They say London is a big city made up of small villages. Kiwi expat Joanne Fullam reflects on living the green life in the big smoke
They say London is a big city made up of small villages. Kiwi expat Joanne Fullam reflects on living the green life in the big smoke
There have been a number of redundancies over the past year in the media agency I work for, so when the boss called us into the boardroom on Monday morning, I admit I feared the worst. I needn’t have; my gadget-mad boss handed each staff member a brand new Apple iPad as a thank-you for recent hard work and to demonstrate his belief that touch technology is the way of the future.
I can’t help but be impressed with my new toy and am genuinely amazed at its intuitive simplicity. I realise that behind the internet cloud, the IT industry walks with its own hefty carbon footprint, but as a waste-conscious wanna-be greenie I’m happy for any savings I can make. With pocket access to so many great online magazines and newspapers, I just know I’ll be using less paper to get my reading hit. And during a quick visit to the Apple Store in Kingston to purchase an iPad carry-case, I was delighted to be asked if I wanted my receipt sent to me rather than printed out. “Yes please, just email it,” I replied, feeling ever-sovirtuous about my tiniest of paper savings.
Unlike life back in New Zealand, there’s no need for me to own a car here. For starters, petrol and parking costs are exorbitant, and flatting in a terrace house metres from Clapham Junction – Western Europe’s busiest train station – means everything I might possibly want is less than five minutes’ walk from my doorstep. Whether it’s a pedicure at Tran’s Nails, restocking household recycling bags from Battersea Library, attending yoga class, buying organic lemon drizzle cakes at the weekend farmers’ markets or imbibing a summertime Pimm’s at the Slug & Lettuce … it’s all there.
The public transport system and London’s move towards becoming a cycle-friendly city make car ownership seem even more pointless. If and when I return to New Zealand, I guess I’ll have no choice but to rely on a car again – though I do wonder when New Zealand will reach the tipping point where there’s no option but for our government to invest seriously in city public transport infrastructure.
London’s mayor Boris Johnson (himself a keen cyclist) has been instrumental in the installation of the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme – a 24-hour-a-day, year-round self-service bike system in central London. Commuters pick up a bike from one of 400 docking stations and return it to another. Nicknamed ‘Boris Bikes’ they’re perfect for short trips from point to point around the city and, best of all, trips of less than half an hour are free. The idea’s really caught on; more than a million cycle trips were made within ten weeks of the scheme being launched. Myself, I like the retro design with the low cross bar, which makes the bikes easy to get on and off whether you’re wearing a dress and high heels or a winter jacket and boots. Plus there’s a basket for handbags. Brilliant!
My workplace is in Kingston upon Thames, a delightful town nestled on the river bank, southwest of Richmond Park. In summer, I cycle to work along dedicated bike lanes or off-road tracks through Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park. Some mornings I see deer grazing in the park or squirrels flitting about and have to remind myself that this is me and this is London.
Now with shorter days and plummeting temperatures I catch a train to work, indulge in a soy latte on the way and read the free Metro newspaper to catch up on news stories and trashy celeb gossip. Sadly, London is light years behind New Zealand in the coffee scene and it’s not yet commonplace to be able to order soya milk, let alone a fair trade flat white.
When it comes to recycling, though, I have a sneaking suspicion that in spite of New Zealand’s green image, London might be streets ahead. Separate recycling bins for newspapers, glass, plastic and general waste are popping up around the city – outside most train and tube stations, in most businesses and also in the vast majority of homes.
This week the UK government announced a grimly-titled Spending Review, warning that up to 490,000 public sector jobs could disappear over the next four years as government departments are forced to make savings of up to £6 billion. Watching the formation of Auckland’s Super City from my London perch, I can’t help wondering if this might signal the way forward for other beleaguered councils and local bodies around the globe. There’ll no doubt be politicking, showmanship and all manner of back-room jostling – but the proof of the Super City’s success will be if the expected cost-savings and increased buying power result in a leaner, greener and more economically savvy public sector organisation.
The world really is watching, New Zealand.
Joanne Fullam is a PR account director working in the food and drinks sector for ZOO Communications, a London media agency. Keeping it in the family, she’s also the sister of Good’s uber-talented Sally Fullam.
