A New Year's R-eco-lution

I'm a week late with this, but thought I'd write something about New Year's resolutions. Now I'm no longer one for making promises (usually regarding alcohol) to myself that I can't keep, and I've mostly made peace with the size and shape of my bottom, so I think 2012 is going to be less about self-improvement and more about home improvement.

Well of course, home improvement; we're renovating a house that not so long ago had woodchip wallpaper holding the walls up, a different pastel colour theme in every room, a sinister concrete block in the middle of the kitchen and a rotting conservatory. Actually it still has the latter two. So improving our home is clearly on the agenda.

Actually though, what I'm talking about is more exciting than newly varnished floorboards or Farrow & Ball swatch cards. I'm talking about making the changes in green living that we've been pondering for a while but for one reason or another haven't been possible until now (mostly due to living in a rented house). That kind of home improvement.

So, we already have lovely new draught-proof windows, but the next part of our planning application also involves a sedum roof (I wanted grass but apparently someone would have to mow it, and I didn't fancy hefting a lawn mower on to the roof every two weeks in summer). This is essentially a layer of living plant growth on top of the roof, which not only provides a living place for insects and therefore attracts birds to the garden, but also insulates the room below and absorbs heavy rain. Nifty.

Next, I plan to cycle or walk any journeys of up to four miles. According to the WWF website, over a quarter of all car journeys in the UK are for two miles or less. Cycling's easy, good for me and fun for Fred in his little Wee-Ride, which I think is the only bike seat that goes in between the adult and the handlebars, making the ride miles safer and the view miles more interesting for the bairn than staring at someone's back). Although obviously if it's raining I'll be hot-footing it to catch the nearest number 33.

Recycling has been a biggy in the Cook household for several years now, and we're pretty good at minimising our waste. Especially since getting all gung-ho about our local Freecycle group and offloading the most random pieces of rubbish; in the last year I've managed to give away a broken kettle, a huge hi-fi system dating from c1989, ten copies of Runner's World, some hotel slippers, a tribal drum and a small pom-pom among many other things. But I want more. I want to go waste free. Did you know the average UK home generates over a tonne of rubbish each year? I'm going to do a trial, a week or a month, where I can *only* recycle - no binning allowed. It'll mean thinking a lot more carefully about my food choices and probably growing a lot of our own veg, but I read about a couple in the USA who did it for a whole year and only generated one small bag of rubbish during that whole time. How cool is that? And depending how the trial goes, I'm going to roll it out baby!

And finally, I'm going to try out some creative projects that have been lurking in my mind for a while. I read an inspiring article about another couple who furnished their entire home from salvaged stuff - I think the only thing they bought new was a loo, because they couldn't find a second hand one in time (and I guess where a loo is concerned, getting it installed before you need to use it is pretty crucial). I won't pretend that we will go as far as that, but I am going to try and reuse stuff as and when my creative juices and time allow. Starting with our newly discarded Christmas tree, which I'm planning to chop, whittle and carve into a fully functioning coat rack. Lord knows how it'll turn out - probably more like a very dead-looking tree with no branches - but hey, it's only going to go in the council chipper otherwise so why not give it a whirl and see how it turns out?

So there you have it. I'm gonna start living the dream, and all I need is a sharp knife, a packet of courgette seeds and my bike. Wish me luck...