Stories of Generosity
The most Generous man in England?
13 Dec 2010 by Paul Northup
A university researcher called Toby Ord – earning not much more than the average salary – is committing himself to giving away £1m over his lifetime to help address global poverty.
In order to do this, Ord is living off little more than £300 a month. In just the last year he has given more than a third of his earnings – that's £10,000 – to charities working in the poorest countries.
And he still eats out once a fortnight.
Ord is convinced that most people in the UK could achieve without having to make much of a sacrifice.
"What's really important in our lives," says Ord, speaking about how the decision affected him and his wife, "is spending time together, chatting with our close friends and reading beautiful books and listening to beautiful music, and we're really lucky to live in a beautiful place and there are lots of stimulating cultural activities around. With all that you can't really ask for much more."
Staggeringly, the BBC states that 'Ord and his wife will have given away a sum that equals the average price of a house in the UK, just at a time when they will have bought one themselves.'
But Ord is unfazed: "It's not that amazing. I'm not that impressed by this, but I'm glad that people feel it's a good story. The median income is £18,000 so I'm not living off anything less than the median person in the UK."
What a difference a day makes
24 Apr 2010 by Martin Wroe
If everyone in the UK gave up meat for one day a week, the reduction in greenhouse gases would be like taking 5million cars off the roads. How come we don't hear this kind of green-sky thinking from the mainstream political parties.
We could tell you that the UN says the farming and slaughtering of animals is one of the top three causes of major environmental problems confronting the world, from land degradation and climate change to air pollution and water shortages. And that animal farming accounts for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the entire transport sector. But it'd be more fun if you just watched this brilliant video instead. (And then go meat-free one day a week…)
So all the main parties in the UK election campaign tell us that our future energy needs can be met by a combination of fossil fuels, wind, wave and solar power and clean nuclear energy. And that if we all get our homes insulated, we'll be burning less energy and finally halting climate change. But if insulation and micro-energy generation can be government subsidised to speed public uptake, why doesn't government intervene in the market to accelerate moves to a less meat-based diet? If government can fund public education to convert people to healthier lifestyles, why not persuade the public to eat less meat. Healthier diet, healthier planet.
Your favourite ethical snack?
27 May 2010 by Paul Northup
Back in February, BBC News reported that Gordon Brown had reportedly weaning himself off his four-KitKats-a-day habit and was now eating nine bananas instead to get fit for the election.
We know now that it was a switch that didn't quite pay off – election-wise, at least. But it got us to thinking: *what is your favourite ethical snack? *
(Of course, there has also been loads in the news about the evils of KitKat since then too – along with many chocolate products which use Palm Oil. See this Guardian article for the background and click here to register your disapproval via the GreenPeace campaign against Kitkat.)
We'd like to hear from you about your favourite ethical snack (The Ethical Consumer site might help you decide what are truly worthy of the tag.) I'm still partial to a Geobar myself! Leave your comments below and let's build up a picture of the Generous community's leanings.
Festival and Picnic Generously
Lots of you will find yourself at a festival this summer. Even if you didn't plan to be at one you may still find yourself in the middle of one by accident there are so many. Many more of you will be picnicking this summer at some stage. The great outdoors beckons us to come and party and eat in its embrace.
From a Generous perspective, think about the footprint you leave behind – because the impact of festivaling and picnicking on the environment can be pretty horrid. But if we all do out bit to take our rubbish home with us, recycle everything we can and generally leave Mother Nature in the verdant state we found her, we can enjoy earth's goodness with a clearer conscience.
Try and support festivals doing their best to reduce their corporate footprint (here were the top 10 as identified in the Guardian last year) and try not to take too much plastic packaging with you when you picnic. (Here's a great supplier site that might help.)
Commit to this action here.
(Photo credit: Matt Burgess, Greenbelt Festival, 2009)
http://www.generous.org.uk/actions/seasonal/231/festival-and-picnic-generously
Generous Action
Scottish supermarkets halve the use of plastic bags
17 Jul 2009 by Paul Northup
Courtesy: http://generous.org.uk/news/186-charity-trustees-worth-their-weight-in-gol
The number of plastic bags given to customers by Scottish supermarkets has almost halved in the last three years. Seven supermarkets signed up to the voluntary Scottish Government scheme which aimed to reduce the number of bags given out by 50%. And this has led to the equivalent of nearly 39 million fewer bags being used in May 2009 compared with May 2006 – a 49.4% reduction.
"It's a huge testament to customers, who've switched to bags for life and cut bag usage," said Stephen Robertson of the Scottish retail Consortium. While Scottish Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said: "This is fantastic news and another major step towards a zero waste Scotland. I'd like to thank every member of the public and all the retailers and their staff who helped us achieve this remarkable cut in carrier bag use.
Meanwhile, British Retail Consortium director general, Stephen Robertson, said the figures were a "spectacular achievement". (There are similar schemes in operation now in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.) And across the whole of the UK, the figure fell from 870 million to 418 million.
Global Generosity?
I read recently that the cost of 2007's natural disasters was $63 billion dollars. That's about the same as the amount made available in 2008 to bail out two UK banks: RBS and Lloyds Banking Group. The world can make hard cash appear if it needs to. Global generosity – now there's a thought.
I wonder how generous all the developing nations will be this coming week in Copenhagen. I don't mean during the announcements (or the PR that goes along with it) but weeks later when there are no cameras around and commitments have to be kept. I believe we can sort this out (we certainly don't lack the money). And we owe it to the developing nations to do so as they are the ones facing the consequences if we don't.
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