement that I bring you this very special mini-series of the Sustainable(ish) podcast to celebrate, and to count down to, the launch of The Sustainable(ish) Living Guide - everything you need to know to make small changes that make a big difference.This book is pretty much the distillation of the Sustainable(ish) ethos and is being published by Bloomsbury on January 9th 2020 , and to mark such an auspicious occasion I've put together 12 shortish episod...

It is with HUGE excitement that I bring you this very special mini-series of the Sustainable(ish) podcast to celebrate, and to count down to, the launch of The Sustainable(ish) Living Guide - everything you need to know to make small changes that make a big difference.This book is pretty much the distillation of the Sustainable(ish) ethos and is being published by Bloomsbury on January 9th 2020 , and to mark such an auspicious occasion I've put together 12 shortish episodes of the podcast, one f...

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG....!It is with HUGE excitement that I bring you this very special mini-series of the Sustainable(ish) podcast to celebrate, and to count down to, the launch of The Sustainable(ish) Living Guide - everything you need to know to make small changes that make a big difference.This book is pretty much the distillation of the Sustainable(ish) ethos and is being published by Bloomsbury on January 9th 2020 , and to mark such an auspicious occasion I've put together 12 shortish episod...

This episode is going out in the 1st week of December - the Christmas songs are on the radio, the shops are rammed with All The Things, and the pressure is on buy presents for friends and family. And not just to buy presents, to buy the right presents - we all love to gift, and we all love seeing people's faces when they open the gifts we've carefully chosen. But only if we've got it right! And that can be the tricky thing can't it? Finding the right present for the right person, and in budget t...

This episode is hitting the airways just a couple of days before Black Friday 2019. If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard of Black Friday, it’s another delightful American import that has made it’s way over here, and is basically where retailers and manufacturers slash their prices in a bid to get you to buy All The Things in the run up to Christmas.And this episode feels very timely (I’m totally patting myself on the back for this and pretending it was all a very strategic plan, ...

Electric cars - my god it's confusing isn't it?Even just the terminology - EVs, ICE, PHEV... what does it all mean? How do I charge it? Doesn't it take hours to charge? How do I find charge points? What if I haven't got a drive?ALL the questions! Well never fear, in this episode I'm chatting to James and Kate of You Tube fame who I wanted to get on the show after watching one of their reviews where Kate points out that you can get the buggy in the back of the car. That's the sort of stuff we ac...

** This episode is supported by Little Freddie, the UKs leading sustainable baby food brand. Parenting is bloody hard work isn't it?When you're up to your eyeballs in dirty nappies, sleep deprivation and anxiety around keeping your very own small person fed, entertained, educated, stimulated and everything else we're apparently supposed to be doing, adding in trying to do it all a bit more sustainably can feel like yet another thing to worry about/add to the to-do list/feel guilty about.Having ...

​DID YOU KNOW? The UK is one of Europe's least wooded countries - the average woodland cover for EU countries is 37%. Here in the UK we're lagging massively behind at around 13% If we are to limit climate change to below 1.5C by 2050, an extra 2.4 BILLION acres of trees needs to be planted Reforesting the world could capture around 2/3 of man-made carbon emissions Trees are the ultimate multi-taskers and don't only capture carbon, and improve air quality, they also improve soil structure and...

​DID YOU KNOW? A land mass larger than China is used to grow food that is never eaten 25% of humanity's water is used on food that is never eaten Food waste accounts for around 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions (2-4x greater than aviation) If food waste were a country it would be the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after the USA and China 50% of food waste occurs in the home All of those stats are pretty shocking, but the one that always gets me is the food waste in the home ...

In an ideal world, when it comes to the weekly food shop, we’d all have a local zero waste shop, and have the time to visit our local greengrocers, butchers and bakers. BUT for most of us, the reality is either a mad dash round the supermarket while the kids are whinging at us, or an online delivery. And sadly, shopping sustainably at the supermarket is really, really hard. So when I heard about an app that I could use to scan products (whilst I’m in the supermarket, or more feasibly at home) an...

Of the six highest impact things we can do as individuals and households, switching to a renewable energy tariff comes in at number four, behind have one less child (I am unclear how this actually works..), going entirely car-free, or taking one less transatlantic flight. And ahead of going vegan or switching to an electric car.It is hands down, the easiest high impact environmental action you can take.But lots of us put it off. Because lets face it, it's dull, it and feels like it will be hard ...

When we see lists of things we can do to help the planet, one of the most important is often missing, and it's this - campaign. Make your voice heard. It's one of the most powerful things we can do, but I think for lots of us (myself included), the idea of 'campaigning' sounds a bit intimidating. The dictionary definition of activism is:"the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change".And I don't know about you, but the phrase 'vigorous campaigning' ...

