 Make helping the environment your goal for 2024
Changing the way we travel, eat and dress can all have a big influence on our carbon footprint. If you are yet to set a resolution for 2024, make it a green one and take simple steps to helping yourself and the environment.
Positive habits that benefit your physical and mental wellbeing can also be great ways to inspire a new project or hobby, meet new people and stay active around the borough.
On My Journey Wokingham, you will find lots of helpful advice for travelling sustainably and actively, with lots of simple steps for people of all ages.
You can also take part in our Planet Pledge campaign and challenge yourself to make a promise throughout the year to help tackle the climate emergency.
 Why active travel is easier than a walk in the park
Making practical swaps, such as using active travel for commuting and getting to school, can have huge benefits on your health and wellbeing, bank account, air quality and most importantly reducing carbon emissions.
If you find yourself reaching for your car keys when you are just popping to the shop or for those shorter trips, think about if you could active travel instead and save yourself money. If every journey under 5km in the UK was made by active travel, this could help reduce carbon emissions from cars in the UK by approximately 25 per cent each year.
You can earn rewards and win prizes for travelling by foot, bike and even public transport by downloading the free BetterPoints app. It will track your progress and automatically give you points to spend or donate.
Consider joining a cycle-to-work scheme, turning your commute into an energising and eco-friendly experience. If you have an old bike in need of repair, Dr Bike holds regular sessions across the borough and can help to breathe new life into it.
If you want to go for a walk or cycle but need inspiration, My Journey has route maps online to give you an idea of where to go, with lots of options to suit different levels of experience. The latest edition of the 'Greenspace on your doorstep' guide is now available for download. Produced by our partners at Thames Basin Heaths Partnership, the e-directory features lots of practical information to help you plan a day out.
Travelling sustainably does not have to be just about your everyday efforts but can also include your holiday plans. Consider swapping a flight abroad for a staycation or consider more sustainable ways of travelling. For example, taking the Eurostar to France instead of flying, could reduce the journey’s carbon footprint by as much as 96 per cent.
 New Local Transport Plan: Healthier, green and safer
We're updating our Local Transport Plan, an official document guiding how we improve footways, cycle lanes, roads, bus services and all other ways of getting around for years to come.
This will offer more chances to leave the car at home, especially for shorter journeys, helping us to reduce air pollution, tackle the climate emergency and help you to live healthily.
It aims to improve access to public spaces like parks and leisure centres and also to workplaces and local services.
We would like to know what you think about our draft Local Transport Plan, so please let us know before the survey closes on Friday 8 March.
 Look after your own waist as well as your food waste
If everyone in the UK stopped wasting food at home for just one day, it would have the same impact on reducing greenhouse gases as planting half a million trees.
Food waste has a big environmental impact and if we waste less food, we not only help the planet, but also save money. The UK wastes 9.52 million tonnes of food per year and more than two-thirds of this is edible when it’s thrown away.
There's plenty of ideas to waste less food including:
- Storing food well by using airtight containers
- Making use of every edible part e.g. cooking broccoli stalks or cauliflower leaves
- Make a tasty soup from leftover vegetables
- Planning meals in advance
- Inspiring others to waste less food
- Repurposing food by giving away surplus items to your local community
We know some food waste like banana skins, orange peels, bones and tea bags is inevitable. If you don't compost at home, you can put these unwanted food scraps in your food waste caddy.
The Love Food Hate Waste website has lots of useful information on how to make the most of your food.
 Turning your pre-loved items into wardrobe wonders
Fast fashion relies on cheap, disposable clothing that is produced quickly and sold at low prices, encouraging consumers to buy and discard clothing at an alarming rate. As a result, landfills are overflowing with discarded clothing, and textile waste is piling up.
Each year in the UK, a staggering 10,000 items of clothing are being sent to landfill every five minutes, equivalent to £140 million worth of clothing to landfill, when the items could be sold, donated or even recycled.
Upcycling and mending pre-loved clothes is a great way to go and wearing second-hand clothes instantly extends the life of the clothing.
Try to remember it’s about quality not quantity, and you might even surprise yourself about how many items of clothing you actually need by creating a ‘capsule wardrobe’. With the average lifespan of clothing being just over three years, wearing something for an extra nine months can reduce its carbon footprint by as much as 30 per cent.
If you do buy 'new' consider purchasing sustainable and ethical fashion brands, choosing high-quality clothing that lasts longer, and recycling or repurposing clothing when it is no longer needed.
 Swap single-use for reusable to avoid plastic waste
Plastic contributes to climate change; plastics are environmentally costly to make and dispose of, they emit greenhouse gases at every stage of its lifecycle, from its production to its refining and the way it is managed as a waste product, as they decompose.
Across the UK, only a small amount of the plastic thrown away each week is actually recycled, with the rest being incinerated, buried or shipped overseas.
Swapping single-use items for reusable ones is an easy way to help reduce our contribution to this problem.
Re-use a water bottle and use glass containers where possible as these are 100 per cent recyclable, meaning that each time glass is recycled, the resulting product has no loss of quality.
if you do purchase something with a plastic wrapper, read the packaging for advice on what can be recycled and check if your local supermarket has a collection point for soft plastics.
It can be hard to avoid plastic if you regularly shop at the supermarket. Instead, you can order fresh and sustainably packaged groceries to your doorstep through websites such as Modern Milkman.
Maya's Refillables is located in Wokingham and offers you the chance to top up on a wide range of body products, cleaning items and a range of foods.
 Third repair café opens to help fix up your old items
A new repair café has started in Woodley! Sessions take place on the first Sunday of the month from 2pm to 4pm at Christ Church in Crockhamwell Road.
Volunteers will be there to help you fix your broken household items and if you want to lend a hand with repairs, you can email the organiser Carol Jewell.
With this new addition, we are lucky to have a total of three repair cafés in the borough to support our residents in reducing waste and reusing what we already have. The other two cafés are at:
 Young artists impress with designs for poster contest
We received some amazing entries for the design a climate change poster competition as part of COP28 week.
All of the fantastic posters received from the young artists are on display in Wokingham Library to view. There were three categories for children aged four to seven, eight to ten and 11 and over.
Congratulations to Riley Wheeler, Miraya Krishnan and Carey Luk, who will each receive a £20 book voucher.
 CLASP members show the way with eco home models
We are delighted to share that our session with CLASP held before Christmas was a big success.
We worked in partnership with the University of Reading Institute of Education to run a climate change workshop.
CLASP is a self-advocacy group for people with learning disabilities in Wokingham Borough and the workshop raised awareness of climate change and extreme weather events.
Members had the opportunity to create a flood and heatwave resistant eco home model and they had a lot of fun, coming up with great ideas.
 Feature in our next newsletter by inspiring others
Would you like to feature in our next newsletter? Tell us what you are doing to tackle climate change and the savings you are making by emailing the Climate Emergency team.
We are interested to hear if you have installed energy efficient technology throughout your home and how you are doing your bit to help the planet by saving water, managing your waste and recycling, using active transport, buying or using reusable items and sustainable fashion.
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