Hello and welcome to episode 184, and as it turns out, the last episode of the Sustainable(ish) podcast! I wanted to try and get to 200, and I’m annoyed not even to be ending on a nice round number like 185, but often in life things aren’t tied up in a nice neat bow. Long term listeners will know that at times the podcast has been very stop start, …

In the spirit of London buses, ie nothing for ages and then two come along in close succession, this week’s episode is another foodie one, hot on the heels of Episode 180 - Food and climate change without the hot air with Professor Sarah Bridle. I’m chatting to Frank Holleman who is the co-founder of Fork Ranger, a platform and app that aims to hel…

One of the things that frustrates many people, is a lack of action from governments around the world to protect nature and mitigate the worst impacts of the a warming and rapidly changing climate. The UK government was one of the first to come up with a Net Zero target back in 2019, and declared a ‘climate emergency’ that same year. However the pro…

This week’s episode feels a little bit liking coming full circle on an episode from nearly 5 years ago! If you’re a long-time listener, and have an excellent memory, you might remember, way back in 2019, I interviewed the wonderful Tillie Mabbutt who runs Frome Eco Party Kit, renting out a party kit of reusable plates, cups and bowls to avoid the w…

In this week's episode I'm chatting to Sarah Bridle, who is possibly our first Professor on the podcast! Professor Sarah Bridle is Chair in Food, Climate and Society at the University of York, researching environmental impacts of the food system and potential impacts of the environment on food availability. She is also the author of Food and Climat…

In this week's episode I'm chatting to comedian Stuart Goldsmith. I'm a bit of a comedy fan, so I listen to Stuart's podcast, the Comedian's Comedian where he interviews other comedians about their work and he seems to pretty much be BFFs with everyone on the comedy circuit. It might seem a bit random to be interviewing a comedian on the podcast, b…

In this week's episode I'm chatting to Misha Dhanak, CEO of Spacehive, the home of community fundraising. We're probably all familiar with the concept of crowdfunding and may have even funded products and projects on platforms like Kickstarter. Well Spacehive is a similar concept, it's a crowdfunding platform, but it's for community projects - so o…

In this week's episode I'm chatting to William Eccles from The Commitment. The Commitment is a campaign asking us to commit to voting for a healthy planet. You do this by heading to their website, hitting the "make the commitment" button, and ticking the box that says “ I commit to vote only for politicians who work for urgent action on the climate…

Advertising. It's all around us. Persuading us to buy stuff we didn't know we wanted, telling us how much happier/more popular/better our lives will be with the latest/newest whatever it is. Most of think that we're immune to it, but studies show just how insidious and manipulative it is, and how it influences our brains at a deep level. Which perh…

Climate and play might not be two things that we naturally put together. And even less so, climate and 'playfulness'. Climate change is a huge, overwhelming, complext issue and i couldn't be more important. So we need to take this seriously and absolutely need to be bringing our best game, there's no room for messing around, right? Maybe not! I lov…

This week we're talking schools and climate action! I'm chatting to Jo Pettifer who part of a growing team of Climate Action Advisors from climate charity Let's Go Zero, which is working to help schools in the UK to take climate action, with the ambitious goal of becoming carbon zero by 2030. Jo shares in our chat that apparently around 45% of UK h…

This week we’re diving into all things digital with Matt and Will from an organisation called Carbon Fingerprint. For many of us, the planetary impact of our online lives maybe isn’t something that we give much thought to – the cloud is this ethereal thing that none of us quite understand, and I personally can’t even begin to get my head around how…

"If you own a tent you can be a member of Tentshare. If you don't own a tent, you can be a member of Tentshare." Love this quote from Rebecca Heaps, founder of Tentshare -'the Air BnB for tents'! On the surface, camping feels like a pretty eco-friendly option for a cheaper holiday. And it is. However it does involved quite a lot of 'stuff' - the te…

Podcast episode wise it was only 7 episodes ago, but time wise, almost a year has passed since I chatted to Annie Pickering from Climate Emergency UK about their Council Climate Scorecards. In that chat we talked about why climate action from Local Authorities are important,. The operational carbon footprint of most local authroties might not be hu…

Tash Acres is the founder of Earth Runs, an organistaion that rewards activity by planting trees! As you will hear, Tash’s approach to running and physical activity is so similar to my approach to sustainability – anything is better than nothing, it all counts, celebrating the successes no matter how small, and so much more! Now if you're sat there…

In this episode we’re talking money, and how we can make our money a bit greener. I’m chatting to Dan Sherrard-Smith, who is the founder and CEO of MotherTree – a platform that helps us all to get better informed about the impact of our money when it’s in our current accounts, savings, and pensions, and even when it comes to things like mortgages, …

