Nelmes family enjoy green life
A Kenilworth family is getting to grips with a greener way of living after taking up this year’s Sustainability Challenge.
Each year Warwickshire County Council chooses a family to go green in the hope of demonstrating that it is possible to change your life to a greener way of living with very little effort.
This is the fourth year of the Challenge, which runs as part of the county council’s Switch It Off campaign. Environmental experts are on hand working with the Nelmes family from Kenilworth as they attempt to live more sustainable lives.
They are being challenged to discover just how easy it is to go ‘green’, by trying out everything from home composting through to making sure they are not wasting energy by leaving things on stand-by.
Mum of three Clare Nelmes said the whole family is getting behind the effort, including 14-year-old Chloe, nine-year-old Jordan and even three-year-old Ellie-May.
Clare said: “It’s great how Ellie-May has taken to recycling, she wanders over to the sink now with her dirty yoghurt pots for them to be washed up for recycling.”
And the challenge is going well, with successes so far including:
*Alternative modes of travel - mum Clare has been using her pedometer at work and is doing more than 10,000 steps a day. At weekends she is doing over 20,000 steps.
* She has been leaving the car at home when possible and walking.
* Ecover products – she really likes the products and will continue with them. She says the yellow fabric conditioner holds it smell. The washing up liquid does not dry hands out, which other brands often do.
* Composting – the family have now started composting pet bedding and kitchen waste, and hope to use compost on vegetables the family hope to grow.
* Recycling - all the family are involved in this and are also looking at waste minimisation avoiding food packaged on trays and checking labels for recycling information.
* Fair Trade – they are purchasing sugar, which they found is the same price as non fair trade sugar. They are also buying fair trade tea bags and bananas (which they found are cheaper than Sainsburys own).
* Green dog loo – now in use and they said they are very happy with it, saying it doesn’t smell, is easy to use, and liquifies waste in around 5 weeks, this can then be flushed through with water
* They are looking at switching off products left on stand-by.
As part of getting the Kenilworth family started on the challenge they took delivery of a host of goodies to help make their environmental efforts a little easier.
So far the family has received:
A selection of donated ecover products including toilet cleaner, washing up liquid, fabric softener, laundry detergent.
A dog green loo
Water Butt
An Owl Electricity Monitor
Fair trade Tea
Energy efficient lightbulbs
Compost Bin
Kitchen Caddy
Reuseable bag
Pedometer
Umbrella
Clare said: “It’s going really well, we still need to get going properly with a couple of bits, like the composting, but the rest is really working well. I’ve been surprised how easy it is to make changes that make a real difference.
“It’s just a case of doing the little bits around the home, or walking into town to the shops rather than driving all the time. I’m wearing the pedometer all the time and I’m easily doing the 10,000 steps a day. I work in a kitchen so the steps really add up.”
Cllr Martin Heatley, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment, said: “It’s great to see a family taking on this challenge. Of course, with a little bit of thought they will hopefully find that being green and sustainable isn’t really as difficult as it may first appear, plus they may also save some money and improve their health at the same time.”