Tips To Teach Your Kids To Be Greener At Home

On the 15th of March schoolchildren across Britain joined international school strikes around the world in protest against climate change. Whilst they’re leading the way in environmental activism, there are simple steps we can all be taking within our own homes to reduce our carbon footprint.

TV presenter, mum and passionate environmentalist Michaela Strachan, of The Really Wild Show and Michaela’s Wild Challenge fame, has teamed up with Smart Energy GB to educate us on reducing our impact on the environment whilst helping to save our children’s future.

Here Michaela Strachan shares her tips on how we can teach our children to be greener at home.

1.     Eating less meat is one easy way you can help the environment – so why not try having a veggie meal once a week, which you can cook together with your children.

2.     Grow your own vegetables for your meals with an indoor hydroponic kit – these do-it-at-home sets let you grow seasonal plants all year round, and help save on plastic packaging, chemical pesticides, food miles and waste.

3.     Social media can be used as a huge drive towards change. Encourage your children to spread the word about climate change via their social media channels – create memes, look up statistics and research hashtags together to kick-start a movement amongst their friends. 

4.     Request a smart meter from your energy supplier at no extra cost. The handy in-home display shows your energy use in pounds and pence in near real time, which is a great way to bring the concept of energy use (and cost) into sharp focus for your children. Show them the display before and after they play their computer games, to give them an understanding of how much energy it takes to power our everyday lives.  It'll definitely encourage them not to leave screens on unnecessarily.

5.     “Fast fashion” is a big source of greenhouse gas emissions. Take some of the old t-shirts you’ve marked for the bin and have an arts and crafts afternoon revamping them with your kids - from tie dye to turning them into pillow covers, you can really give old clothes a new lease of life. It’s also worth making sure they really need that new item of clothing before you buy it.