This week’s episode starts with a confession! This episode was recorded a whole year ago, it was edited, intros were put onto it, it was all ready to go, and I somehow failed miserably to hit publish! I genuinely even thought I had published it until I had an e-mail from Heather earlier on this year asking when I thought it might be published. And …

Following on from last week's episode looking into some of the basics of climate science with Dr Adam Levy, this week I'm chatting to another climate scientist, Dr Ella Gilbert, and this time we're diving into the murky world of climate denial! Here's some of the misinformation that Ella addresses for us, using actual science: Climate scientists ch…

It's only taken 165 episodes, but I decided that it was about time we did a climate change back to basics type episode, going over the basic science of climate change. Talking about climate change is one of the most important things we can do (check out the brilliant Katharine Hayhoe for a great TED talk around this!) but many of us hold back due t…

After a *slightly* longer (9 months..!) than intended break, the podcast is back! No guest today - just a short solo episode to say hello, apologise for my absence and let you know to stand by your beds ready for some new episodes with some fabulous guests! GOOD NEWS! There's also a new Good News section, sharing some of the good climate news happe…

Most of us limit our interactions with our local authority to whingeing about our bin collections and paying our council tax BUT did you know that they have a whole lot of carbon emissions within their influence and therefore a whole lot of potential for a positive planetary impact? But how do we know what our council are doing? And if their plans …

In this episode we take a deep dive into the carbon footprint of Christmas. Which feels a bit weird right? Christmas is a time to let go a little, and not be so hung up on the consequences of our actions (hence the number of mince pies I may have already eaten..). I feel a bit guilty for flagging up the fact that our Christmas excesses still have a…

COP 27... What happened? What didn't happen? And why? For those of us in the UK, COP26 in Glasgow last year felt like a BIG deal - it was everywhere in the media while it was running, and schools, businesses and organisations were all keen to get involved. This year's COP (COP27) has felt very different. And I found myself struggling to follow what…

You might not want to hear this but...Christmas is coming! We’re about to enter silly season for consumption with Black Friday and then the Christmas shopping, so what better time to take a pause and think about the impact of what we’re buying, and how we might be able to make our money do good stuff at the same time as buying good pressies. I’m ch…

Wouldn’t it be great if everything we bought had a label on it telling us what it’s carbon footprint it? Then we would be able to make informed choices about the things we were buying and the impact they had. Today I’m chatting to Charlie Cotton from ecollective about exactly that – what is a carbon footprint, how is it worked out, how feasible my …

Awareness of the climate crisis feels like it is at an all-time high. All the studies tell us that 75-80% of people are worried about it, but we're still not really talking about it, and lots of people aren't really sure what they can do about it. There are lots of reasons behind this, but sometimes feeling like we don't have the knowledge or exper…

Often one of the first ways that young people start to express themselves is via fashion, but fashion comes with a considerable environmental footprint. Textile production accounts for around 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and uses 1.5 trillion litres of water annually. And we all wear clothes. In today's episode I'm chatting to someone wh…

In this episode I’m chatting to Parisa Wright, who is an absolute powerhouse of positive change – to the extent that I felt the need for a nap after speaking to her! I am in absolute awe of her passion, her energy and her absolute commitment to creating a greener and cleaner world for all our of children and for future generations. Parisa’s journey…

Football – I have to confess I’m not really a fan, and it’s certainly not an area I would usually associate with sustainability. And if we’re not afraid of stereotyping, then I wouldn’t have pegged football fans as big eco types either. Today’s guest is part of an organisation looking to change that , and to harness the power of sport in general, a…

What's the best climate charity to donate to? How do I know that my money is actually being used for good stuff and not swallowed up in admin? What sorts of things might charities be funding when it comes to helping the climate crisis? When I think about donating to a climate charity, whether that's a personal donation, or if I'm thinking about run…

I know that I’m not alone in occasionally feeling a little bit "what’s the point?" Do my actions really make a difference? Will it really make any odds in the grand scheme of things if I take recycle this bottle, buy this new pair of jeans, or even take that flight? Our individual actions can feel inconsequential in the face of the overwhelming eno…

Today's guest has been on my podcast guest bucket list literally since it began, so there may be a small element of 'fan-girling' in this episode..! Hermione Taylor is the Co-Founder and Director and DoNation - "a platform helping organisations to inspire their communities to create long lasting change." She has such a great 'founder's story', invo…

The podcast is back after the summer break! And I'm kicking off with a solo episode from to celebrate and reflect on 10 years since we as a family embarked on a year buying nothing new. I didn't know it at the time, but that year, that slightly naive challenge, would change my life (cliche klaxon!). It changed not just how and where we shop, but al…

