Challenges

Total Coverage is a graphic design workers’ co-operative. Promoting sustainable design has always been part of Total Coverage’s ethos and one of the company’s unique selling points. “We’ve been promoting recycled paper and vegetable inks long before it became mainstream”.

Sticking to the pledges has not come easily however. “Using public transport is really difficult here in the North Yorkshire Dales” she reports. “If you try regularly going anywhere by bus, you’re as likely to be late for a meeting because of a herd of sheep or cows going by. Or perhaps the bus hasn’t arrived at all, and it’s the only bus of the day”. Despite these obstacles, she’s still trying to use public transport, but admits that because of the unreliability of the buses, it’s had quite a negative impact, and she’s had to cancel meetings, setting work back by several weeks. As a result, she’s decided to only use buses for her own purposes but not if she needs to be somewhere else.

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Other pledges have been abandoned altogether for the time being. “I found reducing the heat of the washing machine very difficult” Sally explains. “I just prefer a hotter temperature to get white things cleaner, but everything looked grubby. I might try it again, but I have to admit that I’m reluctant to”.

Sally found turning down the thermostat and putting on an extra jumper to be another challenge. “I find it very difficult because I get cold if I sit for long and so I have to pile everything on. The temptation is in the evening when the warm day has chilled down, to put on immediate heat rather than dealing with it. I’m working very hard on that one”.

However, Sally has implemented some innovative strategies to help her with that particular challenge. “We’ve now got a winter bedroom and a summer bedroom and that makes quite a difference. My desk is wonderful in the summer because it’s lovely and warm but in the winter, it’s perishing cold in that location, so I’m going to move my desk upstairs to where there is a warmer patch of sun and I’m selling a family heirloom piece in order to get a more efficient desk to work there”.

One of the other challenges that Sally has faced is the fact that she was already doing a large number of the actions suggested by Greener Together. The couple were already growing some of their own food, had solar panels on the roof for hot water and Sally’s husband was already quite interested in saving energy. Sally has also yet to make full use of the Greener Together website. “My natural inclination is not to go onto community websites on the internet so I’m probably not making as much use of it as other people who are more used to going on those sorts of sites” she explains. “However, I do think that I could try to respond to people’s questions and suggestions more, and perhaps initiating something myself”.