New Years resolutions – 5 Easy wins to reduce your carbon footprint

Our New Years’ resolution this year is to make sure that we make habitual changes to our everyday life in order to  help create a cleaner, greener and more sustainable future. We have already begun to make changes to how we operate in our chalets and want to make sure this is our focus during 2020. To help others also make small changes, with big impact, we have created a list of what we believe are easy wins to implement in order to help reduce you reduce your own carbon footprint.

 

1. Use energy wisely – it will also save you money!

At Fish&Pips we’ve already implemented the following energy saving easy wins –

• All our light blubs are LED
• Our heaters are on timers
• Guests can opt out of a towel change
• Some of our chalets have main switches that turn off all the lights at once to make sure that no lights are left on when the chalet is empty

Here’s what you could do at home:

• Make a conscious effort to make sure lights are turned off when not required.
• Switch your light bulbs to be energy saving or LEDs.
• Unplug or turn off your chargers, computers, TVs, etc, when not in use.
• If you aren’t so good at remembering to turn things off install timer switches.
• Wash your clothes at a colder temperature.
• Hang-dry clothes when you can.
• Target yourself to reduce your monthly energy by installing a smart meter.
• Close your windows when your heating is on.
• When on holiday think whether you really need the air con on or could you just open a window.

2. Think about your travel – could also help your health

At Fish&Pips we’ve implemented the following travel easy wins –

• All of our staff opted to take the train to resort this year instead of flying
• We provide guests with in depth details regarding train travel when they book their holiday with us.
• Where possible we encourage staff and guests to make use of the public bus service

Here’s what you could do in your everyday life:

• Do you really need to take the car or could you walk, run or cycle there instead. Even if you swapped travel once a week it would make a difference.
• Use public transport whenever possible.
• Share your journey with others to avoid more cars going to the same destination. Think about the school run or commute to work; is there someone you could partner up with?
• Where possible take the train or boat instead of flying.

3. Consider your consumer behaviour – it will also save you money!

At Fish&Pips we are being mindful of what we consume and have used our buying power to make easy wins –

• We have switched our loo roll provider to ‘Who Gives a Crap’. Not only are they better value for money but the paper is made out of 100% recycled paper and they donate 50% of their profit to people who are in need of toilets.
• We did our research into our lip balm provider and were very pleased to find out that they do not contain palm oil, are manufactured in Germany and then shipped to us – no air freight.
• No longer providing miniatures toiletries in the chalets but using refills instead, significantly reduces our throw away packaging.
• Our uniform T-shirts have been produced by Teemill who not only use organic cotton and plastic free packaging but they use renewable energy for production and recycle old T-shirts into new ones. At the end of this season we will send back our T-shirts in order to make new ones for next year.
• We are questioning and challenging our suppliers to reduce their own carbon footprint with an emphasis on reducing packaging and waste.
• We are also using companies whose values are aligned with ours.

Here’s what you could do at home:

• Reuse your items – don’t buy new things when there is no need to. Go through your cupboards and see what you have that could be reused instead.
• Buy second hand – think of this as a double win, if you buy things from a charity shop you are not only helping the charity but also the environment by keeping clothes out of land-fill.
• Buy ski gear from One Sleeve – One Sleeve At A Time is part of One Tree At A Time who we are working on our carbon footprint with. They are selling ex-sample and repaired merino baselayers, down jackets and mid layer fleeces at great prices. You make savings, help a great cause and keep gear out of landfill!
• Swap things with your friends. Make it fun by creating a clothes swapping event at your office, or the local pub or your children’s school. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.
• Repair don’t replace. Before you throw something out for having a hole in it can it actually be fixed and reused instead?
• Pass on instead of throwing out your unwanted items. Baby clothes are a perfect example.
• Switch brands to those that care about the environment. Do some research into your favourite brands environmental policies. If they don’t match or aren’t seen to be making small changes themselves then switch to one that is.
• Recycle – an obvious win.
• Use rental services instead of purchasing.

4. Question your diet – you are what you eat

At Fish&Pips we are changing the way we source our food and focusing on reducing our waste –

• We are weighing our waste – making sure we reuse what we can with the aim of reducing all waste throughout the season.
• Switched to Clipper Teas – they are completely plastic free across their range.
• We are offering guests the option of having a couple of nights meat free in the chalet.
• We have put a pressure on our chefs to only buy and utilize seasonally locally produced vegetables
• We are now only providing French wines – for reduced wine miles!

At home you could:

• Eat less meat. It doesn’t have to mean going completely vegetarian or vegan but how about starting with a meat free Monday?
• Eat /shop local. Make a conscious effort to look at where your food is coming from. Do you really need to eat those mangoes that have travelled from Brazil by plane? Could you choose ones from the UK instead? If you are cutting down on your airmiles then shouldn’t your food do the same?
• Visit your local farmers markets. Not only will it reduce your food miles but you will be supporting small local businesses.
• Eat seasonally. Food in season not only usually tastes better but will also have less food miles.
• Pick products that have less packaging. Is there a salad that is not wrapped in plastic that you could wash instead? Do you need those individually wrapped cakes or can you get a cake and slice it up, even better – bake that cake at home! Do you really need a bottle of fizzy water or could you invest in a soda stream instead?

5. Offset

At Fish&Pips we have pledged to plant 10,000 trees over the next 6 months in order to offset some of our carbon footprint –

• Our team have opted to plant 1,700 instead of receiving Xmas presents this year.
• We will plant alongside our guests to help offset the travel to resort

You can Offset too – Grow your own forest

You are going to do some things that are inevitably not great for your carbon emissions. Flying is the most obvious. So if you do have to fly why not off set your carbon with  https://onetreeatatime.fr/plant-a-tree/ and plant some trees. Trees are said to lock away 22kg of CO2 a year each. One Tree at a Time has chosen two plant locations so you can choose the one that feels right for you. Whether it be planting trees in France or Africa.

 

Overall it isn’t about changing your whole life, moving to the country and living off the land (although that sounds rather great to us) it is about being more self-aware and thoughtful, demanding more from all brands and suppliers, challenging the way we currently live and making small changes to protect our future.