Watching your paint dry

Your bog-standard paint is made from a complex cocktail of harmful solvents which can contribute to health problems ranging from asthma to ME to recurrent headaches, as well as harming the environment when manufactured and disposed of.

However, there’s a growing market for ‘ecopaint’ – made of natural oils that show wood in a great light, and allow walls to breathe in a way that chemical paints don’t.
You’ll find the range of colors just as good as conventional paints and the range of finishes that you’re used to, from gloss to eggshell to emulsion. Ecos Organic Paint is the cream of the crop – its guaranteed non-toxic but also made to such a high spec that it claims to be loads better than most of what you find on the DIY store shelves. It’s solvent-free (not just low-solvent), vegetarian and entirely non-toxic.

Go bamboo, not wood

We all worry about the rain forests, but have you ever put two and two together and worried that your wooden floors, bed frames and tables might not come from sustainable forests? That it might take several hundred years to replace the woodland that’s so gorgeous on your sitting room floor? Bamboo is the solution!

Not only does it grow unfeasibly fast (it’s technically a grass, not a wood), but doesn’t require replanting after harvesting… and it looks great too. Bamboo floors have the durability of oak and the same range of colors and finishes you’d expect from wooden floors. And nature-lovers rest assured: the type of bamboo used for floors doesn’t impact the habitat of the giant panda, either. Bamboo flooring isn’t yet available in mainstream DIY stores.

Waste not, want not

Did you know that in some parts of Africa, women will spend up to eight hours a day simply sourcing water for their family’s use? We have the luxury of water on tap, but our demand for water just keeps increasing. This leads to water shortages in the summer, increases in pollution of our watercourses and, of course, more and more energy use as the powers that be ‘clean’ the water we use.

- There are a few simple measures we can all take to save water: Use low-water appliances. Toilets should be less than six liters per flush; a shower no more than nine liters per minute (and preferably six); washing machine under 50 liters per wash, and your dishwasher should use under 16 liters per cycle.
- Turn off the taps when washing up, cleaning teeth and washing your hands. And get a plumber in to fix those dripping taps.

- Get a rainwater butt for the garden. Your garden will prefer rainwater to mains, so you’ll be doing the plant life a favor as well as the environment. You can get one at the garden centre but also ask whether your local council offers a discount on them.