It doesn’t matter what walk of life you are on, we all hear about the environment. I remember my first active consideration towards recycling was watching Blue Peter and starting to collect aluminium drink cans. From there we were told about not wasting paper to save trees, and there was talk about the ozone layer and for some reason I remember that refrigeration was particularly bad for the ozone layer. Now, we hear about plastics, and carbon footprints, and what we should and shouldn’t do in order to protect our environment from more damage. Carbon targets are being set left right and centre, but what is it we can actually do as individuals that will have a positive impact?

I just don’t buy all this vegan nonsense about reducing red meat consumption to save the planet. Everything we do has a consequence, but I am not going to stop eating clean, healthy, nutrient dense products in exchange for over processed ‘food’. It makes no sense to me.

Think about what you CAN do,easy to think of reasons not to change our ways, and find excuses, so be positive and think about it properly, don’t be that person who just does it to tick the box.

I was encouraged to think about this in work recently. We were in the middle of our companies environmental week. It is easy to roll our eyes at this sort of thing but in reality it is our chance to think about something differently, and we should take that opportunity and challenge.

On Tuesday we were challenged to write our own environmental pledge. Now I take this seriously. I am the same with new year resolutions. I can’t pledge something I won’t keep, what is the point in that?

Our team on site had gone to the great effort of designing a tree, then we each had a leaf to attach to it with our pledge written on. I thought long and hard about what to put on here, it needed to be a bit stretching but also achievable.

You will have noticed from my previous posts and instagram account that I am a fan of food.Food waste is a big area to improve on so I have pledged to have a weekly menu plan which should mean I inly buy what I need. Now this seems easy but my job requires me to travel a lot and a plan can be in place but executing it can be quite different. I also suffer terribly from temptation when I am at the shops…food shops in particular. I don’t agree with delivery to the home, I am old fashioned like that, I want to see what I buy but I am going to have to be a lot more strict with myself.

A simple thing I could do in addition to shopping better, is remembering my bag for life,anybody else got a cupboard and boot full of these🙈??!

Before I moved in with my now husband, I bought my own house, when I got my first job. My first job was near as 100% commission based pay as you can get (they would never give me a mortgage these days) so budgeting was important. Part of budgeting was my food shop. I did a couple of things, firstly got my meat and fish on a daily basis from my favourite area in the supermarket…..the going out of date bin. As I lived on my own and I like variety, this really suited me and my pocket.

The second thing I did was walk to the shops and take my rucksack. If I couldn’t carry it home in the rucksack then I didn’t buy it. Now I go shopping, in my car,and have enough bags for life to supply a small nation. Isn’t it ridiculous that now I earn more I am more frivolous? I need to get a grip here, and aside from being less wasteful,just imagine what it could do to my waistline….like I said, everything we do has a consequence, and sometimes it can be a positive result!

We must each do what we can, but we must each consider what we do. I will waste less food, but I will still travel as it is part of my job. This week alone I have used a tank of diesel in the car, taken a train from Wales to London and back, and used a couple of cabs and ubers. Lets just be aware and start making changes that are real,bit by bit. Do what we can.

To close, a note of advice for people who try to influence me when I got to the shops (like the man in Lampeter this week). Please do not approach me unless you are genuinely ready for my response. He asked me if I care about climate change….now I do,of course I do,but I am in a hurry at this point in time and do not wish to engage with you. My response was no (to get away) to which he replied ‘you should think about your children’ which antagonised the beast within me. As I came out again, and had had time to think about the situation, I went back to question him. What does he do himself to protect our planet? He had no answers for me, but did invite me to a meeting. Now I love a meeting, so I will be there. I hope he is ready this time!

Thank you for listening to my rants, and I hope you realise from all this that I do care about the environment and the world we live in. I believe small, genuine changes will make the difference.