DID YOU KNOW...? Buying green energy for your home or business is one of THE most impactful things we can all do to help the climate crisis? Switching to a renewable tariff for electricity and carbon offset gas could save up to 3.5tonnes CO2 per year The average person's carbon footprint living in the UK is around 13.5 tonnes CO2 per year, so you could slash your footprint by a quarter with this one simple switch It's super easy and takes less than 10 minutes (probably less than 5mins - you ...

It seems somewhat fitting as we approach August, the traditional holiday month here in the UK, to have a little look at flying…DID YOU KNOW: 2-5 % of global greenhouse gas emissions are a result of aviation Yet only around 5% of the global population actually use aeroplanes Meaning that as consumers, a plane ticket is about the most carbon intensive thing you can buy If you are one of the 5% of the global population who fly, flying will be the single biggest contributor to your carbon footpr...

This episode is published in collaboration with CozZo* There’s a BIG focus at the moment on plastic pollution isn’t there?Since Blue Planet II aired it feels like it’s an issue that has really caught people’s attention and is something that we’re all wanting to do something about. Which is obviously great, but plastic pollution is just none part of the bigger issue of the climate crisis. And actually, I would say that attempting to tackle the amount of single use plastic we bring home each week...

So today’s episode is all about period pants. "What are period pants?" I hear you ask! Well, they do exactly what they say on the tin – they’re pants you wear when you’re on your period – they have an absorbent gusset (I'm totally still immature enough to snigger at the word 'gusset' #sorrynotsorry) and soak up and lock away the blood. So all you have to do is pull on your pants, no pads shifting around and giving you a wedgie, or any of that nonsense. I think they’re a brilliant option for teen...

If you're anything like us the kids start to clamour for a paddling pool as soon as the weather gets above 18C and we have one sunny day, we get one, spend hours (and use lots of precious water) filling it, they play in it for about three seconds, and decide it's too cold, or the sun goes in. It then sits there collecting dead bugs and grass and leaves for a week or two, then somehow gets a puncture (which may or may not be related to the dog jumping into it) and starts a sad and slow decline. L...

DID YOU KNOW?We only have around 30- 40 years of fertile soil left in the UK? And golabally optimistic estimates are around 60 years. The problem is that modern agricultural practices take out more from the soil than they put back in, leaving it depleted of the nutrient that plants need to grown. And as 98% of our fod comes from the soil, this should be causing more of a stir than it is.The answer though is simple. And according to today's guest Anna de la Vega from The Urban Worm, it’s worms. W...

I had the great pleasure of chatting to Tillie Mabbutt recently for Episode 37 of the Sustainable(ish) podcast, where she shared with us her amazing business Frome Eco Party Packages, and her top tips for anyone wanting to start up a similar thing near them. She's very kindly helped me to collate this little "How to.." guide with all the info in one place to make it super easy. Why you might want to:I'm sure any parent will tell you that kids birthday parties are massively wasteful - and that's...

Today I’m chatting to Helen and Joe, co-founders of EcoTales, who have been friends since meeting each other at school at the age of 12. EcoTales is a podcast for primary school children that aims to share nature knowledge and inspire future generations to love and defend the planet. And it does it brilliantly through stories and songs helped by a cast of 26 animated alphabet characters. There’s PolyPlastic and Willow Water and Etta Earth, who alongside all their friends, tell Eco-Tales to not o...

In this episode I’m chatting to Celia Pool one of the co-founders of DAME – a sustainable self-care brand on a mission to turn our bathrooms green.Did you know that globally we throw away 100 billion sanitary products every year? Which is enough to circle the globe 250 times. Plastic tampon applicators are a big part of the problem –being used for just seconds but taking hundreds of years to degrade. Even cardboard applicators are often lined with plastic. Here in the UK we throw away 13 billion...

Every year an estimated 300,000 tonnes of used clothing goes to landfill in the UK.In the UK we buy more clothes per person than any other country in Europe.It takes over 2000 litres of water to make one single cotton t-shirt.17% of young people said they wouldn’t wear an outfit again if it had been on IG.These are shocking stats aren't they? I’ve heard most of them before, but that still doesn’t detract from the shock value. However the one that was new to me was the IG one – I’m a bit too old ...

If you've not got time to listen to the podcast or read the whole post, scroll to the end for the 'take home' points! Ecobricks. Plastic bottles packed with clean and dry plastic that can then be used literally as building bricks for a whole variety of structures. They seem to the the marmite of the plastic pollution fight with advocates citing them as a great way to keep plastic out of the biosphere (whilst we work on drastically reducing the mind boggling-ly enormous amount of plastic that we...