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Tea with David Miliband
Wednesday 28th February, 2007 - 05:15 PM
Suzanne heads off to Defra to talk eco living with David Miliband
"WOULD YOU like to come to tea with David Miliband to discuss the eco issues affecting Livingetc readers?" was the email invite I received recently.
That''ll be David Miliband, Secretary of State for the Environment and Labour's golden boy, presumably? And, er, yes please, I would.
So Wednesday afternoon saw me sitting in the rambling Defra HQ (slate floors, sickly terracotta-coloured walls, low energy light bulbs and an enormous leaf mobile in the central atrium).
Mr Miliband's own office was predictably vast and wood-panelled but did have some rather nice squashy white sofas, and the Minister himself was all energetic charm.
He was keen to know what Livingetc readers think about the environmental debate and how we can make eco living more stylish.
We discussed the difficulties of assessing how effective we are as individuals on the recycling front (Britain is currently pretty hopeless compared to the rest of Europe) and Mr Miliband said that the government is working on a carbon calculator which will help us all quantify what good we're doing - or not, as the case may be.
Personally, it seems he is doing his bit:
his ministerial car is a Toyota Prius
he's just had the cavity walls of his Southshields home lagged at a cost of £149 (and has had to turn down the heating thermostat as a result)
when he flew to the summit meeting in Davos last month he offset his trip via Global Cool (www.global-cool.com) and paid $54.
What a good guy.
But I wanted to know what one thing he wishes he could persuade us all to do to protect the environment.
His answer? He'd like every household to switch to a renewable energy supplier (he already has), followed by getting their cavity walls lagged (er, he's already done that as well).
As those seem to be realistic aims and are likely to save us all money, I found myself wondering, what are we waiting for?
Suzanne
Editor, Livingetc
That''ll be David Miliband, Secretary of State for the Environment and Labour's golden boy, presumably? And, er, yes please, I would.
So Wednesday afternoon saw me sitting in the rambling Defra HQ (slate floors, sickly terracotta-coloured walls, low energy light bulbs and an enormous leaf mobile in the central atrium).
Mr Miliband's own office was predictably vast and wood-panelled but did have some rather nice squashy white sofas, and the Minister himself was all energetic charm.
He was keen to know what Livingetc readers think about the environmental debate and how we can make eco living more stylish.
We discussed the difficulties of assessing how effective we are as individuals on the recycling front (Britain is currently pretty hopeless compared to the rest of Europe) and Mr Miliband said that the government is working on a carbon calculator which will help us all quantify what good we're doing - or not, as the case may be.
Personally, it seems he is doing his bit:
his ministerial car is a Toyota Prius
he's just had the cavity walls of his Southshields home lagged at a cost of £149 (and has had to turn down the heating thermostat as a result)
when he flew to the summit meeting in Davos last month he offset his trip via Global Cool (www.global-cool.com) and paid $54.
What a good guy.
But I wanted to know what one thing he wishes he could persuade us all to do to protect the environment.
His answer? He'd like every household to switch to a renewable energy supplier (he already has), followed by getting their cavity walls lagged (er, he's already done that as well).
As those seem to be realistic aims and are likely to save us all money, I found myself wondering, what are we waiting for?
Suzanne
Editor, Livingetc