 Where does your food come from?
Food miles is a way of calculating how far food has travelled before it reaches you, whether by land, sea or air - all of which produces carbon emissions and impacts climate change. This means it’s a good way of looking at the environmental impact of foods and their ingredients.
By law, food packaging must display a country of origin on its label. From looking at a few products in the supermarket or around your home, you might find grapes are from Egypt, tomatoes from Spain, pasta from Italy and chicken from the UK - all of which have travelled some distance to get to the supermarket shelves and to your home.
We can all do our bit to help climate change and lower our carbon footprint by being mindful about food miles and looking for more sustainable options, where possible.
If you're looking for inspiration on how to reduce your food miles and lower your carbon footprint, look at these top sustainable tips:
- Choose food with fewer food miles
- Grow your own fruit, vegetables and herbs
- Share surplus food with friends, family and the local community
- Shop locally e.g. butchers, farmer's markets and local food stores
- Use refill shops to prevent plastic waste
- Only buy what you need to prevent food going to waste
- Turn leftover food into compost and use soil for growing your own food
If you're interested in measuring the food miles of your shopping, you can use the food miles calculator.
 Be more sustainable and reduce food waste
Putting food waste in your general rubbish not only causes unpleasant smells in your kitchen and attracts animals at the kerbside, but also costs the council (and council taxpayers like you) a lot of unnecessary money as general rubbish costs more to dispose of than food waste.
To avoid this, if you don't compost at home, you can put food waste in your kitchen caddy and transfer it to your outdoor food waste bin when the caddy is full.
We collect food waste every week and turn it to energy to power homes and fertiliser for farmers' fields. Recycling food waste saves money and resources, and it's also good for the environment and our planet.
Check out our website for a complete list of kitchen scraps and unwanted or uneaten food items we collect.
Try home composting your food waste
Composting is an easy and environmentally-friendly way to transform your kitchen and garden waste into a valuable and nutrient rich food for your garden. It's easy to make and use, if you have the facilities. You can also compost all year round.
These food waste items can be added to your compost bin:
- Fruit and vegetable peelings
- Seeds and cores
- Tea bags
- Coffee grounds and filter papers
- Paper towels (if they haven't touched meat)
- Egg shells
You can't compost cooked food, fish, meat or dairy products.
Using compost is an effective way to reduce carbon emissions by storing it in the soil instead of releasing it into the air. It also reduces flood risk as it absorbs up to four times its weight in water.
If you're interested in home composting, take a look at our March newsletter for composting tips, visit the Royal Horticultural Society website or Recycle Now website for more information.
 New Tree Strategy maps safer future for our greenery
We’ve approved a long-term plan to ensure trees and other greenery in Wokingham Borough is better cared for, and that new vegetation is planted.
Trees naturally absorb CO2 by storing it in their trunks, roots and leaves, helping to fight climate change while improving air quality by absorbing pollutants.
Our Tree Strategy, drafted with input from experts and the wider community, outlines how trees, hedgerows, orchards and more are managed and maintained, how the public can help protect trees with historic or community value, and developers' duties towards planting.
We already have policies on trees maintenance and inspection, but this brings them together and makes the process clearer to ensure the borough’s natural space is well cared for and create habitats for wildlife.
The strategy explains, among many other things, how trees can be nominated for protected status, or how we should act when we learn that protected trees are threatened by disease or breach of a preservation order.
It supports our ongoing drive to increase local tree cover, which has seen more than 40,000 planted since November 2021 with much more to come.
 Solar panel scheme closing soon
There’s less than two weeks to register your interest for Solar Together, a scheme which enables residents to install solar panels and battery storage at competitive prices through pre-vetted suppliers.
Residents who own their own home or have permission from the landlord to install solar panels, and small and medium-sized businesses can register their interest for free. The scheme will help residents reduce their carbon footprint and save on energy bills whilst supporting our ambition for Wokingham Borough to be carbon neutral by 2030.
There is no obligation to take it further once you have received your solar panel quote. The more people who register, the better the deal will be for each household.
Join thousands of other Berkshire residents who have registered their interest by clicking the button below. The scheme closes on 11 August.
 Councillor puts best foot forward for climate change
Our Executive Member for Climate Emergency and Resident Services is proud to have played her part in Britain’s biggest sporting celebration of climate action and nature.
Cllr Sarah Kerr recently took part in the Running Out of Time Relay by running two kilometres from Reading School to the University of Reading, which is the nation’s fourth greenest university.
Despite hot temperatures, she joined students, staff and world-leading meteorologists in following the baton around the Whiteknights campus. Their efforts were part of a 2,661km relay from Ben Nevis to Big Ben to raise awareness of our warming world.
Afterwards, she was presented with a framed copy of the ‘Berkshire is warming’ climate stripes from the University of Reading.
The climate stripes represent the rise in global average temperatures over two centuries. The message is clear: we’re running out of time and we must do our bit to help tackle climate change.
We plan to put the framed climate stripes in a publicly accessible location for residents to see. Keep a look out on our social media channels and in our newsletter where we will announce the confirmed location.
Find out more about our climate emergency work by visiting our website.
Thank you to Mike Brogden for the photograph.
 Sustainable Planet Pledges for the year
Thank you to everyone who has taken part in our ambitious Planet Pledge campaign.
There’s still time to add your solemn promise on what you and your family will do over the course of the year to help tackle climate change.
We have received many Planet Pledges from borough residents who are proactively making changes to lower their carbon footprint.
Below are some sustainable food, drink and garden pledges we are spotlighting this month:
- Growing food at home and sourcing produce locally
- Installing a water butt to collect rainwater to water plants
- Digging a wildlife pond to provide habitat for wildlife
- Using peat-free soil in the garden
- Avoiding buying plastic water bottles
- Reducing meat consumption to two meals a week
- Using local refill and zero waste shops
- Using local apps to minimise food waste
Be inspired by other residents and share your Planet Pledge today by clicking the button below.
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