As we hear more about the climate crisis, it’s easy to think the problem is too big for us to fix. It’s certainly a big challenge but that doesn’t mean we can’t help change things.

I’m going to be writing a regular column for the Comet with hints and tips on how to make easy changes to help our planet and community (and often our pockets), one step at a time before moving on to ideas to help businesses with their sustainability actions.

This month I’m going to be looking at our food.

Let’s start with food waste. Globally, we waste around 30 per cent of all food, whether that’s when it’s grown, sold or eaten. Reheat leftovers and freeze anything you don’t use (remember not to refreeze anything).

You can also visit your local food rescue group in Letchworth, Ickleford and Hitchin, who collect good unsold food from local retailers that you can take away for a small donation. You can also use the Olio app to share food with neighbours.

You might have heard people suggest going vegetarian or even vegan. This isn’t for everyone, but we can all eat less meat, and the best place to start is with red meat.

Cows and sheep burp a lot, burps contain methane, and methane is one of the greenhouse gases which heat up our atmosphere, causing global warming and weird weather.

Meat production is also responsible for deforestation, which means there are fewer trees to help clean up our atmosphere. Sometimes meat is shipped from the other side of the world, so all in all, it’s not very sustainable.

If you do still want to eat meat, you can shop locally, for example Lower Wilbury Farm in Letchworth. It might cost a little bit more, but if you’re eating less, it doesn’t matter so much, the quality is fabulous and you know exactly where your meat came from, and its welfare.

Buy in season veg. It’s growing more naturally in the weather conditions, so takes far less energy and probably tastes better too.

Put lids on saucepans to speed up cooking time and reduce energy use or use the microwave. Just remember to check your food isn’t overboiling or burning on the bottom!

When you boil a kettle, put just enough water in, and if you do boil too much, put the rest in a thermos for your next cuppa. This will save you water too, helpful if you’re on a water meter.

Next time, we’ll look at small changes to our laundry.

Some tips related to using energy efficiently:

It’s tricky to change energy tariffs now but when you do review them, check to see if it’s a green tariff, where your electricity comes from renewables (nature – wind, sun etc) rather than from burning coal, which pollutes the atmosphere.

If it’s unclear, ask your energy providers for an explanation. The more we communicate with them about the subject, the better.