Recently by Georgia Stokes

I thought I would talk about shopping today. We all like to buy new things occasionally but it does seem we've gone to extremes.

My parents have moved to rural France. When they visit us my Mum is horrified by the amount of time we all spend shopping. "Shopping is a national sport these days" she is often heard to mutter.

In rural France shops close every lunch time for 2 hours, the workers need their lunch too! Shops aren't open at all on Sundays & very often they are closed on Mondays too.

It seems we don't quite know what to do with ourselves when we have time off so we head to the shops. Every year we upgrade our mobile phones. We replace appliances that work perfectly with newer models, & we have more clothes in our wardrobes than we can possibly wear.

I wonder why we do this? It costs us money we don't need to spend. It is a huge drain on the earth's limited resources - it takes around 4,000 litres of water to make one cotton t-shirt. It also uses huge amounts of energy to make these products. The production of 1 kg of cotton clothing can release around 6.5kg carbon.

We have alternatives. I have become a charity shop junkie, almost all my clothes are from charity shops, so are my husband's & my son's. Most of our furniture is too. Not only do we save lots of money but we find amazing, original pieces. We also use freecycle & ebay. All of this means we are reusing other people's unwanted items, reducing carbon emissions & saving things from incineration or landfill.

Mostly though, we try to buy only the things we need. I don't need to upgrade my phone, CD player/ipod or any other gadget for a newer version. People always used to say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I say " if it ain't broke, don't replace it".

Hello, I'm Georgia Stokes & I am joint Coordinator of Northfield Ecocentre.

I've worked for a few charities in my career & one of the phrases people (friends, family or strangers) use most when they know you work for a charity is 'I'm doing my bit'.

Before I started work at the Ecocentre I thought I was 'doing my bit' for the environment. My husband & I have always used public transport & walked alot rather than driving, especially for long journeys. Before our son was born we invested in a set of real nappies to avoid waste & save precious resources. We recycle & have a compost bin. Almost all of our clothes & household furniture come from charity shops. It's been a long time since I went shopping on the high street & I don't think I could pay those prices now. We have always looked at where our food comes from & try to buy organic, fair-trade food where possible.

If I'm honest though I think we always knew there was more we could be doing, the rest just seemed more difficult so we kept putting it off.

Since working at the Ecocentre I have realised we don't need to be doing it on our own. There are many people we can learn from who are willing to share their own experiences that can help us. With their inspiration & help my husband & I are taking bigger & bolder steps.

I now get my organic vegetables delivered weekly to my door. I know I am eating more seasonally, and that no fertilisers - one of the biggest carbon producers in all our lifestyles - have been used. However, my husband & I have decided to go a step further & have just created a magnificent vegetable patch in our garden & we are going to have a go at growing our own. It has been great fun & good exercise getting it ready, and our son has thoroughly enjoyed helping us do it (while getting completely mucky).

We are now planning to get rid of our car & have got ourselves some bikes. We monitor our energy consumption & look for ways to reduce it, this does save us money too which is great. We have learnt so much already.

Through the Ecocentre I have met & been inspired by so many people who are all taking action to reduce their impact on our environment, in their own ways. They are 'doing their bit' already but are constantly seeking new ways to do more. Working together, sharing our knowledge, ideas & experiences we can all do that bit more. This I think has been my biggest lesson so far.