Need some ideas for next month’s task?

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RAISING AWARENESS

  • Talk to 2 different people you know about climate change (for example: how it makes you/them feel; what you/they know about it; what you/they can or can’t do about it etc.)

  • Post 2 things on social media about climate change

  • Share 2 articles (or facts, stories etc.) about climate change

  • Tell 3 people about Ecosia (the search engine which plants trees with the money it makes!)

  • Tell 2 musicians about Harmonic Progression and your 1 task a month challenge

  • Invite someone else in the classical music world to take on 1 task a month

FOOD

  • Go vegetarian

  • Go vegan

  • Avoid wasting any food

  • Use a refillable water bottle instead of buying water

  • Take a reusable coffee cup when you go and buy coffee, instead of a paper or plastic cup

  • Substitute one meal a week which would normally include meat with a plant-based protein (e.g., lentils, chickpeas, tofu, quinoa)

  • Talk to three people about food waste (here are some food waste facts you can share with them)

  • Avoid 1 fruit or vegetable per week that is not in season (and buy something in-season instead). Search online to find out what is in season around you this month.

NATURE

  • Go to a natural space (park, forest, river, lake etc.) at least 3 times per week

  • Get to know the name of 1 tree or plant per week in your local park

  • Plant 1 pot on your balcony (or any place you can find which doesn’t have much nature) with flowers that pollinators like (shops often sell seed bags that already have a mix of plants for pollinators)

  • Take 1 walk this month with a bin bag and pick up the litter you find on your way

TRANSPORT

  • Switch 1 journey per week that you normally take by car with public transport, walking or cycling

  • Flying somewhere that you can get to by train this month? Choose the train journey, even if it is longer and/or more expensive

  • Only take the stairs this month! Lifts and elevators use electricity - taking the stairs is more eco-friendly, and good exercise.

  • Are you being offered a taxi or car journey as part of a concert engagement, but the distance is walkable? Choose to walk

  • Planning a holiday? Go local - choose somewhere you can get to easily by train

  • For one trip this month, make a point of travelling lightly. A light bag will mean you’re more likely to walk than need taxi rides (or the elevator!)

SHOPPING

  • Many argue that consuming less is the best way to live more sustainably. Consume one less thing per week (this can be any form of material consumption, such as shopping, streaming a film/series, driving somewhere etc.)

  • Need new clothes this month? Buy at least 1 thing second-hand

  • Buy 1 organic product per week that you normally buy non-organic

  • Avoid 1 fruit or vegetable per week that is not in season (and buy something in-season instead). Search online what is in season around you this month.

  • Buy 1 product per week that you normally buy from a supermarket from a locally-owned shop instead

  • Try to find products that don’t use much packaging

  • Buy products made by small, local companies rather than those owned by big multi-national corporations (such as Coca-Cola, Danone, General Mills, Kellogg, Mars, Mondelez, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Unilever)

  • Are the companies from which you buy acting sustainably? If you see they’re not doing something, email or contact them on social media and ask why

  • Try to find a no-packaging shop. The idea is that you take your own plastic boxes, jars, bags etc., and put whatever you want to buy in those. You pay for the weight of what you buy (of course they deduct the weight of your packaging :)

  • Buy big refills for household items such as soap, shower gel etc., to save on packaging

Money

  • Switch your current account to an environmentally-friendly bank (Barclays is the biggest banker of fossil fuels in Europe, followed by HSBC)

  • Live in the UK? Sign up for a Treecard, a debit card which uses its profits makes to plant trees

  • Contact a company you often use and ask them what actions they are taking to be more sustainable

DIGITAL

  • Use Ecosia (the search engine which plants trees with the money it makes!) this month instead of Google or other search engine

  • Only stream videos (Netflix, YouTube) for maximum one hour a day

  • Delete two apps a week from your phone that you no longer use

  • Delete 1 big file per week that you’re storing on cloud servers

INFORM YOURSELF

  • Read one article about nature or climate change per week

  • Find one local environmental organisation (search online) and spend a bit of time reading about what they do - maybe you will find some way of helping or volunteering with them

Plastic-free

  • Swap 1 toiletry you use regularly to a planet-friendly product (e.g., plastic-free, organic product, not tested on animals)