Memorandum submitted by Belinda James
(CRED 36)
1. My name is Belinda James, I am 41 years
old and live in a rural village in Norfolk. We have no children.
My husband and I run our design business from our home.
2. I have been interested in the environment
for a number of years and we "try and do our bit". My
knowledge about environmental issues, in particular Climate Change
has increased significantly over the last four years since becoming
the graphic designers for CRed. I am by no means an expert but
would like to think that I try to encourage friends, family, businesses
we work with, to think about the environment and advise them of
simple things that they could do themselves, in their homes and
workplaces. Our home is not an exemplar of low carbon living but
we have done what we can, finances allowing, but know there is
still much we need to do and would like to do.
3. The reason I would like to be given the
opportunity to talk to the committee is that I feel constantly
frustrated by what I see and hear from the people around me and
what we have experienced ourselves. Many of the issues could be
addressed by better communication.
4. I have heard of my friends and families
views on climate change, their frustrations, and despondency which
mirror many of mine. I would like to express these to you. For
example, low energy light bulbs, many find these to expensive
to install, lack of knowledge about energy consumption of domestic
household products, lack of information and support on making
improvements to ones home, costs of installing alternative power
supplies, transport, lack of information in shops on carbon emissions/energy
consumption for particular products, even food, which would enable
people to make informed decisions when comparing and choosing
products. And on and on ...
Belinda James
January 2007
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