Sustainable(ish)

A solo episode from me, detailing my recent visit to my MP!
I talk about why MP engagement is so important, even if it can feel a teensy bit frustrating; how and why my MP visit came about; what happened during my visit; and my top tips for MP visits (because obviously I'm now officially an expert having done one..!)
If you're looking for tips and a bit of gently encouragement to engage with your MP on climate stuff, whether that's off the back of a People's Emergency Briefing, or something else, I hope this is helpful!

USEFUL LINKS:

• My posts on Linked In:
  - Plea for tips and experiences
  - MP visit Pt 1
  - MP visit Pt 2
• Climate Barometer
• Hope for the Future
• National Emergency Briefing
  - Website
  - Expert briefings (with link to download key points)
  - MP dialogue
• Carbon Brief
• Simon Evans' thread on BlueSky re the sale of the licenses
• [204] – Hosting a People’s Emergency Briefing
• [186] – The National Emergency Briefing with Nick Oldridge
• [208] – Climate Citizens (and how to be a good one) with Rebecca Willis

THE SUSTAINABLE(ISH) CLUBHOUSE
Come and join me in the Sustainable(ish) Clubhouse - the doors are open for October, where we'll be diving into all things Sustainable(ish) Fashion 👗. There's more info here.

Have you ever written to, or visited, your MP? Does this episode give you encouragement? Or scare the pants off you?
Do let me know! Email me on [email protected] or leave a comment wherever you get your podcasts.

And please do rate and review the podcast 🌟

In the UK we buy 37 million toys a year! And 80% of them end up in landfill, incinerators, or the oceans.

In this episode I'm welcoming Charlotte Mason-Curl, founder of No Crap Parties back to the podcast. In a bid to try and keep some of these toys in use for longer, Charlotte is running The Big Toy Swap this November and has a goal of 50 Toy Swaps happening all around the country. We dive into the nitty gritty and hopefully answer all your questions about hosting a toy swap and make it feel super do-able! And if you’re like me and have older kids, or maybe don’t have any kids at all, that doesn’t let you off the hook–we talk about ways to hook up with schools or brownie or scout groups, to run a Toy Swap in your local community.
AND we’ve got the first ever podcast giveaway!
I’ve got two ‘rescue’ copies of Charlotte’s book Elf Chloe’s Surprise to give away. To enter, either come and find me on Instagram (@Sustainableish) and comment 'Elf Chloes Surprise' on the post, or leave a comment that includes the phrase 'Elf Chloe's Surprise' wherever you get your podcasts.

USEFUL LINKS:

• No Crap Parties
  - Website
  - Instagram
  - Facebook
• Big Toy Swap
  - Find a Toy Swap
• Elf Chloe's Surprise - website (where you can get a fragile copy) or Amazon
• Crowdfunder - Planet Friendly Party Resource for schools: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/planet-friendly-present-pack
• Connect with Charlotte:
  - Instagram
  - Linked In
  - See Charlotte at TedX Worthing (20% Off tickets with TedXSpeakerMate) 
• Episode 187 - No Crap Parties with Charlotte Mason Curl
• Episode 193 - The Power of Swapping with Sam Drury Shore
• Loved Before

SUSTAINABLE(ISH) STUFF

• Join the Sustainable(ish) Clubhouse for October!
• Sustainable(ish) Carbon Literacy courses
• Sustainable(ish) Carbon Literacy refresher courses

Thanks so much for listening!

In this episode I'm chatting to Polly Turton, Head of Climate Action and Public Health Shade the UK, an organisation who have a vision and a mission of "zero deaths from overheating and a UK where everyone can live, work and thrive in hot weather."
We dive into:
- How hot was this summer?
- What about 1976?
- Is the new 'normal' (or abnormal)
- The health impacts of heat on different groups within our societies
- Why heat is a climate justice issue, and 'cooling poverty' is now a growing concern for summer months
- Shouldn't we just install air con?
- Changes that are needed to help our towns and cities adapt to a warming climate
- Changes we can look to make in our own homes, from DIY measures, to more permanent retrofit

USEFUL LINKS:

Shade the UK
- Website
- Instagram
- Linked In
- Overheating adaptation guides

• Polly Turton on Linked In
• Andy Love (Shade the UK founder) on Linked In
• Summer 2026 hottest on record for the UK – Met Office
• Summer 1976 – 2026 – Met Office
• Cooling Roadmap for London
• Heat mortality monitoring report 2022
• Excess deaths May and June 2026

Let me know your thoughts on this one - drop me an email on [email protected], or leave a comment wherever you're listening to this. Please do share this episode with anyone you think would be interested or would find it useful, and leave a rating and a review on your podcast platform of choice.

