Environmental Sustainability

Greening your home

Homes are responsible for 38% of London's CO2 emissions. By making our homes more energy efficient and switching things off, the average London household could save £300 per year off their fuel bills, as well as cutting emissions.

Other decisions we all make, such as where we go on holiday and what we buy, add to our carbon footprint. This page is dedicated to borough residents and provides practical tips for reducing our carbon footprint.

Save energy and money in your home

You can do easy things like switch off lights when you leave a room and make sure that you don't leave your TV or DVD player on standby overnight. Have a look at our energy saving tips for more ideas and at the Mayor of London's DIY Planet Repairs campaign.

On the other end of the scale, you can install proper insulation in your home and double glaze windows. If you own you home and are in receipt of certain specified benefits, you may even be entitled to an energy efficiency grant.

Also, the Mayor of London and British Gas are offering all Londoners cavity wall insulation for as little as £250 and loft insulation for £274. If you are in receipt of benefits you may be entitled to free insulation. You will receive £100 cash back from the Mayor and British Gas once insulation is completed.

But every little step makes a difference - and the best thing to do is to start including energy saving in your everyday life - at home, at work and when you travel.

Use green energy

You could go all out and start producing your own energy from renewable sources (sources of energy that will not run out) such as the sun or wind. You can do this by using solar panels or by installing a small wind turbine to your home - you may need planning permission to do this so please speak to our development control team.

For more information about producing your own energy visit the energy saving trust website.

If this is too much of a big step, then you could change your supplier to a green energy supplier, who uses renewable sources to produce your electricity. Visit green electricity market place for more information.

Be water wise!

Saving water at home is easier than you think. There are simple, every-day things you can do such as only filling the kettle with the water you need or taking a shower instead of a bath. For more information and water saving tips, see Essex and Suffolk Water and Thames Water|.

You can install a hippo in to your toilet cistern - hippos are like balloons and prevent the cistern from completely filling up, so you use less water when you flush. Essex and Suffolk Water and Thames Water offer free water hippos for residents.

You can use grey water (water that has been used before, such as bath water) to water your plants instead of using a hosepipe. You can also save water in your garden by using a water butt. Essex and Suffolk Water are also offering Barking and Dagenham residents water butts at a reduced price. Call 0245 658 565 to order yours.

The Environment Agency also has a wealth of information on reducing and recycling your water, drought and flooding.

Reduce, reuse, recycle!

Reducing waste is the best option environmentally as less waste has to be dealt with and less new products are manufactured saving energy in the process. Have a look at our tips for reducing your waste.

Reusing items rather than throwing them away is also recommended - you can take your unwanted goods to charities for example. If an item can not be reused, it can almost certainly be recycled. In Barking and Dagenham we can now recycle most of our household waste - from plastic milk cartons, tins, glass and paper, to our green garden waste.

Making sure that we recycle as much as we can stops huge amounts of rubbish going in to land fill sites - which are gradually filling up and soon we will not have enough space left. Our recycling web pages will tell you how you can get involved in recycling in your home and in the borough.

You could also make your own compost to reduce the amount of waste that you put in the bin. With our partners, we have set-up a community composting scheme in Marks Gate.

Green your shopping

By making simple changes to the way you shop, you can really make a difference to the environment. By shopping locally and choosing locally made products you will reduce the distance items have to travel - reducing their carbon footprint (the amount of carbon dioxide they produce). Relying on goods that reach the supermarket shelves by air is the biggest polluter of all.

You should also try to choose products without a lot of packaging as these can be harmful to the environment too. So try to use re-useable shopping bags and don't put loose foods such as fruit into separate plastic bags.

You could even try using a local fruit and vegetable box scheme, where locally sourced seasonal items are delivered to your door each week. To find out if there a scheme near you, visit the Veg box schemes website.

If you can, try and buy organic foods which are grown without the use of harmful pesticides and artificial fertilisers that can damage the environment. Choosing organic usually means better welfare standards and care for animals too. Fairtrade goods on the other hand ensure a fair deal for producers in the developing world on goods such as coffee and tea.

Green your barbecue

You can also make green choices when choosing the fuel that you use for your barbecue. If you use charcoal then try to buy it from a company that also protects the woodland where they source their wood. This will help to stop the destruction of woodlands and the animals and habitats that live there. For more information about supporting woodlands visit the woodland trust website.

Green DIY

Use natural paints - DIY stores now sell paints with minimal or low Volatile Organic Compounds. Check the tin for the Volatile Organic Compounds rating before you buy
Avoid PVC windows and pipes if you can - the manufacturing process is extremely toxic and results in hazardous by-products
Use low-emissivity (low-e) glass which has invisible metallic coating which reflects heat back in to the room
Choose responsibly sourced wood supplies - contact the Forestry Stewardship Council for a list of companies selling wood from well-managed forests
Use building products made from recycled materials - use salvaged building materials when possible. See Salvo for maps of salvage and reclamation yards around the UK
Chose natural linoleum flooring made from wood flour, cork, limestone dust, linseed, and resin on jute backing. It can be durable, low in maintenance, and easy to recycle, linoleum flooring can be stunning and is one of the biggest ecological design trends this year

Encourage wildlife

You can also take measure to encourage wildlife in your garden. Our fact sheet on gardens and allotments will give you ideas. Hard surface deter wildlife so keeping these to a minimum in your gardens will help plants and wildlife.

We have a number of fact sheets you can consult on various species which will give you practical ways of helping them to thrive: