Monday 24 January 2022: Goals for 2022, and bad habits to leave behind

Monday 24 January 2022:

Goals for 2022, and bad habits to leave behind

Goals for 2022:

1. Finish the musical composition on which I am working.

2. Compose a soundtrack for my daughter's next animation.

3. Make a static animation, and compose a soundtrack for it.

4. Transfer all my old vinyl recordings into a digital format.

5. Get under cultivation a record amount of the vegetable garden.

6. Install some automatic irrigation for the vegetable garden [water goal].

7. Install more water capture [water goal].

8. Install more water storage [water goal].

9. Employ a plumber to get the shower and toilet in the main bathroom working again [water goal].

10. Get a solar panel array and house battery installed.

11. Get the front bedroom insulated and renovated.

12. Revise my book, and explore publication.

Bad habits I wish to leave behind:

1. Spending hours reading the online Guardian.

2. Watching poor quality movies on broadcast television.

Monday 10 January 2022: Communication from companies

Communication from companies

Where do you look for information on what’s happening in your local community? ​

When it comes to companies you use (utility companies as well as others), how do you find out what they are doing/ have been doing in the past?  (this could be about anything, for instance (but not limited to), their impact on the environment, or how they are changing their products/services).​

Do you ever actively try and find out more about a company, compared to coming across things on TV/the newspapers/the Internet?​

If you do, what makes you seek out information about a company? Are there specific things you always want to know, or types of companies that you are more interested in than others? Why?  ​

Finally, it'd be great if you could share 1-3 examples of where a company has managed to grab your attention or stick in your mind. This could be online posts/something you received in the post/ articles/ advertising on the TV or elsewhere. You may share it as an image and/or link (e.g. Youtube/Tiktok/Twitter etc). Please tell us why they have stuck with you! 

I live in a village of a thousand people, and I know many of the most active people in the village. I mostly find out what is happening by talking with people. Many local events are advertised by posters around the village. There is a monthly Village Hall newsletter, although it tends to be more retrospective than prospective. There are at least two social-media-type websites, but as I dislike Facebook, I do not participate. Many of the people in the village are older than me and do not willingly uses computers at all.

My family and I use three types of companies: utilities, supermarkets for food deliveries, and trades people for maintenance and repair. Regarding trades people, I am concerned primarily about competence and price. I talk with people in the village about their recommendations. Regarding supermarket deliveries, I should prefer to shop with the Co-op, but we are too rural for there to be a Co-op delivery service. I receive a lot of e-mail communication from the Co-op, and like their explicitly ethical stance on many issues. However, we are, de facto, limited to food deliveries from either Tesco or Sainsburys. I have no interest in these companies other than the labelling of their products as suitable for strict vegans. Regarding utility companies: 1. we have no choice about who supplies our water (Affinity); 2. we have no choice about who removes our waste water (Southern); 3. we use Good Energy for electricity, specifically because it sells electricity generated from renewable resources alone (i.e. no carbon offsetting); the village suffers from repeated power outages. 4. there is no natural gas in the village, so we have to buy heating oil; the village has an 'oil club', of which we are a member, that group buys heating oil from the cheapest source at the time of placing the order; 5. we use BT for telecommunications: telephony, broadband and cellphone - although the cellphone signal in the village is dire.
I receive some information from Affinity Water, both by post and by e-mail. It is mostly about ways to save water. In contrast, I receive almost nothing from Southern Water except bills. From Good Energy, I receive information by post and by e-mail, mostly crowing about themselves. From BT I receive frequent attempts, by post and by e-mail, to sell me more and to upgrade our contract (despite the lack of capacity in the local infrastructure to provide either better broadband or a better cellphone signal). I often research companies that I deal with, or am considering dealing with. I use the internet to explore company information, including reading annual reports/accounts published online. This may be prompted by something I have read, or something I am interested in pursuing. For example, I am considering solar panels for the roof. Before taking any action (and risk being bamboozled by salespeople) I have been researching what I am likely to require for our household needs, finding out online which local or regional companies might be able to meet our requirements, and interrogating companies information to establish which companies are solid and which may be cowboys or in danger of sinking into insolvency. I reject out-of-hand all cold-calling, whether by telephone, e-mail (spam) or post. For two reasons, I wish to be in charge of what it is that I want to know. First, it will be my money that will be paying for the good or service, and I have a duty of due diligence to myself and my family. Second, to allow someone else with a vested interest in selling me something to control the agenda means that I am much more likely to make a poor decision - sadly, been there, done that and already have a selection of the merchandising. I frequently receive information by e-mail from several art galleries, from a number of media corporations (including the BBC), and from many companies. I am eager to use the unsubscribe button to avoid getting overloaded. There are two companies whose material I always look at and consider in detail: the Co-op and Affinity Water. Why? Because both companies seek my engagement, and not (solely) my money. As it happens, in their communication both companies place some focus on community involvement, although that is not what interests me. My interest is in the environment broadly, in the economics of protecting and restoring the environment (I am a vegan in part because being so is much kinder to the planet), and in the personal/social changes required to transition to an economically and environmentally sustainable future. I also look at and consider in detail communications from Good Energy, because the company sells electricity derived only from renewable resources. However, they do not seek my engagement, only my money. Further, Good Energy has no interest in social transformation to an economically-sustainable future. Once the current energy crisis is over I shall consider changing to Ecotricity as our electricity supplier. To summarise, what captures my attention and interest is a convergence between my own values and those being expressed or explored by the company concerned.

I should like some of the communication to be open and honest about what Affinity Water is getting wrong and how they are attempting to put things right. (Good Energy's 'mistake' (see above) is that they only ever crow about their success, which gives an unbalanced and dishonest perspective.) A company that trusts its customers and stakeholders is likely to engender much greater trust (see last week) than a company that is permanently defensive.