Episodes

I'm not sure about you, but I've sat behind my phone or my laptop on social media watching the youth climate marches, and the Extinction Rebellion protests with a mixture of gratitude, and awe, maybe a little bit of envy. And I've also curled up inside at the thought of going along myself. I feel like this stuff NEEDS to happen, that it's so important that we stand up and show the world, the government, business leaders and our friends and family that this matters. That this matters enough for u...

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! When I was first approached to ask if I would be interested in interviewing the Susie Hewson, the founder of Natracare about their new safe to flush wipes my instant response was a resounding "No".I felt quite strongly that we should be discouraging the use of single use wipes, and also that marketing a flushable wipe would confuse the message that is starting to filter down tha...

How do you feel when you open your bin to throw something away? Or after you've done your weekly shop? Smug and self-congratulatory at just how little single use plastic there is? Or like most of us, guilty and overwhelmed by quite how much there is?Teresa Walters was faced with a whole bin full of unrecyclable plastic after Christmas in 2017 and decided that enough was enough and that she was going to do something about it. She roped in her sister Mary, and together they embarked on a competiti...

Did you know that on average kids in the UK receive around £350 of toys a year? I was pretty shocked when I read this, and indignantly though to the myself "there’s no way that applies to my kids", especially as we buy the vast majority of their toys secondhand. But when I stopped and thought about Christmas and birthdays and those times when they drag me into the toy shop and my resistance levels are at an all time low, then it’s easy to see how it can all add up. And when I look around the clu...

In today’s episode I'm chatting to Tara Button, the founder and CEO of Buy Me Once, and author of A Life Less Throwaway. After receiving a Le Crueset saucepan as a gift, Tara set out to look for a website that sold "the Le Crueset of everything" - meaning products that are made to last, and that will be cherished and are capable of being passed on to our kids and grandkids. When she couldn't find one, and the idea just wouldn't leave her alone, Tara founded Buy Me Once, a website selling only pr...

Welcome back to Sustainable(ish)!Today I’ve got an interview lined up for you with Tom Neish who is the founder and head honcho of Yora pet food, a new pet food brand that claim to be the world’s most sustainable pet food.So what makes them so sustainable I hear you ask? Well I’m glad you asked. It’s because the food is made from insects!The message seems to be slowly getting out that we should be reducing the amount of meat that we’re eating in our own diets, but I’d genuinely never really thou...

It's pancake day - hurray! Which means it's the start of Lent tomorrow - traditionally 40 days and 40 nights of fasting before Easter to remember Jesus' time in the wilderness.Now I’ve never really done Lent, but it’s a time of year when some people choose to take on a challenge and give up something they enjoy - whether thats chocolate, or sugar or alcohol, or something else entirely. But how about this year abstaining from something that will help the planet, rather than simply your waistline?...

Today’s episode is all about Growing Your Own. It’s the stereotypical image of sustainable living isn’t it? The kind of Good Life image of being self sufficient in veg, and the temptation is to go all out right from the start, take on a huge allotment plot, and then before we know it it’s taken over our lives. Sara Venn has been on the show before back in Episode 4 where we talked about the power of community gardening and projects like Incredible Edible and she got in touch me a the start of th...

It's half-term here in my corner of the UK, so I'm sharing with you some ideas for easy swaps and tips to help make your days out more sustainable(fish). Please do still listen if you're kid free, as most of the tips apply to grown ups too (maybe not the tantrums in the gift shop. Hopefully.) […]

In this episode of the podcast I've got another 5(ish) minute guide for you - this time with some tips and ideas creating new, more sustainable(ish) habits. It's very easy to have all good intentions, and to WANT to do things differently, but when we're busy and frazzled, those good intentions can all too easily fall by the wayside. Whether you want to finally remember your reusable coffee cup when you race out of the house for work each morning, or you want to stop impulse shopping fast fashion...

Georgina Wilson-Powell is the founder and editor of Pebble - an online magazine and brand for 'stylish, sustainable living' that aims to empower people to make more ethical everyday decisions. In this episode I chat to her about all things sustainable (including finding a more exciting word for 'sustainable'!), hear about the projects that Pebble involved in, and about the personal sustainable(ish) steps that Georgina is taking.This episode is packed full of ideas and inspiration and Georgina ta...

Welcome back to the Sustainable(ish) podcast and to Season 2!This season I've got some cracking guest lined up to inspire us all as well as some bite sized "5(ish) minute guides" where I'll try and to help you out with a sustainable(ish) problem in just 5(ish) minutes (the 'ish' is important here, as I'm discovering I'm not that good at not rambling and therefore keeping to time..!).For the first episode of this new season, we're tackling overwhelm - I've been hearing a lot from members of my ne...

