With some excitement and trepidation I’m rather belatedly embracing the world of blogging!  I’ve always wondered why people who write blogs think that other people will want to read them, and it seems to me that bloggers fall into three categories – celebrities with a willing fan base (hence the popularity of Stephen Fry’s blog); people with a knack for unearthing scandal; and people with a passion for an issue – well, I’m firmly in the passion for an issue camp.

Having spent the last 12 years of my working life building up the environmental charity Trees for Cities LINK and a stint before that working on social and environmental issues at the Royal Society of Arts I’ve become increasingly immersed in sustainability, and in my view we are heading for a planetary disaster with consequences we can’t yet imagine.  I make no apology for banging the Armageddon drum – climate change today is serious, even if it’s hard to feel the impact here in the UK where flooding hasn’t yet forced communities to re-locate, and it’s going to get much, much more serious.  I’m not scientifically-minded but I am a news junkie and everything I read and hear tells me that global warming is accelerating at a rate of knots.

I believe we all have a responsibility to adopt a position on climate change and broadly there seem to be three options – the ostrich position, head in the sand and hope it goes away; the alarmist position, we’re all doomed and head for the hills; and the activist position, what the hell can I try and do about it.  I would guess that the majority of the UK population is still in the ostrich position (but it would be good to counter this assertion with some hard data so click here for the Green Rewards ostrich / alarmist / activist poll).  To me, being an activist doesn’t mean you have to go to Climate Camp although I have the greatest admiration for people that do.  Those of us in demanding jobs have got to be realistic and accept we probably don’t have time for activities like climate camps, so for me being an activist on climate change means making sustainability a priority in all aspects of my daily living, from how I get to work, how I get the kids to school, how I buy and use energy, what I buy people for Christmas, etc.  Some may feel this is a rather genteel form of activism but for me it is realistic, and I believe there are an increasing number of people like me applying the same principles of sustainability and ethical consumption to their daily living.  And that is what motivated me to set up Green Rewards which is now my day-job.  I wanted to bring all aspects of sustainable living into one easily accessible place – and to add to that a simple reward mechanic.  Rewarding people with things and experiences that all have a positive impact on our precious planet strikes me as blindingly obvious, and hopefully it will also encourage more people to become genteel activists like me!

As Karen my long-suffering wife will testify, getting Green Rewards to critical mass is more than a full-time job so realistically my bloggings are only likely to appear fortnightly at the moment.  Oh and by the way, I scribbled this on a train back from the Aspinall Foundation’s Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent – what an amazing place, where you can virtually touch the black rhinos, giraffes and silver-backed gorillas.  We’ll definitely be adding some Aspinall Foundation gifts and experiences to Our Green Shop at Green Rewards soon!