{"id":352006,"date":"2025-08-17T16:08:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T16:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/352006\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T16:08:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T16:08:15","slug":"10-things-for-londoners-to-do-at-home-to-be-greener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/352006\/","title":{"rendered":"10 things for Londoners to do at home to be greener"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"STYLE\"<\/p>\n

After another record-breaking summer of heatwaves and hosepipe bans, it\u2019s clear London<\/a>\u2014and the planet\u2014could use a green reset. No, these 10 steps won\u2019t fix the climate crisis<\/a> or halt species loss, but they will upgrade your everyday\u2014cutting waste, saving water, dodging plastic and tapping into the opportunity to crunch emissions. Small shifts have big potential; here\u2019s how to get started.<\/p>\n

London\u2019s digital footprint is mushrooming, often powered by huge data centres clustered around the M25. These centres gulp millions of litres of water daily to stay cool\u2014sometimes more than small towns. Yikes! The South East is already water-stressed. Time to chip in, starting with a digital declutter. Collectively we\u2019re hoarding around 10 billion unread emails, all stored on thirsty servers demanding power and water. While deleting emails alone won\u2019t solve London\u2019s 2.4 billion litres daily water use, trimming digital fat (old photos and cloud files can also go!) eases pressure on vital water and energy resources\u2014one inbox at a time.<\/p>\n

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The Nunhead Gardener, south London.<\/p>\n

Food waste<\/a> has zero place in black bags with your regular trash. Most of that is incinerated and given 60-70% of food waste is water, it\u2019s a bit like burning soup. Far better is compost. In fact compost is gorgeous, turning scraps into nutrient-rich soil or biogas, cutting CO\u2082 and closing nutrient loops. Composting at home is best if you have space; otherwise, use kerbside collections. With 26 of 33 boroughs now offering kerbside food waste collections (and the rest soon joining), it\u2019s time to get onboard.<\/p>\n

Urban trees are London\u2019s climate heroes\u2014research shows they reduce air temperatures by up to 2\u00b0C and prevented 153 heat-related deaths in the 2022 heatwaves. For the one in five London households without gardens, trees are crucial green spaces, some even bearing fruit or nuts (shout out to the recently protected grapefruit tree in Battersea!). You can sponsor street trees via Trees for London until<\/p>\n

2025 or support projects like Letting Grow which is planting thousands of native trees to cool and carbon-soak Perivale.<\/p>\n

Invest in a green commute <\/p>\n

Energy Garden has created 17 solar-powered community gardens at Overground stations, raising over \u00a31.2 million in community-owned solar. For just \u00a350, you can invest and become a co-owner of London\u2019s greenest commute, helping power rooftops and train eco-activists. This unique initiative combines micro-forestry and solar energy to cool the city, cut emissions, and empower communities.<\/p>\n

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You need to price clothes fairly on Vinted (Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n

Londoners<\/a> consume 48 new garments per person annually (the national average of 33), creating vast textile waste\u2014142,000 tonnes discarded yearly. Less than 10% of clothing donations get reused locally, instead become fashion waste with an uncertain future. Swapping just 12 of your annual buys for preloved items and repairing just 5% of your wardrobe can cut your fashion footprint by 30%. For repair use the sojo app, now with repair hubs at Westfield London and Stratford. Or indeed, hit up apps like Vinted and Depop.<\/p>\n

London leads the UK in electric vehicle ownership. If you\u2019re an owner, switch to a demand-flex tariffs like Octopus Agile or E.ON Next Drive. They use smart meters to time EV charging to off-peak hours with high renewable output, easing grid strain and maximizing green energy use<\/a>. This simple switch can cut household emissions by up to 20%.<\/p>\n

Low-flow showerheads halve water use compared to traditional models\u2014saving 13,000 litres and 300 kg of CO\u2082 annually. If this leaves you dreading an eco-dribble, I have news. Low flow 2.0 is a different world. Nebia use atomizing mist to save 70% water, while Mira\u2019s air-injection tech boosts pressure with half the water. You won\u2019t notice the difference, the planet will.<\/p>\n

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Kenny on Unsplash<\/p>\n

Despite our green ambitions, the energy grid still leans on fossil fuels during peak times. Vampire devices\u2014appliances that draw power on standby like TVs, chargers, and coffee machines\u2014make up to 15% of household electricity use. Unplugging them can save 90 kg of CO\u2082 and \u00a380 a year per home. Multiplied across London\u2019s 3.7 million households, this is a huge emissions cut. Every kWh saved eases demand on fossil fuel power plants, paving the way for more renewables.<\/p>\n

The average UK citizen generates about 100 kg of plastic packaging waste annually\u2014roughly 33,000 crisp packets worth. Londoners produce slightly more. Meanwhile some boroughs report recycling rates of just 15-25% for plastic packaging. Embracing refill and reuse cuts plastic waste and microplastic exposure. Replacing 20% of plastic packaging with reuse could slash over 2 million tonnes of waste yearly. Refill hotspots like Greener Habits Co and Get Loose Foods lead with zero-plastic and refill culture, while subscription and delivery services like Loop, Good Club, and Reposit plug any gaps.<\/p>\n

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Adli Wahid from Pixabay<\/p>\n

Now that London\u2019s cycling boom has wheeled towards 700,000 regular cyclists averaging 4.5 miles per trip, surely this is an untapped opportunity?! Devices like the SKS Com\/Charger USB Dynamo attach to personal bikes, converting pedal power into electricity to charge phones on the move. Personal attachments aren\u2019t appropriate for borrowed or shared bikes (e.g., Lime), but we do have solar backpacks or kinetic energy vests. Turning yourself into a mobile energy hub gives the commute meaning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After another record-breaking summer of heatwaves and hosepipe bans, it\u2019s clear London\u2014and the planet\u2014could use a green reset.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,4174,34084,124342,393,398,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-352006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-climate-crisis","10":"tag-eco-friendly","11":"tag-energy-use","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-food-waste","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-london","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115044974991985298","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}