The kids are back to school and now there is no denying that we're on the downhill slope to Christmas and the biggest consumer festival of the year.Which brings with it not only a dose of magic and goodwill to all (hopefully) but also the stress, the overwhelm and All The Stuff.In this episode I share with you 12 'not so fun festive facts' that demonstrate quite shockingly the waste we generate each Christmas, and the impact that the waste is having on the planet.We all want to create magical me...

The kids are back to school and now there is no denying that we're on the downhill slope to Christmas and the biggest consumer festival of the year.Which brings with it not only a dose of magic and goodwill to all (hopefully) but also the stress, the overwhelm and All The Stuff.In this episode I share with you 12 'not so fun festive facts' that demonstrate quite shockingly the waste we generate each Christmas, and the impact that the waste is having on the planet.We all want to create magical me...

Wednesday 24th October is International Climate Action Day - Yay!But wait, hold on. What the hell is climate action? And what does it mean to regular people like you and me?Surely 'climate action' is something for governments and big business to be concerned with? Not for me to have to worry about in between school runs and work, and refereeing the kids.After all, what kind of impact can we have as individuals?A lot as it turns out! A study on 2016 found that household consumption (of everythin...

Travel.We all want to do it- whether it's to experience the world and different cultures, or simply to get some R&R in the sunshine away from the gloom of the British winter or the fickle nature of English summers.But for most of us on the sustainable(ish) spectrum, it probably comes with a good smattering of guilt layered in - worrying about the carbon footprint of our flight, or wincing at the volume of single use plastic that aeroplane travel seems to generate. So are you condemned to spendin...

​This is the first in a new series for the podcast of commentary type episodes, some might even say rants, about some of the big sustainable issues we're facing right now.I hope you enjoy! I couldn't sleep last night, and I got to thinking, and then to worrying, and then to freaking out, about climate change.The latest IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change) report said that we need to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C and highlights the differences we might see with a 1.5C rise v...

In this episode I'm chatting to Amy Robinson who is the business development manager at Triodos bank.For those of you who haven’t heard of them, Triodos are the UK’s most ethical bank and have a tagline that is “money as a force for good" which I totally love!The banking industry as a whole isn’t one that I think would be seen as ‘ethical’ – we all have images of rich nanker types making their fortunes and only really caring about the financial bottom line.At Triodos they do it diferently, and a...

I don't know about you but when I think about a 'green family' or a family living 'sustainably', I would expect to see lots of muted colours, wooden toys, maybe one of those bikes with a trailer, and the odd dreadlock or two. I know, I like to buy into stereotypes...But do you know what? My family is so NOT like that. The kids wear the same jeans and hoodies as their mates (although most of my kids is second-hand!), we have ALL the plastic toys in our house (the people at Lego appear to have ask...

This is another 're-purposed' interview from last year that I recorded with Lisa Stanley, co-founder of Good with Money - a website about "helping you become good with money while doing good with money too". I don't know about you, but it took me far longer than it should have done to realise that the money in my bank might be being used to fund all kinds of businesses and organisations that didn't align with my values. And that my money might not be working as hard as I am for a fairer, healthi...

This is an interview I recorded with Rachelle, the founder of Zero Waste Week in 2017, just before the 10th annual Zero Waste Week. In it Rachelle shares how she got started on her own zero waste journey, as well as 'fessing up to the fact that her own bin is possibly not be as "zero waste" as we might expect! There's so much great stuff in here, that it seemed ridiculous to keep it gathering dust on my computer rather than being out there in the world inspiring people. So I'm re-publishing it h...

In this solo episode I'm talking all things recycling. Or rather NOT recycling. We're digging into the 'waste hierarchy' (yes, I am aware this is the most dull sounding precise of a podcast ever - I promise it's not that bad! You might even giggle a bit...) to find out all the things we can do BEFORE we even think about recycling Useful linksBBC news article - Recycled packaging may end up in landfill Freecyle Freegle The Repair Cafe website ​The Essential Guide to a Plastic-Free(ish) Home My S...

As this episode goes live, we're right in the middle of Plastic Free July, a global movement to encourage people to reduce their consumption of single use plastics. Since Blue Planet II it feels like the world is finally waking up to the impact of plastic pollution on our planet, which is fabulous, but it can also feel really overwhelming.In this episode I'm chatting to Martin Dorey, founder of the #2minutebeachclean campaign. Martin is a writer, surfer and activist, who wanted to take action to...

Plastic is big news right now as we are waking up to the environmental impact of plastic pollution and our addiction to single use plastics. In this episode we're looking at ‘The Big 4’ plastic polluters: water bottles; coffee cups; plastic bags; and straws, and the impact YOU can make by choosing to refuse single use and going with the re-usable versions of each! Useful linksPlastic Free July Refill app Keep Cups Stojo collapsible coffee cups Rcup - Re-usable leak-proof coffee cup made from re...