Hello, we are Liz and Phil Brett, and we have lived in Cheriton for thirteen years, although our sustainability journey only started relatively recently.
When we retired, we started thinking more about climate change and sustainability and what we could do. Solar panels were our starting point, why not use free energy? They aren’t the most attractive things, but we collaborated with our neighbours to choose the same design, so it matched across the two adjacent properties.
Clean energy is generated via the panels which were installed in May 2024, and we have produced 10.8 mw of electricity since then and exported 5mw of these back to the grid. We estimate about 8 years to break even i.e. to cover the cost of the original investment, and we have an app that monitors the panels so that we know what is going on.
Last December we decided to purchase our first EV. There were pros and cons with all of the available choices on the market. We love the car and especially the ease of charging overnight. Even going long distances hasn’t’ proved to be a problem. The charging network is growing by the day so range anxiety hasn’t been an issue.
We are not perfect, sometimes we fly for holidays but last year we did a big trip all around France by train which worked really well and made us realise that we could have great holidays without flying. We are also going to look at carbon offset opportunities for future travel.
Since we moved to Cheriton we are much more conscious of the natural environment and we see food being grown and notice the changing seasons, it has made us much more conscious of farming and the environment in general.
Part of our motivation to make these changes was due to Liz’s career in education. A great children’s book about the effect of pollution on the environment had a huge impact on her. It made us think about our grandchildren and how to ensure that we gave them a sustainable future by making our own contribution. Our daughter-in-law is a real inspiration with her recycling and repurposing; we want to be able to look her in the eye and our grandchildren and say we did our bit.
We have also been influenced by some TV programmes, for example Chris Packham has a lot of passion which has also helped to inspire our thinking and made us realise that we can’t just sit back and do nothing. Although Clarkson’s Farm is primarily focused on entertainment it has also been quite educational for us and highlighted the role of farming and the environmental impact on that sector.
The work of the Prince of Wales with Earthshot has been quite enlightening too with people dedicating their lives to coming up with imaginative ideas that can offset and solve some of our sustainability challenges.
In our experience if you don’t know what to do first then start small. Although we have made some significant investments we have also done lots of smaller things too, we think every little helps for example we try and fill the garden with plants which will encourage more biodiversity, and we have a water butt and use the collected water as much as possible.
We are also concerned about plastic and how it is recycled and how it is entering the food chain. We have made a few small changes to try and improve that at home. Next time we buy a chopping board it won’t be a plastic one! We also don’t eat as much red meat as before as we realise it is harmful to the atmosphere.
Another challenge we have taken on is to reduce the amount of ‘stuff’ in our home. We have bought more things from the charity shop, preloved items such as toys, books and jigsaws for the children which we then take back to the charity shop when they have outgrown them. We repurpose things and ensure that we recycle: we give that more time and thought than we used to, we have become more aware of what helps from a sustainability perspective.
When there are opportunities to learn more we make sure we take them, the water company did a survey on our water usage which was really helpful and we also enjoyed taking our grandchildren to the New Leaf Eco Fair and the Garden and Green Fair last summer, great ways to engage us and the grandchildren; they know more than us!
Everyone can do something; the small things accumulate and lead to bigger changes so why not give it a go.