This episode is hitting the airways just a couple of days before Black Friday 2019.
If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard of Black Friday, it’s another delightful American import that has made it’s way over here, and is basically where retailers and manufacturers slash their prices in a bid to get you to buy All The Things in the run up to Christmas.
And this episode feels very timely (I’m totally patting myself on the back for this and pretending it was all a very strategic plan, when in reality I got behind with the podcast schedule after half-term, but sssshhhh) as I’m chatting to Ollie at the charity Global Action Plan about their #idontbuyit campaign. This is a campaign aimed at teenagers (and their parents. And in fact is relevant to all of us) to raise awareness around the insidiousness (is that even a word) of advertising, especially online, and the steps they can take to try and consume more thoughtfully.

One of the things that is suggested is to time a minute scrolling through Instagram (or Facebook if you’re not on Instagram) and make a note of how many ads and sponsored posts you see, and I would really urge you (teenager or not!) to give this a go and then share the results (you can share with the #idontbuytit hashtag on social media, on any of my social media channels or leave a comment below)– it’s a real eye opener..!

Enjoy!

• Global Action Plan
  - Website
  - Facebook
  - Instagram
  - Twitter
  - Clean Air Day
  - Twitter
  - Wellbeing and Consumerism
  - #idontbuyit campaign
  - Resources for parents​
• Sustainable(ish) Facebook group

Electric cars - my god it's confusing isn't it?
Even just the terminology - EVs, ICE, PHEV... what does it all mean? How do I charge it? Doesn't it take hours to charge? How do I find charge points? What if I haven't got a drive?

ALL the questions!

Well never fear, in this episode I'm chatting to James and Kate of You Tube fame who I wanted to get on the show after watching one of their reviews where Kate points out that you can get the buggy in the back of the car. That's the sort of stuff we actually want to know. Not complicated geeky talk of miles per kilowatt hour. Well, that and how do we make sure we don't run out of charge...
James and Kate are full on EV (electric vehicle) fans, and have test driven loads, so I ask them the questions that we all want to ask, in what is hopefully a kind of beginners guide to all things electric cars.

Enjoy!

• James and Kate
  - You Tube
  - Twitter
  
• ​OLEV - grants for home chargers
• Zappi chargers - 'smart' charger for home charging
• Zap Map - app for finding electric charging points
• Plug Share - app for finding electric charging points
• Polar - charging network
• Eco Cars - secondhand EV retailer (highly recommended by James and Kate!)
  

The kids after test driving the Kia e-niro

** This episode is supported by Little Freddie, the UKs leading sustainable baby food brand. 

Parenting is bloody hard work isn't it?
When you're up to your eyeballs in dirty nappies, sleep deprivation and anxiety around keeping your very own small person fed, entertained, educated, stimulated and everything else we're apparently supposed to be doing, adding in trying to do it all a bit more sustainably can feel like yet another thing to worry about/add to the to-do list/feel guilty about.
Having kids is the perfect storm for feeling crap about the planet - we all want the best for our kids, and it follows that we want them have a safe and secure future, hence I think this is a time when lots of us start to think more about our impact on the planet. But at exactly the same time, this influx of 'stuff' comes into our homes, and our bins are suddenly over-flowing with nappies and food pouches, and wipes. And all of this has to be grappled with when we're lacking in sleep, time and energy. Yay!!!

In this episode I'm chatting to Karen Maurice, aka n4mummy, who is a mum to two (soon to be three!), who talks about 'sustainable parenting in the modern world', and who despite having a very beautiful Instagram feed does appreciate the reality of life for the rest of us mere mortals whose lives are less photogenic, and the struggles we face every day trying to bring up our kids, stay sane, and make sure we don't totally trash the planet.

Enjoy!

• ​n4mummy
  - Website
  - Facebook
  - Twitter
  - Instagram
• Little Freddie
  - Website
  - Sustainability
  - Pouch recycling
  - Pouches for prizes
• Tootsa MacGinty
• Little Green Radicals
• From Babies with Love
• Bundlee - baby clothing rental
• Whirli - toy subscription service
• A beginners guide to reusable baby wipes
• [031] - Plastic-free periods and wipes with Susie Hewson from Natracare
• [036] - How to talk to our kids about climate change
• Sustainable(ish) with Kids FB group

• Shop secondhand - for baby and kids clothes, toys, everything!

