Eco Comment – Some Good News and a Conundrum

At the end of June I wrote an Eco Comment about Plastic-Free July. The headline report featuring the impact that this made has been published this week. The results are promising to say the least.

The theme was “Small steps, big difference” and encouraged people to choose one or two items to avoid rather than being perfect. Overall, 174 million people took part and participants reduced their household waste by an average of 16kgs per person per year.  Globally, Plastic Free July participants reduced landfill waste by 1,700 million kg and recyclable waste by 1,200 million kgs (including 390 million kgs of plastic).  

‘The top seven countries globally (in order of participation) were: China, Indonesia, USA, Germany, India, United Kingdom and Brazil.’ The really good news is that ‘major news outlets contributed a total of 3,300 online media pieces on the challenge which reaching a potential audience of 7 billion people’. This is getting the message out into the world! 

The results and the ‘overwhelming’ public support for a plastics treaty from participants were presented at the United Nations global plastics treaty negotiations last week and although a treaty wasn’t finalised, progress was made. ‘Meeting delegates, scientists and civil society organisations committed to an ambitious treaty to end plastic pollution’ which gave hope to all. 

To read more see www.plasticfreejuly.org 

The conundrum is more of an issue that I’ve mentioned before in passing but didn’t really have enough knowledge to comment more fully. That changed this week when I attended an online meeting presented by Making Music, an umbrella organisation for music groups such as amateur choirs and orchestras. They were speaking from ‘The Climate Change Network’ side of music making and had two very interesting speakers. One featured a research project into Digital Sustainability but it’s the first speaker that I want to highlight. He gave a short presentation about Green Banking.  

Money is very much in the news at this time of year. We are bombarded with suggestions for spending and buying whilst at the same time being advised not to go overboard and spend too much. Budgeting is key but do the holders of our money budget and act responsibly on our behalf? 

We were shown two comparison websites which I later checked out on the Green Christian website (greenchristian.org.uk), just to check it was an OK thing to mention in this cathedral Eco Comment. It was. They have an article entitled The Big Bank Switch – putting faith into greener banking. They invite Christians ‘to align their money with their values by switching from a bank that funds planet-destroying fossil fuels to one that doesn’t.’ They also make the suggestion that a church might hold a ‘Switch it Sunday’. That is a subject for another day but having a look at the information isn’t. 

My meeting suggested looking at ‘Switch it Green’ and ‘Bank Green’ as a way of checking the environmental credentials of your current bank alongside seeing other banks in the marketplace that might be greener.  

Sadly, some of the most well-known high-street banks do not have a good track record and their green credentials are definitely murky. These are challenging times for all of us. Some of us still possibly stay with the bank that they’ve been with since childhood. Some stay with a bank because that’s where they got a mortgage or another type of loan. Some might give a higher interest rate on a savings account. How these respond to the current world issues with mergers and take overs leaves us in somewhat of a quandary. My first school savings bank was The Yorkshire Penny Bank. That of course is history and it’s changed names several times so my loyalty is not as tested as it might once have been. But is loyalty to a brand still relevant, or is it an outdated notion? Interestingly the current holder of what once was the Yorkshire Penny Bank is about to merge with another high street building society/bank. I wonder if their environmental credentials will change with the joining of their assets.  

Wherever you keep your current account and savings it might be an interesting exercise to consider. It might be that you decide to change your bank because you hadn’t realised that their culture is so far removed from your own ideas. Maybe your bank is already one that acts responsibly. I think I found it an interesting thing to do because I realised that green thinking is now such a part of who we are and how we live our lives. That’s a comforting thought. We are no longer those strange people who have weird ideas. We’re almost mainstream.  

Susan Morgan
Eco Group