Thanks for listening!

This episode is a solo episode from me, all about bins! Specifically my bins and how we only put out bin out once every 9-12 months.
It’s Zero Waste Week this week, so whilst I would very much not consider us a ‘zero waste’ household, I wanted to share some tips to help us all be ‘zero-waste(ish)’, ie produce less waste, rather that’s recycling or waste destinted for landfill or incineration.

USEFUL LINKS:
Zero Waste Week

Simpler Recycling: household recycling in England
Podcast ep – The Big Plastic Count with Daniel Webb

Wholly Shrink

Terracycle zero waste box

Green Johanna

Green Cone
Local Council discounts

Loop Frome – Frome food waste recycling scheme

Generation Soil – Bristol food waste recycling scheme

Keep Britain Tidy Waste Hierarchy

Find a Repair Café

Buyerarchy of Needs – Sarah Lazarovic

Come and join me on the Sustainable(ish) Talking Climate Carbon Literacy course!

If you enjoyed this episode, please do subscribe or follow if you aren’t already, share it on your socials, and leave a comment, rating, or review wherever you get your podcasts.
Thanks so much for listening!

In this episode we take a dive into climate anxiety, and I’m chatting to Linda Aspey who amongst many other roles is Director of Psychology at the People’s Emergency Briefing and a board member of the Climate Psychology Alliance.

We explore:
- what is climate anxiety?
-why do some people have it and some don’t?
- why for some people it tips into something that starts to disturb their ability to do the things they want and need to
- some of the things that can help.

Linda mentions some sources of support in the episode, and I’ve linked to them below - if you’re really struggling with your mental health, then please do reach out for support. You’re not on your own. There is support out there, lots of which can be accessed at very low or no cost.

USEFUL LINKS

• Linda Aspey
  - Website
  - Linked In
• National Emergency Briefing
  - Host a screening - register to host and you'll get a resource pack with links to facilitator workshops
• Climate Psychology Alliance
  - Website
  - Climate Café Listening circles
  - CPA therapeutic support
• A Barrister for the Earth by Monica Feria-Tinta
• Solastalgia
• Adrian Lambert on Substack
• Turn the Tide on Climate Anxiety by Megan Kennedy-Woodard and Patrick Kennedy-Williams

Related Sustainable(ish) podcast episodes:

• How to be more activist with Clover Hogan
• Turn the tide on climate anxiety with Megan Kennedy Woodard

Sustainable(ish) Carbon Literacy Training

Follow Sustainable(ish) on Instagram.
Email jen on [email protected]

This week I’m joined by Dan Tipney, a former airline pilot who co-founded Safe Landing, a community of aviation workers and enthusiasts, working together to figure out what it might look like to have a world where aviation flourishes, in harmony with nature.
This episode isn’t an episode in flight shaming anyone, and absolutely doesn’t have the intention of making anyone feel bad about the choices they’re making. We obviously talk about the impact of flying, because coming to terms with the cold hard facts around that is a key part of Dan’s story. But this episode is more about the power of story-telling and conversations, about how two things can be true at the same time, and about how learning to recognise that and sit with the discomfort that it can bring, could help us all to have better climate conversations.

USEFUL LINKS:

•  Dan Tipney on Linked In

 Safe Landing

-              Website

-              Linked In

-              Instagram

• Charlie Cotton’s post on Linked In about flight efficiencies vs flight numbers
• Jon Richardon and The Futurenauts – The Future of Life After Oil
• Larger Us
• Climate Fresk
• Episode 189 – Climate Fresk (and friends) with Ash Goddard
• Charlie Gardner
• Ayana Elizbeth Johnson – Climate Venn Diagram

Do come and join us in the Sustainable(ish) Clubhouse for September!

And please do leave a rating and a review wherever you get your podcasts 🌟

This week I’m joined by Dan Edelstyn, artist and documentary film maker whose latest film Power Station with his partner Hilary Powell, documents their attempts to turn the street where they live in Walthamstow in London, into a power station, by putting solar on the roofs of the houses.