I hope you’re enjoying this little trip down memory lane while the podcast takes a break for the summer. This time we’re re-visiting my chat with the brilliant Lauren from Wear 'em Out pads. I did a little listener survey recently and this came out as one of the firm faves – I think largely because Lauren is so down to earth and real about her expe…

The podcast is having a bit of a break over the summer, so we’re re-running some of the fun and I’m picking some of my fave episodes from the last 140 odd. It’s been a tough job choosing, but also really lovely to browse through the back catalogue and remember all the wonderful people and organisations I’ve been lucky enough to get to chat to! Toda…

The podcast is having a break over the summer, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to re-visit some of my favourite episodes from the archives. A few years ago there was an article on the BBC website about a school PTA who had set up a reusable party kit to rent out for kid's parties and to raise some funds for the school. The idea was supe…

The podcast is having a break over the summer, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to re-visit some of my favourite episodes from the archives. I thought this episode was a good one to listen again to over the summer, as in it I'm chatting to Martin Dorey, founder of the #2MinuteBeachClean and the #2MinuteFoundation. I figured lots of us mi…

The podcast is having a break over the summer, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to re-visit some of my favourite episodes from the archives. This episode with Chris Hellawell from The Edinburgh Tool Library was one of the very first episodes published, but that's not the only reason I love it so much. What Chris and his team have achieve…

"The Great Big Green Week is the UK's biggest every celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature. And everyone's invited." Sounds pretty good right? That's because it is! 2021 saw the inaugural Great Big Green Week (GBGW), from The Climate Coalition, host over 5000 events up and down the country, from bat walks to sch…

DID YOU KNOW..? There are over 40 million cars parked on our roads and driveways in the UK On average, vehicles in the UK sit idle 96% of the time For every 1 car shared, we can take 14 off the road A 2% switch to car sharing could see CO₂ emissions drop by 620,000 tonnes Which all sounds awesome, and even the big car manufacturers are gearing them…

Wow, wow, wow. What a conversation. And what an incredible human being Angus Rose is. Some of you may have seen Angus in the news earlier on this year when he embarked upon a hunger strike to ask that all MPs receive a scientific briefing about the science of climate change and it's impacts on the UK. Angus was on hunger strike for 37 days, and is …

Can a travel editor travel flight free? Can they still do their job without setting foot on an aeroplane? And why would they want to? Listen in to this chat with Helen Coffey, travel editor for the Independent newspaper, and author of Zero Altitude to find out the answers! We chat about: Helen's 'ecopiphany' - what was the point for her where she s…

Clothes - we all wear them, and we're getting through clothes at a faster rate than ever before. Clothing production has doubled globally between 2000 and 2015, and it's estimated that fashion accounts for around 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions (for context, aviation is around 2-5%). Some of these clothes are only worn a handful of times (so…

As individuals, a lot of the changes that we need to make to lower our environmental impact involve behavioural change and developing new habits. Which can be hard! Much of the time we develop habits, good or bad, unintentionally. We do things because they are the quickest, the easiest, the most enjoyable. They become habits as we repeat them, and …

I originally got in touch with Cass after signing up for a webinar she did with Creative Mornings called How to talk about the climate crisis without losing your friends, which I thought was such a brilliant title for a session. Cass is a freelance climate communicator and editor of The Green Fix - a weekly newsletter aimed at "bridging the gap bet…

As Covid restriction ease and borders open up again, many of us are desperate to escape the unpredictability of the British weather and experience some sunnier climes. However travel, or certainly international travel, feels pretty synonymous with flying and with the associated hefty carbon footprint that comes with that. Having resigned myself to …

It's very very easy to feel despondent about the climate crisis and the state of the planet. And it's very very easy (and I think very natural) to feel overwhelmed and powerless to make a difference to such a big and complex issue. Those of you who have been following for a while and paying attention(!) will know that I bang on a LOT about individu…

DID YOU KNOW? We have lost over a million acres of wild landscapes in the UK since the end of WW2 The total garden space in the UK is greater than all the nature reserves! Our gardens have huge potential to be havens for wildlife and pollinators I'm very much not a gardener, but I'm super aware that our garden could be working harder for nature and…

There's a LOT of information out there isn't there? On the internet, on the radio, in our newspapers, on the tel-box. And a helluva lots of opinions too. About everything, including climate stuff. So how do we know who to trust? How can we tell when we're reading what is essentially an opinion piece from a journalist or a publication with an agenda…

In this episode I'm chatting to Steve Shaw who is the Director of Power for People, a not for profit organisation campaigning for the UK to rapidly transition to 100% clean energy and for this to benefit local communities. Steve has been on the podcast before, way back in Episode 44, talking about how to get your MP to take action on the climate cr…