Want to avoid adding a comfy but cringe-worthy layer of winter fat this year? Turn your heating down – apparently you burn calories trying to keep warm. (And no, that doesn't meant you're allowed an extra dollop of custard on your sticky toffee pud).

 

Lowering the heat has other advantages too, including financial. Last winter, we bundled up and tried to keep the thermostat down (along with not using the dryer, turning off lights when leaving rooms and switching to eco bulbs). We watched the savings add up 'instantly' on our new Efergy meter, and it was right – when we finally let the meter reader in, we were £400 in credit, a great excuse to switch finally to a green electricity supplier. Lest you worry I'm becoming a smug green goddess, read on. Just after switching suppliers I plugged in my hot rollers to get glammed up for an evening out (indulge my little luxuries, please) and in my haste, forgot to unplug them until the next afternoon. Hardly the icon of efficiency, then. Also, we switched to a mainstream green tariff, but I subsequently learned from The Nag that our plan didn't actually increase the amount of renewable energy produced. The Nag recommends Good Energy or Ecotricity’s New Energy Plus, so I've just had to switch again.

 

This week (22-28 October) is Energy Saving Week, so there's no time like the present for each of us to tighten our green belt. Every day has a theme: Monday is Women's Day, Tuesday is Work Day, Wednesday is Digital Day, Thursday is Families Day, Friday is Men's Day, Saturday is Home Improvers Day and Sunday is Faith Day. Visit the Energy Saving Trust website for ideas to incorporate into your week – and perhaps into the rest of your life. Click here to make your commitment to save your 20%.

 

Hopefully some Hampshire residents will be clicking. According to a new analysis by CarbonPlan and the Stockholm Environment Institute, the fragrant folk of  Winchester require 6.52 hectares each to support them in the style to which they've become accustomed. If everyone lived this way, we'd need over 3.6 planets, something money can't buy. But it can, apparently, buy happiness – did anyone else notice that Winchester was also recently named as the best place in England to live (according to Location, Location, Location). The problem is, what we perceive as giving us the good life isn't so good for the planet.

 

The Winchester City Council isn't taking the CarbonPlan study lightly; it has stepped up its efforts to raise awareness and improve its eco cred, with a Carbon Management Programme and a Climate Change Plan. And anyway, it seems the people of Winchester (and some of my best friends are from Winchester) are not alone. Many of us are becoming cynical about the green message, sceptical that anyone else is doing anything to make a difference and prone to exaggerating our own green actions, according to a new Eco Attitudes report by ICM, released today for the Ideal Home Show.

Men are the naughtiest, with a third believing too much attention is given to green issues, and 19% thinking small behavioural changes won't make any difference. Men scored worse than women on almost every aspect of green living, including recycling, buying sustainable materials, using eco bulbs, turning down the heating, washing at low temperatures and filling the kettle frugally. Forget domestics over who's holding the remote, the report found green arguments aplenty, with 15% of us squabbling with partners about saving our home comforts vs saving the planet.

 

Apparently, Brits are suffering from eco fatigue, with a third of us tired of the attention given to eco issues and 23% being bored by eco news. Cheer up – the evening news will be absolutely gripping when additional wars break out over diminishing oil and water supplies, and weather-related disasters occur weekly. In the meantime, stock up on some earth-kind cardis, jumpers, scarves and even gloves and turn down your thermostat. 

 

The initiative has received backing from environmentalists, business and concerned celebs. “Climate change affects everybody, so having a prize that rewards communities and groups for working together to tackle it makes perfect sense,” says Challenge ambassador Sarah Beeny, Channel 4 presenter and property guru.

To enter: Those eligible to enter include groups that are already formed, such as a local branch of the Scouts or a PTA, new groups or those led by not-for-profits or charities. Register your interest at www.biggreenchallenge.org.uk. The competition will be open for initial applications from January to the end of February. Over six months, NESTA and a panel of experts will whittle the entries down to the 100 strongest and then the 10 best ideas. Finalists will then be given a year to put their ideas into practice. Over the next year, short-listed finalists will have to achieve a measurable reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, involve the whole group or community and prove that their ideas can be expanded or copied in a different area or setting. Find out more at Big Green Challenge or ring 0845 850 1122 or write to UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, which is working with NESTA to help run the Big Green Challenge at: UnLtd, 123 Whitecross Street, Islington, London EC1Y 8JJ.

