Green Living

• Carbon
• Education
• Energy at Home
• Funerals
• The Future
• Gardens
• Health
• Homes
• Kidz Zone
• Ladies Only
• Lifestyle
• Recycling
• Resources
• Shopping
• Travel
• Vehicles
• Weddings

Green Work

• Business
• Farming
• Jobs
• Manufacturing
• Purchasing
• Teaching
• Work
• Thailand

Renewable Energy

• Solar
• Wind
• Ground-Source Heat Pumps
• Geothermal
• Biomass
• Combined Heat & Power
• Fuel Cells
• Sequestration

Greener Lifestyles

A lighter lifestyle is the smart, cool, intelligent and healthy way to live.

GreenQuest Eco-Barometer

So you think you have what it takes to make a greener world. Let's see if our eco-barometer can gauge your 'greenness'.

Just click on the HOT button below if the situation would annoy you:

	HOT	COOL
Your local supermarket starts charging you for shopping bags
The local carpark charges go up
Your town enforces a more strict Park & Ride scheme
A hotel only washes room towels every other day
The government raises road taxes
Your spouse suggests that your next holiday is spent locally
Your spouse wants you to move to a local red wine instead of your usual tipple
Your company puts you on a new green action committee
How HOT did you get? Enter here

The cooler you kept, the better candidate you are for eco-warrior initiation!

The above situations should be accepted whole-heartedly if we are to have a green mindset.

GreenQuest Lifestyle Quiz

When was the last time you:

• lay on a field of grass?
• took a picnic in the countryside?
• took time out to appreciate nature, hug a tree, smelt a growing flower?
• went trekking or camping?
• visited a National Trust site, village fete or nearby park?
• took a walk along a bridle path or canal side?
• turned off the TV to simply relax, de-stress, read or write?

The simple things in life are all too often overlooked in our hectic lifestyles. This weekend, choose one of the above (or any of our tips) and enjoy!

Come back to GreenQuest next week and if you enjoyed that green venture, set aside quality green time every week.

Lifestyle and health are naturally linked, so please visit our Health page.

General Ethical Living

Does your lifestyle truely reflect your green ethics? Here are some things you might not have thought of:

Search Engine

Do you use an ethical search engine? Well everyclick.com is a search engine with a conscience! Select your environmental organisation and help them while searching! You can register yourself to the charity, organisation or foundation of your choice and every time you click "search" money will slowly be built up an donated!

Boycotting the Non-Green

Try to buy only from ethical vendors and patronize ethical places. Support the smaller, local, more ethical companies (& farmers). If you don’t like what certain shops or companies do, stay well away. Likewise if you don’t like The Non-Green then don’t see their movies or buy petrol from their stations. There are so many choices out there, it rarely costs more to follow your ethics.

Try the UK’s leading ethical consumer organization looking at the companies behind the brand names. They have well-researched lists recommending who/what to boycott.

Leisure

Join a green club, group or develop your hobby or take a vocational course. Search here for contacts and ideas.

Green Memberships

Are you a member of an ethical organisation? Do you get newsletters from your favourite green websites? These NGOs need your support and most of them welcome your comments/feedback. You might like to visit Stop Global Warming, or Friends of the Earth and get your green quest on the road!

How about set up a Green Drinks group? Some cities have these monthly get-togethers after work at different environmentally-minded businesses and organizations around town. They have become a great way to network and stay connected with other sustainability professionals and enthusiasts. Get connected, find the local eco-tavern and there you have your "Greensville Green Drinks Club". As it develops, you could even get a company to sponsor a barrel of beer, or even get another to host the evening. There could be talks by experts or hosts, or simply just an exchange of ideas. Check-out what happens in Seattle here.

In 1989, at a pub called the Slug and Lettuce in Northern London, Edwin Datschefski was sitting with several of his green design colleagues when he noticed an enviro-minded acquaintance at a nearby table. As it turned out, the friend was sitting with a few of his eco-conscious mates, so they pulled some tables together and so a movement was born.

Fifteen years later, the concept has evolved into "Green Drinks," and now it's global. In 2001, Datschefski created an official Web site, and 36 cities in seven countries have their own so-called "nodes," which offer contact information for each city's coordinator. The coordinator arranges meetings in bars and restaurants (often with organic or vegetarian food), relays information via email, and facilitates discussions.

GreenQuest would love to hear of your group. Let us know.

Dating

For more personal green socialising, Natural-Friends host a green dating and friendship service.

Car insurance

Is your vehicle insurance up for renewal? Try eco-insurance.

Green Events

Attend any local green events and mingle.

Retired?

Want to leave a green legacy for your grandchildren? There are so many rewarding activities you can take up. Please select some of the GreenQuest tips below, or top 100 tips, get your kids involved, and join action groups in your community.

Do you have shares in a company? What is their environmental record? You might find you are recycling at home whilst having shares in a waste maker! If you are investing offshore or reviewing your investment portfolio, please check out how ethical the funds are. More...

Ethical Investment

Have a look through these ethical investment links for any that could be worthy of your hard-earned cash:

• The Ethical Partnership
• Sustainable Business stocks
• Insurance & Investment
• Little Earth Ethical Finances page.
• Smart Saver
• Triodos ethical bank