USEFUL LINKS:

• Dan on Linked In
• Power Station
  - Website
  - Watch the film

  - (Free) membership community – including access to a How-to Guide

  - Instagram

  - Facebook

  - You Tube

• Dan and Hilary’s previous films:

  - Bank Job

  - How to Re-establish a Vodka Empire

• Ann Pettifor
• You Tube video of guy dancing on his own at a festival and starting a dance party!
• Episode 188 – Money Money Money with Lisa Stanley Mann
• We the Hated – film about Just Stop Oil protestors
• POP Energy – supporting communities to install solar

 
SUSTAINABLE(ISH) STUFF YOU MIGHT LIKE!

• Come and join the Sustainable(ish) Clubhouse!
• Join the Sustainable(ish) Carbon Literacy Course in September

Thanks for listening!
Please do leave a rating and a review wherever you get your podcasts, and get in touch on [email protected]

There are 60 million tonnes of e-waste generated every year globally – that's around the same as the weight of nearly 6,000 Eiffel Towers!

 And E-waste is the fastest growing waste stream globally, with the UK as the second biggest e-waste producer in the world.

Team Repair are on a mission to change that through education and repair kits to help us all feel a bit more confident having a go at mending our broken electronics.

Tune in to to hear from co-founder Anaïs Engelmann about some of the wider issues around e-waste, how Team Repair got started, and the great work they're doing with kids, schools, and their new mobile phone repair kit for grown ups.

USEFUL LINKS:

• Team Repair
  - Website
  - Instagram
  - Facebook
  - You Tube
  - TikTok
  - Kits for kids
  - For schools

  - Mobile phone repair kit

•  UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• Right to Repair
• Restart Project
  - Repair and Reuse Declaration
  - International Repair Day – 17th October
• iFixIt
• Repair Cafes
  - Find a Repair Café near you

Follow Sustainable(ish) on Instagram, and do get in touch with Jen on [email protected] with feedback, questions, or guest suggestions.

Come on the September Carbon Literacy course!
More details and how to book here.

Join the waiting list for the Sustainable(ish) Clubhouse - doors opening for September very soon!

This weeks episode is a solo episode for me - a little bit about our holiday in Switzerland, which isn't really about our holiday in Switzerland. It's more about the logistics of a flight free holiday to Europe from somebody who finds organizing and travel arrangements really quite stressful!

USEFUL LINKS:

·       Episode 042 - Flight Free 2020 with Anna Hughes

·       Episode 139 - European Rail Adventures with Georgina Wilson-Powell

·       Episode 142 - Can a travel editor travel flight-free? With Helen Coffey

·       Zero Altitude by Helen Coffey

·       Byway

·       Man in Seat 61

·       Flight Free UK
- Take the flight-free challenge

·       Interail & Eurail Travellers FB group

·       Interail website

·       Bonjour RATP

·       Giki flight calculator

·       Eurostar carbon footprint

·       Paris – Geneva carbon footprint

Let me know your thoughts on this episode!
If you've been thinking about European train travel but it's all felt a bit overwhelming, has this been helpful? If you're a seasoned train traveller across Europe, please do share your own top tips and resources.
Leave a comment wherever you get your podcasts!

Thanks for listening 🙌

Could secondhand fashion be a lever for positive change within the wider fashion industry? And what might that look like?

Join us as this weeks guest Gemma Metheringham shares her journey from Creative Director at Karen Millen, to PhD student exploring these big questions. Gemma shares her journey on her instagram account, @the_elephant_in_my_wardrobe, where she does a brilliant job of bringing people along with her, encouraging us all to ask more questions of our own choices, but also of the brands and businesses we're choosing to give our money to.

LINKS TO STUFF WE TALK ABOUT:

• @the_elephant_in_mywardrobe
• The Day the World Stops Shopping by J.B. Mackinnon
• Ep 124 - The Day the world stops shopping with JB Mackinnon
• Human Touch
• Earth Overshoot Day
• Hot or Cool Institute – Resizing the fashion industry
• Ep 205 - Sustainable Style with Becky Barnes
• ReLondon – London’s fashion footprint
• Only 10-20% of donated clothes are sold on through charity shops
• Patrick Grant – Less
• Rob Hopkins
• WWF Living Planet Report
• How the dawn chorus has changed over the last 50 years
• The Little Loop
•  Ep 96 - Kids clothes - why buy when you can rent? With Charlotte Morley from The Little Loop

What are your thoughts on that one? I’d love to know! Drop me an email on jen@sustainable(ish).co.uk, or leave a comment wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks for listening!