Climate Action Top Tips

The St Luke's Eco-group & EcoCounts want to suggest some ways we can all contribute to make a positive difference in this time of Climate Crisis


  • Talk about climate change!
    One of the most important things we can do to encourage climate action is to talk to those around us about why it matters. Start by listening to this podcast about how to talk about climate change.

  • Buy plastic free goods
    Use the plastic-free Fair-well truck shop (on a former milk-float) and re-fill your pasta/rice/muesli etc on your doorstep. They also just started doing compostable cling-film. Or take your containers to Kilo plastic-free shop on Holloway Road.

  • Move your money
    Change bank. All high street banks invest in fossil fuels, move your money to invest in renewables instead. Money talks louder than words, don’t support investment in fossil fuels. Eg: Triodos Bank invests in renewables.

  • Love food hate waste & start your own compost
    Go to Love Food, Hate Waste website to find out what you can do.
    Start your own Compost, Worm bin, bokashi, or use the brown compost bins provided by the council.

  • New clothes
    Feeling like you need some new clothes for the season? Fast fashion is responsible for 10% of global emissions and is projected to rise by more than 50% by 2030. Swap with friends or buy second hand wherever you can.

  • Make your pension green
    According to Make My Money Matter, set up by Richard Curtis of Comic Relief, for every £10 that people in the UK put in a pension, £2 is linked to deforestation. ‘Making your pension green is 21x more powerful than giving up flying, going veggie and switching energy provider.’

  • No new oil
    Scientists have said time and again that we must rapidly phase out all fossil fuels but the government is still approving new oil projects. Join the Stop Cambo campaign now to demand the government changes its latest approval.

  • People friendly neighbourhoods
    Find out more about low traffic neighbourhoods in Islington and how they benefit communities and the environment.

  • What foods to choose
    Pick recipes based on the ingredients you already have (search online or use books like Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book and Fruit Book) and try a seasonal cookbook like Anna Jones’ A Modern Cook’s Year.

    • What you already have!

    • Seasonal

    • Local

    • Organic if you can afford it

    Diet carbon calculator | Per food item | The difficulty with data

  • Beg, borrow or swap
    Freegle, Freecycle, Nextdoor, swishing.com, libraries, library of things Circular Economy. Nothing should fall out of the loop, target 100% sustainability.

  • Shower flow limiter
    Get a water restrictor for your shower, and reduce your shower time to 5 minutes. You could save around £40 per person per year if you are on a water meter and around 150 cups of tea a day! Save around £40 per person on your gas bills too - probably more if the prices do go up as currently planned.

  • Try to go car-free

    • Walking – great for short distances plus keeps you fit.

    • Cycling – great for shorter distances, fitness, good combination with trains.

    • Electric bicycles – great for longer distances or speedier journeys.

    • Bus, tram, metro – very low emissions, often cheap, dry!

    • Train – low emissions (although there are a lot of diesel trains on rural routes which need electrifying).

    • Electric cars – join a car club to use a car by the hour, eg. zipcar have electric cars to hire.

  • Installing energy efficiency measures
    Green Doctors offers free and impartial energy advice to help residents stay warm, save money and live greener - sign up for a free phone consultation.

  • Invest in warm clothing
    Warm jumpers, base layers, apres ski boots. Turn down the thermostat on your heating and turn it off completely May-September.

  • Think before upgrading appliances
    Upgrading unnecessarily wastes resources but when it’s time to replace kitchen appliances and boilers choose the most energy efficient possible - A +++ though ratings will change shortly to push for greater efficiencies.

  • Holiday travel

    • Make the journey an enjoyable part of the holiday (train travel) - check out this Guardian article it has a range of options and links.

    • European train info: the Man in Seat 61

    • Half the emissions of your round-trip by making one half by train

    • Try sleeper trains / night trains

    • Stay-cations: travel by train and hire a car / bicycles at the destination

  • Saving energy
    Be smart and prudent with your domestic energy bill.

    • Ask for a smartmeter if you don't have one (free)

    • Set the hot water timer for only when needed e.g. three hours morning and evening, and turn the temperature down to 60°C.

