Diary of an Ethical Man

By Justin Rowlatt
Ethical Man, BBC Newsnight

AUGUST | JULY | JUNE | MAY | APRIL | MARCH

Send Ethical Man your comments

28 MARCH

I've now spent a month trying to reduce the so-called carbon footprint of my home.

Why didn't Justin sign up to a green electricity supplier before now?

I've been on my hands and knees taping up my windows, I've insulated part of the roof, put in energy saving bulbs and turned down the thermostat.

But the most significant thing I have done took just a couple of minutes - I timed it - and I didn't even raise a sweat.

What I did will reduce the carbon emissions from the electricity I use to zero - I switched to a green electricity supplier.

The switch doesn't mean that the actual electrons that power the devices in my home will have been generated from zero-carbon sources. What it means is the company I opted for guarantees to buy a unit of electricity from a renewable (non-nuclear) source for every unit of electricity I use. It also uses some of the money it earns to invest in new renewable energy projects.

Given that all electricity companies are already obliged to find three per cent of their supplies from renewable sources, you might ask why you should pay a premium to help them meet that obligation

As I come off the phone, I am feeling pretty pleased with myself but my wife Bee has a question for me. She wants to know why we didn't sign up with the green supplier a couple of years ago, when she wanted to do it. "The objection you raised was that it was too expensive," she reminds me.

I'm on the spot now. "It is a little more expensive," I concede, "but for the purposes of my ethical man project I was prepared to do it now because I think I understand a bit more about the issues..." I'm losing momentum here because - as usual - she has me on the ropes, exposing me as an unethical tightwad.

The premium isn't actually that great - it costs just under 11p a unit - and this one small act will contribute more to reducing the carbon emissions of my home than anything else I have done this month.

I didn't even have to switch supplier. Most electricity companies offer a "green tariff" guaranteeing to match your electricity use with supplies from renewable sources. But critics argue that these green tariffs aren't as effective as switching to a green supplier.

Most don't guarantee to invest in renewables and there's another factor: given that all electricity companies are already obliged to find three per cent of their supplies from renewable sources (that'll rise to 10 per cent by 2010), you might ask why you should pay a premium to help them meet that obligation?

It will take a few months before I can see what effect the other things I have done this month will have on my carbon footprint. Switching supplier will have an immediate effect. It will have reduced the annual carbon emissions my family is responsible for by about one ton - that's ten per cent of our total emissions.

View Justin's carbon footprint

Of course if we had done it when Bee first suggested it we'd have already saved two tons - there's a lesson there for would-be ethical men everywhere.

23 MARCH

The race of the turbines is on!

Tory leader David Cameron has made a good start. His plans to fix a small wind turbine to the chimney stack of his Notting Hill home are well known.

The Conservative leader is one step ahead of Ethical Man

Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks may be a nose ahead, though. He's applied for permission for a larger turbine for his home in Croydon. But the road to ethical living is not always smooth. Newsnight understands that Mr Wick's plans have run into some local difficulties - opposition to his planning application from a number of his neighbours.

Now a late entrant is joining the field - me. On Monday I submitted an application for a turbine on my terraced house in North London but my plans raise issues beyond the immediate impact on my neighbours. That's because this ethical man intends to accept a wind turbine on a six month loan as a freebie.

I've defined the rules of this challenge clearly - I am supposed to pay for everything - so how can I justify this clear breach?

Here's my argument: I am keen on the idea of a turbine - who wouldn't like the idea of conjuring electricity from the wind? But I am not certain that the technology yet offers value for money.

Prices start at well over a grand - and that doesn't include the cost of installation or of putting together the planning application. By accepting this freebie I hope to find out whether domestic turbines are value for money or whether they are little more than an eco-virility symbol. In short, I'm arguing that accepting the loan of a turbine is a public service. Do you agree? Or has ethical man fallen arse-over-tip at one of his very first ethical hurdles?

Please write in and tell us what you think.

17 MARCH

I've run into two rather knotty ethical problems: one at home and one at work.

