Green up your home and office

If you had said the word ‘Recycle’ to a guy in the 1950s he’d have thought it meant getting back on his bike when he’d fallen off, and yet the average household and business back then would have left us looking barely lime in the ‘green and eco stakes’.

Of course that’s not because they were conscious eco warriors but rather that there were minimal choices; ‘make do and mend’ was the mantra around the home and sustainability and re-use was just a way of life.

As our personal and national carbon footprints have grown larger most of us know we need to opt for sustainable choices in our personal life, but I’ve met many a carbon-offsetting Eco warrior who falls short with their green credentials when it comes to their homes and workspace.

It is actually very simple to tick the ‘eco’ box though: we all know about re-using and recycling paper and packaging, but have you thought about your cleaning and personal care products?

Just by looking after your own health and wellbeing by thinking holistically (and sometimes more simply) we can make ethical choices that save us money, reduce our carbon footprint and increase our health and wellbeing.

There’s lots we can do to simply enhance our space and reap the benefits of ditching the chemicals and opting for 100 per cent natural solutions at home and at work.

For starters anyone with a desk can enjoy the benefits of the right houseplants, not just for aesthetic purposes either. The Peace Lily - along with the humble Spider plant was researched by NASA scientists and found to remove formaldehyde from the air to a radius of 30 feet. They do say have one plant for each piece of electronic equipment though so beware, your office could start to look like Kew gardens !

Forget conventional air fresheners also, and avoid the wall-mounted ones that emit synthetic fragrance: it is known that air fresheners in the home contribute to respiratory problems,