Sustainability in your home

Ways in which you can make your home more sustainable and reduce your outgoings.

Wash your clothes at 30c: it saves you money and cuts CO2 emissions
Shower less than 10 minutes, 4 minutes is ideal
Turn off and unplug appliances - can save up to £40 on the electricity bill
Air drying - can save up to 90Kg of carbon per household per year
Use public transport or promise to walk or cycle to work - active travel not only reduces your carbon footprint but helps you to life a healthier lifestyle
Freeze your food before it goes bad: 36% of black bin waste is food waste
Buy second hand and donate unwanted items - it helps reduce landfill waste and supports charity work within our communities

Strong Start - Real nappies loan scheme

We lend out packs of reusable cloth nappies for parents and parents to be. The nappies are new-born size suitable for a baby weighing between 5 and 13lbs.

The loan period is for a maximum of 6 weeks to help families decide if they want to use real nappies going forward. Each kit we provide has a selection of different nappies for you to try. Find out more at Strong Start - Real nappies loan scheme.

For general advice on using real nappies visit either The Nappy Lady or Reusable Nappy Week.

Being sustainable isn’t just good for the environment, it can also be good for your wallet

Heat can be lost through gaps around windows, doors or the floor. Loft insulation could save you up to £315 on your annual energy bills, according to consumer group Which?

In the UK, we throw away 6.6 million tonnes of food every year worth almost £400 each. Bad for the environment and bad for our wallets.

Switch it off! Just turning off your lights when you leave the room could save you around £15 a year on your energy bills. So just imagine how much more you could save by making sure you switch off everything when it is not in use. By off, we mean all the way off, leaving devices on standby can actually end up costing you an extra £35 a year.

It is estimated that in the UK we use 2,000,000,000 litres of water in the shower every day! We can all make a big difference to this number with small changes.

A dripping tap can waste 5,300 litres of water a year, and more if you have a leaky loo! These are both easy fixes for a plumber, or even a skilled and confident DIYer.

These savings may well be higher now due to the cost of living going up.

Here are a few more easy money saving hacks:

plan your meals to cut food waste and eat all that you buy
use your local library for free books, internet and more
buy reduced label food at the end of the day in supermarkets
share and take free food at a local Community Fridge
use Olio to pick up free food locally and borrow appliances to save buying new
sell your unwanted clothes on second hand apps

Follow Sustainable West Northants on Twitter or contact us [email protected].

Last updated 06 April 2023