 

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Worldwide, livestock production is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions (transport creates 14%). With the number of animals farmed for food predicted to double to 120 billion a year by 2050, Global Warning concludes that developed countries should reduce their consumption of animal products by one third over the next decade and by 60% by 2050, in line with the government’s carbon reduction targets.

CiWF is urging people to take the Big Food Challenge and eat less meat, dairy and eggs.

"It’s really encouraging to see that a mass-market retailer like Sainsbury’s can be a leader on sustainable initiatives," says Lucy Yates, Senior Policy Advocate. "It proves that the green choice doesn’t need to be the preserve of the affluent – it can be affordable and accessible to all. But to really make a difference, we want to see supermarkets go much further than this by making energy-efficient lights much cheaper now and phasing out plastic bags completely."

"The food we eat is responsible for one-third of our impact on climate change," says Larry Whitty, Chair of the NCC. "It’s vital that the big supermarkets make green shopping much easier, but much remains to be done if supermarkets are to become truly green grocers."
 

 

12 October, 2007: Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 today "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

 

The thousands of scientists on the IPCC win for their scientific reports issued over the past two decades and Mr Gore for being one of the world's leading environmental activists, creating worldwide awareness and understanding of the problems – and potential solutions. With this joint award, the committee hopes to highlight the interventions that appear necessary to protect the world’s climate and the security of mankind. "Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man’s control," says the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

 

 

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I can understand the allure of decadent digs, especially a blissfully luxurious bathroom. When I was a teenager, I stumbled across some adult-oriented material – seductive brochures filled with swanky home spas promising an out-of-this-world experience: the intense desert-like heat of the sauna followed by hydro massage, a refreshing tropical rain shower and 'cooling Chinook winds'. Like many a teen, I developed a rather unhealthy relationship with the illicit material, stealing downstairs to pore over the pages, imagining a future where that sort of sordid, steamy experience would be part of my everyday reality.

I can even empathise with the hunger for a home cinema, more so after a recent night out to see The Bourne Ultimatum – after a technical glitch halfway through we were all sent home unsatisfied. But I've always had qualms about home film libraries: after all, how many times do you really need to watch Meet the Fockers? With a home cinema installed, would one ever again read a book?

 

And who can promise that a hedonistic home is a happy home? I recently toured a modern mansion complete with home cinema (21 heated seats), games room and all the latest gizmos. The owner was obviously proud, but afterwards confessed to a deep and prolonged depression, despite having every material thing a fairy godmother (or in this case, fairy godfather) could bestow. Perhaps it's time to consider whether instant gratification is really gratifying. Expensive luxuries often come at a higher cost than what's shown on the tag, in terms of working hours v family life and an increasing burden of debt. More and more families are tempted to stretch to impossible bank repayments and repossessions are mounting.

And what of one’s carbon footprint? If these plugged-in and clued-up houses are going to be carbon-neutral, they better get some great whacking windmills on the roof pronto. Eco hero Orlando Bloom is being applauded for his new green house in London – complete with solar panels – but he’s also bought a four-bedroom Hollywood house with a ‘waterfall pool’ and hot tub. Even if that hot tub is solar-powered, how sustainable is a second, third, fourth home anyway? Especially if it's 6000 miles away? 

Where will it all end? Perhaps down the pan. Japanese toilet manufacturer Toto’s Neorest offers ‘an experience beyond words' and 'sophisticated sensuality' with a lid that automatically opens and shuts, a heated seat, front and back-aerated warm water spray, with ‘oscillating and pulsing comfort washing’, a warm air dryer and an air purifier (so your faeces really doesn't stink).

Oooh I just got my hot little hands on today’s Evening Standard Homes & Property (my weekly fix of property porn) only to read that Vernon and Tess have bought a holiday home in New Zealand and the Caribbean's being tipped as the perfect place for UK buyers. We’re all doomed, aren’t we?

 

Just as we're using up the last of our planet's resources, some scientists are suggesting we search for another habitable habitat. They've even found a potential candidate, a 'Goldilocks' planet (not too hot, not too cold) only 20.5 light-years away (one light-year is approx 5.9 trillion miles). If it all works out, just imagine the property pages – not to mention the prices.

 

Lately I've been craving some extra space. I am really lusting after a loft, but I'm trying to control my desires. Maybe I could justify it if I added a solar panel in the process – or should I just lie back and think of the planet?