Have some spare money; how can I spend it to benefit the environment?

June 14, 2013 4:57 AM

I have £150 spare this month and would like to spend it in a way that benefits the environment (climate change related). I'd love your suggestions about how I can use this money to have the most impact, whether that's donating to a top notch environmental charity or investing it in a green tech (renewables, insulation etc.) company that is doing particularly good work.
posted by jonrob to Work & Money (18 answers total)

I sent you a Mefi mail.
posted by parmanparman at 5:36 AM on June 14, 2013

If you have a garden or yard, you could "be the change you want to see in the world" and buy a compost bin with it?

You could also replace any mains-powered lamps you have with solar lamps.
posted by greenish at 5:39 AM on June 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Planting trees, be it in your city or somewhere else in the world.
posted by travelwithcats at 5:42 AM on June 14, 2013 [3 favorites]

Buy yourself a bicycle and ride it a few times a week instead of taking your car. The more you ride the more you'll help reduce emissions! Bonus: you have fun and save yourself some more money that you can put back into environmental causes.
posted by mikepop at 5:56 AM on June 14, 2013 [3 favorites]

Invest in a wormery. I assume you have such things as energy efficient lighting and timed power sources where appropriate.
posted by BenPens at 5:59 AM on June 14, 2013

Donating £150 to charity won't improve the environment to any noticeable degree.

Greenish, travelwithcats, and mikepop have the right idea. You can personally make use of the £150 to have a very long term and continuous benefit to the environment. Their ideas are great. There is also the added benefit that the money spent will save you far more than the £150 you spend. This would allow you to help the environment again and again.

Add treatments to your windows to increase their insulation - tinting, better blinds, curtains, etc
insulate your water heater, add foam or other sealant around windows/doors/etc, tune-up your car - improving its gas mileage, get a programmable thermostat, and other ideas could all be done for reasonable amount of money and have long term benefits
posted by 2manyusernames at 5:59 AM on June 14, 2013 [2 favorites]

Switch any remaining incandescent bulbs in your house, indoor and outdoor, to LED equivalents.

Consider replacing your older household appliances (dishwasher, washer/dryer) with new ones that are Energy Star models.
posted by ceribus peribus at 6:08 AM on June 14, 2013

According to the sources I trust, there is not enough evidence to say that giving to climate change mitigation related charities is a cost effective way of donating to charity.

The suggestions for personal changes listed above are mostly "personal changes" that require an investment of significantly more than just £150. Riding a bike or managing a womery are certainly going to have a significant impact on your personal carbon footprint but they are only any good if you are actually going to "stick" to these changes and are willing to pay the personal ongoing costs involved in terms of time/effort etc. (of course, you may well save money aswell as has been pointed out!) but I can't reccomend them without knowing your personal circumstances. Therefore, if you are interested in changing your personal behaviour but unsure whether you will stick to it, it might be effective to set aside a portion of that £150 towards commitment contracts to help ensure you make the changes you intend over the long-term.
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 6:18 AM on June 14, 2013

If riding a bike is not a possibility, another personal thing you can do is spend some of the money on a couple of vegetarian cookbooks and then stock up your pantry based on what they recommend. Assuming you eat meat everyday, going meatless just two days a week will have a good impact. Again their is a bonus for you in that you get to learn new recipes (assuming you enjoy cooking).
posted by mikepop at 6:30 AM on June 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Buy carbon offsets. For £150 you can capture enough metric tons of carbon to account for your own behavior this year and that of several of your neighbors.
posted by amaire at 6:36 AM on June 14, 2013

It's worth investigating the effectiveness of the carbon offset charity. I love Native Energy (United States based but does global projects), but many groups (the one associated with the Coldplay tour comes to mind) have little oversight in place.

A friend recently asked a question of an urban planning expert about how to benefit her neighborhood and was told "get into politics." This may hold true even for global issues. If there's a good NGO in the UK that does work on climate change politics, that's a possibility.

Lastly, I love all the suggestions to "be the change" that you want to see, but I think helping others be the change is incredibly important. Companies like Solar Mosaic accomplish this by pooling financial resources.
posted by spamandkimchi at 6:53 AM on June 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

As lots of people are saying, don't donate, be the change and take direct action to reduce your own carbon impact.

Clear are meant to be a reliable carbon offsetting company in the UK.
posted by dowcrag at 7:25 AM on June 14, 2013

Get a vegetable plant or fruit tree for your yard? Buying less fruit and veg at the store decreases your "food miles" and carbon footprint. You're also less likely to use lots of heavy pesticides than conventional growers. If you're not practiced in tree transplanting, the nursery usually has or knows somebody you can pay to do it for you.

A well cared for fruit tree might increase the value of your property, and when it starts to bear fruit you'll have plenty to give away to friends. (Though I suggest a dwarf variety, so that you A. don't end up with a gazillion too many and B. can reach more of your rewards.)
posted by bilabial at 8:07 AM on June 14, 2013

So much charity money goes to salaries and overhead that I agree that something you can do yourself will give more benefit for the buck. The other option is to look for something hyper-local to you- is there a group that plants trees that needs tools or gloves for their volunteers? Is there a school that needs a worm bin for their school garden? Local waterway activists that need hip waders for cleanups? These types of things are not only immediately beneficial, but they are programs helping to instill good habits and ways of thinking about the environment in other people, that will in turn spark greater environmental consciousness.
posted by oneirodynia at 8:08 AM on June 14, 2013

Change your light bulbs. Spend it at the farmers market.
posted by oceanjesse at 8:30 AM on June 14, 2013

When I have spare money it goes to Cool Earth Action. £150 to them will protect about a hectare of South American rainforest from being logged, corresponding to around 500 tonnes of CO2 -- and that's before you get to the ecosystem, including the local humans, which it supports. Their overheads are 10%. In the long run you tend to get more than the stated bang for your buck, because they try to pick their protected areas in such a way as to encircle more (not directly protected) forest and make it inaccessible to loggers.
posted by pont at 9:13 AM on June 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Donate the money to a political party that promises real action on climate change. Better yet, get involved and donate your time (or both).

The only way we are going to see large scale, long term change in CO₂ emissions is through government action. Significant government action on this issue will require political change. Do whatever you can to bring about that change.
posted by ssg at 9:33 AM on June 14, 2013

Donate to birth control organizations. A person that doesn't exist produces no CO2.
posted by flimflam at 11:33 AM on June 14, 2013