    • Review the central heating timer and turn down the temperature. Some people are comfortable as low as 16.5°C though 18 or 19°C is more normal.

  • Insulate your home

    • Add breathable insulation in the loft. Think about walls, floors and double glazing.

    • Insulate the hot water cylinder if you have one.

    • Draught proof windows and external doors.

    • Block unused chimneys - or the nicely heated air in your room will disappear up it. Chimney balloons will need re-inflating annually.

  • What to do with old or broken stuff

    Don’t just leave it in a drawer or a cupboard....

  • Heating system

    • Think about how to replace the gas boiler - a ground source heat pump, air source heat pump, immersion heater, solar hot water - or is a complete retrofit on the cards.

    • Read how Kate Calvert turned her Victorian terraced house in Archway into a superhome - podcast here.

  • Change lighting

    • Replace lighting with LED low energy lights (try to get them for free from council or energy charities).

    • Fit sensor lighting or timer switches externally and in communal areas so no lights stay on unnecessarily.

  • Think before you buy clothes

    If buying new clothes (vintage is best), make sure they are natural fibre, or even better, natural, organically farmed fibre.

  • Stay Connected to Nature

    Nature has always borne the brunt of built development, farming, fishing etc, but we need to turn this around. By promoting nature, we will help economic development as climate change progresses

    • Staying connected to nature - wildlife clubs, gardens, allotments, wild areas in city parks, in city farms.

    • Plant wild-flower seeds, grow flowers or herbs in window-boxes

    • Community gardeners or join our Garden Group (we meet monthly on the first Saturday of the month from 11-2pm no experience necessary, all welcome!

  • Re-use, Re-purpose, Up-cycle, Recycle
    Packaging - the plastic - polystyrene - paper nightmare;

  • Cook pasta with less energy

    • Soak the pasta for 2 hours in cold water

    • Take the pasta out of the water, bring it to a boil, and throw the pasta back in for two minutes

    • Job done, energy saving: 50%

  • Block your chimney 

    If you have an open fireplace and chimney in your house or flat, you are wasting energy. You can effectively block your chimney with a regular chimney draught stopper for £20.

  • Sustainable Flowers Online

    When next purchasing flowers buy local. A mixed British bouquet, grown here in the UK will have the lowest carbon footprints than imported flowers, according to studies. There is an online florist called the Great British Florist who is not organic but uses only locally grown and seasonal flowers. And a promising directory called Flowers from the Farm which lists multiple florists and flower growers.

  • Microfilter for your washing machine

    An average family wash will end up dumping a surprising amount of plastic microfibres down the drain, which ultimately work their way out into the oceans and then into the food chain and eventually into our bodies, often with a whole entourage of toxic chemicals attached at molecular level from marine pollution.

    Meanwhile orca and dolphin populations are seriously affected too.

    If you can afford a microfilter on your washing machine's outlet pipe, that will catch it all before it pollutes the planet. They can be purchased here.

  • Make the pledge to go peat-free

    The government did well by banning the retail sale of peat, but just announced that the ban will not cover the professional horticultural sector until 2030. This means millions and millions of tons of CO2 emissions. So it's time to speak up - whether it's the Royal Horticultural Society or your local garden centre, or pledge to go peat-free through the Wildlife Trust here.

  • No Mow May
    Free the wildflowers in your lawn so they can grow wild and provide a feast for pollinators, tackle pollution, and lock away atmospheric carbon below ground. Join Plantlife and their No Mow May campaign - we are at church and if you can at home, please do the same!

  • Sustainable tech
    Fairphone and Frame.work are building technology with sustainability, recycling, reuse, repair and low emissions built-in.They have repair costs that are literally a fifth to a tenth of the cost of similar repairs to an Apple product.
    Fairphone also lead the way in conflict-free minerals, they buy direct from co-operatively run mining operations. It can be done! Use your superpower as a consumer to make the world a better place. More details here.

  • Repair. One of key three R's - re-use, repair, recycle.
    There's a new organisation called the Fixing Factory setting up regular repair workshops for broken electric items, for free, with one of the first being in Camden: Fixing Factory