Our Head of Products and Marketing, Clare Mahood, shares a few of her top tips that helps to protect the environment and also helps reduce her family’s monthly outgoings.
“My first tip is to cut down as much as possible the use of a tumble-dryer. After my smart meter was installed I was horrified to see the numbers zooming upwards, every time I used the dryer. I now dry outdoors as much as possible and when this can’t be done, I hang clothes inside, in warm places. The saving has been as much as £10 a week!!
I am consciously trying to reduce the waste that my family produces. Although it takes a bit of effort, I try and plan our meals for the week. Having our supermarket shop delivered helps me to firstly not buy food I don’t need, but also our shopping is being delivered with lots of others, reducing the number of trips that are taken in cars to the supermarket. If things don’t go to plan, I freeze the extra portions/leftovers. There’s lots of tips and advice out there on ‘food waste.’ I read 30 easy ways to join the food revolution to start me off.”
Phil Crusham, Head of Retail, is a self- confessed coffee addict. “I now always take my re-usable mug to coffee shops as nearly all offer a discount on take-out drinks and I am reducing the amount of waste created. Even on just a few cups of take-out coffee a week, I can save up to £10 a month.”
Most of the large coffee retailers and local shops offer either a discount on the drink of up to 50p or additional loyalty benefits such as extra ‘stamps’ in the loyalty card earning that free, much needed cup of coffee more quickly.
Another valuable ways to protect the environment is to reduce the amount to heat we use in the home and its ‘waste.’ According to the Energy Saving Trust (April 2020), by turning down your heating by just 1°C an average home can save around £60 and 310kg of carbon dioxide a year.
Our Head of Business Development, Julie Goodwin, has taken a number of steps to reduce the amount to heat used and lost in her home.
“It may seem obvious, but in winter we use draught excluders, to make sure that we keep as much heat in as possible. We also have our heating set on timers and always make sure that we turn it off at least half an hour before leaving the house. The house stays warm for some time after the heating is off, so it’s not necessary to keep it heated the whole time we are not there. Something that not many people realise is that if your radiators are dusty, they do need to work harder to heat a room, so I always make sure that mine are dust free and sparkling!”
We asked the rest of the Chorley team for their top quick tips on how they are doing their bit to protect the environment, here’s the top 10:
- Unplug all sockets that aren’t in use
- Switch to energy-efficient light-bulbs
- Buy second hand items and sell/donate items that are no longer used
- Use old t-shirts for cloths
- Install a smart heater controller
- Go paperless for all bills
- Use a blanket when watching TV and not increase the heating
- Recycle as much as possible
- Make my own ‘green’ cleaning products
- Change to an energy efficient shower head.
We hope you found the tips in our blog useful. Look out for more helpful articles on protecting the environment over the next few months on our Knowledge Hub.
he Chorley and District Building Society is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Registered on the Financial Services Register under number 206023. Registered Office: Key House, Foxhole Road, Chorley, Lancashire PR7 1NZ.