2014: Review of the first quarter!

We're nearly at the end of the first quarter of 2014 and I think that makes it time for a review of the year so far. I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front lately but I'm hoping to make up for that in April – I have loads of ideas and looking forward to some time over Easter to put them onto paper (virtually, at least). I set myself the aim this year that every month I will try to make a difference to climate change in four areas: personal and work-related carbon emissions, campaigning and prayer.
So here's my progress to date:
1. Reducing my personal carbon footprint
In January, I calculated my carbon footprint and worked out the most important areas to target this year. One item I thought would be relatively straightforward was to get a compost bin, which I tried to do in February. Unfortunately, this wasn't as easy as I had expected: I had an offer of a free compost bin as part of a special gardening project in York, but they were only funded to the end of February and I wasn't able to pick it up because I don't have a vehicle or a bike trailer (I also had an offer of a spare bike trailer from a friend, but that fell through because he discovered that the new one he had bought wasn't big enough for his band's kit). The last day of February, the gardening project tried to deliver it but I wasn't in and it turned out I had to sign for it.
But all was not lost: last weekend York Council had a compost bin sale and another friend picked it up for me, so I'm now the proud owner of a 220 litre Dalek, and I'm looking forward to saving 200kg/year by composting all inedible food waste ie veg peelings, coffee grounds etc. I've already saved 200kg/year by ensuring that I don't waste good food by letting it go out of date, given the amount of carbon and water that goes into producing it – so love your leftovers!
I've also spent the last two months creating a new vegetable plot on a patch of disused ground next to the parking area for my flat. I'm quite proud of that: I dug out plenty of bricks and stones, but now I've re-used them to form a path down the middle and a border around the edge (to discourage people from accidentally stepping on new plants while getting stuff out of their boot). My upstairs neighbour and I were going to split it 50/50 but she told me today that she's happy with a different bit of the shared garden, so I've got a lot of digging to do to bring the other half into use before potato planting time at Easter!
In April, I'm planning to switch my electricity to a renewable-only supplier, and I have a few other ideas too (with much talk about the "paperless office", and having just cleared out my desk of rather a large quantity of paper, could I go a full week without printing at work?)

2. Working sustainably
The main task I set myself for the first quarter of the year was to get better informed about sustainability in the rail industry and consider where I can best make a contribution. This has included reading my own company's sustainability policy, alongside Network Rail's plans for the next five year investment period (“Control Period 5” starts on Monday 31st March). I've also reflected in a number of posts about how climate change is already impacting my work due to floods and landslides, and how we can move to a more sustainable railway.
I've also taken part in two “Massive Open Online Courses” (MOOCs) through FutureLearn. The first was a course on Climate Change Challenges and Solutions, which ran for 8 weeks and filled in several gaps in my knowledge such as the effects of ocean acidification and the excess deaths associated with urban heat islands eg during the 2003 heatwave. While much of the basic science and feedback mechanisms were familiar to me, that wasn't the case for everyone and so it was illuminating to see what other members of the course struggled with (for targeting my own discussions about climate change with other people).
Having completed that, I've just started a second course in "Making an Impact: Sustainability for Professionals" which is much more targeted on the sorts of issues I want to address: how to get whole organisations to take sustainability seriously and embed them in how we do business, and thinking through the potential drivers or constraints which would affect whether or not it would work. I'm looking forward to applying this knowledge to the rail industry.

3. Making a difference through campaigning
I'd say this area hasn't gone as well as I had hoped. I sent a letter to my MP in January about fuel poverty and the need to urgently invest in raising the standard of insulation in British homes, especially for private rented and social housing which are, on average, very cold indeed. There is no point in throwing money at the problem in the form of the Winter Fuel Payment to pensioners for two reasons.
Firstly, the old proverb about effective aid being to teach a man to fish applies: “Give someone money and you may heat their house for a month or two, but insulate their house and you will ensure the whole family have a warm house for decades”.
Secondly, it's unfair because the Winter Fuel Payment is given to plenty of well-off pensioners who don't need it, while many people who are fuel poor aren't pensioners (they are frequently families with poorly paid or part time jobs, or people who are ill – Macmillan Cancer Support makes hundreds of grants a year to cancer patients who can't afford to heat their homes). I tried to follow this up with a visit to his surgery in February, but I missed it due to traffic issues, and I haven't sent any letters in March. However, in April I plan to take part in the “Hope for the Future” campaign (where churches are asking each major party to state how they will achieve the targets set out in the Climate Change Act in their 2015 manifestos) and ask my pension provider to divest from fossil fuels, because most of their value is based on unburnable assets which will have to be written off! More on this another time...

4. Prayer
As promised, I've been using Christian Ecology Link's wonderful monthly prayer diary to pray consistently for environmental issues – and it's been brilliant for raising my awareness of wider issues and news items in the environmental sphere as well. I'll definitely keep this up all year!