• Get the kids to wear an apron when they're eating to save on washing clothes!
• Work out what works for you and your family - no change or swap has to be all or nothing
• Try out reusable wipes (at home to begin with)
• If you use pouches for weaning or toddler meals on the go, try Little Freddie and get recycling with their prizes for pouches!
• Add 'resusable water bottle' to your list of stuff to chuck in the changing bag before you leave the house!

• The UK is one of Europe's least wooded countries - the average woodland cover for EU countries is 37%. Here in the UK we're lagging massively behind at around 13%
• If we are to limit climate change to below 1.5C by 2050, an extra 2.4 BILLION acres of trees needs to be planted
• Reforesting the world could capture around 2/3 of man-made carbon emissions
• Trees are the ultimate multi-taskers and don't only capture carbon, and improve air quality, they also improve soil structure and help prevent flooding, as well as providing shelter, food and habitat for our ecosystems
• #everytreecounts, so planting a tree in your garden a home, an acorn in a pot, or a new hedge or shrub is as important as bigger mass plantings in managed woodland - we can all get involved!

Trees really are brilliant aren't they?
They just sit there, doing their thing, 'breathing in' carbon dioxide, and 'breathing out' oxygen (you know, that little thing that keeps us alive..!). But we've got fewer and fewer of them, and if we're to avoid runaway climate change, planting trees, and lots of them, is an important part of the jigsaw.

The Woodland Trust is the largest woodland conservation society in the UK, and works to protect our existing woodlands, and plant lots of new trees - they've planted over 43million trees since 1972. In this episode I'm chatting to Carol Honeybun-Kelly from The Woodland Trust, about their work, and specifically about their new campaign - the Big Climate Fightback - which aims to get us all pledging and planting trees in November of this year.

Listen in to find out more about the wonder of trees, and how we can get involved with the Big Climate Fightback.

Enjoy!

• The Woodland Trust
  - Website
  - Facebook
  - Twitter
  - Instagram
  - The Big Climate Fightback
  - Pledge to plant a tree
  - How to plant a tree
  - Buy trees from the Woodland Trust
  - Big Climate Fightback national events
• Ethiopia plants 350 million trees in a day
  
• Sustainable(ish) online community FB group

• A land mass larger than China is used to grow food that is never eaten
• 25% of humanity's water is used on food that is never eaten
• Food waste accounts for around 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions (2-4x greater than aviation)
• If food waste were a country it would be the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after the USA and China
• 50% of food waste occurs in the home

All of those stats are pretty shocking, but the one that always gets me is the food waste in the home one. It's easy to blame farmers, or supermarkets for food waste, but actually the biggest culprits are us - you and me - with the brown bananas we ditch, or that pot of hummus at the back of fridge that we forgot about. And no matter how anal we might be about food waste, it's always going to occur -there's always going to be that kids party where they were all too hyped up to eat the carefully prepared sandwiches, party rings, crisps and the token carrot sticks you put on the table to make yourself feel slightly better about the rest of it; or the food left in the fridge before we go on holiday; or that unexpected work meeting. And this is where Olio comes in - it's a food sharing app that makes it easy for us to share food we don't want or need with neighbours living nearby who would like it.

Listen in to my chat with Tessa Clarke, joint founder and CEO of Olio. Hear how Tessa and her business partner got started with just a handful of people in a What’s App group, and how they grew that to an app that has amassed a million users. AND their plans to grow it to over a billion users in the coming years. ​It's an inspiring call to action for all of us to join the food waste revolution.

Enjoy!

• Olio
  - Website
  - Facebook
  - Twitter
  - Instagram
  - Olio volunteer roles
• ​[041] Use your phone to fight food waste with CozZo (podcast)
• The Sustainable(ish) Big Six (blog post)
• Fight food waste with your phone (blog post)
• Sustainable(ish) online community FB group