The Lighter Side of Switch?

We've produced a short video about Switch that you can watch by clicking here.

If you enjoy it, please forward the link to as many people as you can and help us to spread the word about how we can all save energy and save money.

Two More Green Ideas

Here are my two favorite green ideas for this week:

1. Sheeppoopaper - made without harming any trees! Sheep only digest half of what they eat and the rest is useable fibre, which is being turned in lovely paper. Take a look at www.CreativePaperWales.co.uk.
2. Buy Green By Mail - a great catalogue from the Centre for Alternative Technology. From gadgets to how to books to useful stuff. See www.Cat.org.uk for more information.

Share you favorites green ideas here!

Sign up to the Switch Newsletter!

We've started publishing a monthly email newsletter to bring you news on events and more energy saving tips. It's free and will be delievered to your inbox at the beginning of every month. To read the February issue, click here. If you'd like to subscribe, click here.

The Light Bulb Moment

Someone asked me recently how I got the idea for Switch. I was travelling home by train, late one Saturday night and we passed through Reading. I saw a huge office block, empty of people and yet with all the inside lights blazing! Not only that, but their two storey car park, which was empty of cars, was also fully lit. WHY? If there's no one there, why are the lights on?

That's what got me thinking about encouraging businesses to switch off their lights at night and save energy - and therefore money.

If you work for one of those businesses - whether in an office or a shop - that leaves lights switched on, ask yourself why. Do you really need to leave every single light on when you're not there?!?!

Share Your Energy Saving Tips

Do you have a great energy saving tip that you'd like share with all our other readers?

Is there a product that you've bought recently that helps you save energy and money? Which websites do you go to for advice? What books have you read that can help?

Please add your tips to this thread by posting comments here. Feel free to add links to where we can go to buy the product/visit the website/find the book. And give yourself a mention too - you deserve it for sharing your energy saving tip!

Switch Stickers

Have you ever noticed how, when you start thinking about something, like orange cars, you start seeing them all over the place? Well, since I started thinking about switching things off (I'm sitting in my office with the lights off, because the sun's shining outside and the natural light is flooding in!) I've been spotting stickers next to light switches, encouraging us to turn them off!

This is something I'd like to make available - stickers that we can stick on switches, to remind us to turn things off. Do you know anyone who produces such things? If so, please let me have their contact details, or ask them to get in touch with me through this blog.

Thank you to everyone who got in touch, following the newsletter I sent out earlier this week, telling people about this blog. Lots of positive feedback and a couple of meetings set up, to talk further about how people can get involved. I've also been put in touch with someone who sells things like energy saving light bulbs, so if you're wondering how you can get involved and save energy, save money and save lives, get in touch and I'll see what I can do to help.

Switch is a long term project and I'm not expecting miracles over night - it can take years to move a mountain - but I'm going to keep working away at this, a bit at a time and remember, all the way, that it's about helping you to save money and helping save lives. Click here to email me if you want to join in.