Justin has ethical dilemmas to face

The domestic challenge for this month is reducing my energy consumption. I'm happy to rise to the challenge but the motto of this ethical man is straightforward: don't do anything unless it actually works - especially if it is going to cost me good money.

The first thing I wanted to know when energy saving expert, Richard McPhail, visited me at home was what all the gas and electricity I pay for each year was actually doing around the house. His results make interesting reading...

Function	Energy cost £/year
Heating	389
Hot water	43
Cooking	19
Appliances	210
Lights	33
Fixed charges	28
TOTAL	722

The figures aren't far off what you would expect in the average terraced house except that - Richard tells me - I've got a great boiler which means my hot water costs are half what most families spend. But the good news stopped there.

"So what are the bad things about my house?" I asked.

"Well, you've got no insulation to speak of, and the walls and windows [are also a problem]," he told me.

So apart from the boiler I've got problems with my roof, walls and windows. "That'll be the entire rest of the house then, Richard."

Justin with energy saving expert Richard McPhail

So, given that heating accounts for over half my total domestic energy budget, what can be done to conserve the energy I use? Surprisingly little, I'm told. There's no cavity in my walls so cavity wall insulation is out. Full roof insulation would save me around £112 a year but would take 14 years to pay back, while for double glazing the figures look even worse. Richard reckons it would save me £50 a year and would take some 70 years - a lifetime! - to pay itself back.

The results are much more pessimistic than I'd expected. To put it bluntly, it just doesn't make economic sense for me to make the improvements. Or, if you prefer, at current energy prices it is cheaper to waste energy than to save it.

If the dangers of global warming are as serious as many scientists think, the problem is what economists call "market failure": the market doesn't reflect the real costs of energy use in the price. It is a problem I think I will come across again and again as I try to live more ethically in the coming year.

Which brings me on to my second ethical problem, this one at work. How on earth can I cut down my carbon emissions when I am sent out across the country every week?

Last week was a case in point. I was asked to report on the new Road Safety Bill and reports that a million of us are one speed camera flash away from losing our licences. Look at the mileage for one four and a half minute report:

Drive to Watford Gap with Newsnight cameraman Tony Joliffe (78 miles)

A spin in a 500bhp Bentley Continental GT with interviewee (30 miles)

Interview in an Audi convertible at junction 15a (16 miles)

Return to the Newsnight office in White City (62 miles)

Ethical living at work is something we will have to return to.

13 MARCH

I am discovering that ethical living requires skills that were not on the list of requirements for my new job here at Newsnight - DIY, for example.

It may look like Dalek-vision, but this thermal image shows Justin where to deploy his DIY skills

Last week Richard Wallace, armed with his thermal camera, exposed just how poorly insulated my roof is. One area - around the dormer window - appeared as a cool blue, almost 10 degrees centigrade lower than the light pink blush of the rest. It was clear that immediate treatment was needed.

Now I've never been a fan of DIY, as my wife Bee will attest. I can see that in some men patching up the home might kindle some primal protective instinct but it leaves me cold. However, for the purposes of this project I decided to give it a go.

I asked Bee if she would consider making one of those draught-proofing sausage dogs that people put under their doors

Until, that is, I sat down and worked out what was actually needed. The area in question is just a few square metres but I reckoned that at the very least I would need to fill the recesses with insulation, cover it with plasterboard, skim it with plaster and then paint the lot.

Now I can bang in a nail, if needed - even hang a curtain or two - but to my mind this "small job" was likely to take me the entire weekend and even then I would probably cock it up.

Much better, I decided, to ask Fen - a local handyman - to come over instead. And isn't this actually more ethical, I reasoned - a way of putting money back into the local economy?

'The camera's on me - I'd better look busy'

I didn't completely cop out: I took full responsibility for draught proofing the windows. Not the hardest job, I'll grant you - it involved lining the windows with a, surprisingly expensive, foam-backed sticky tape - but isn't the devil of ethical living attending to the small details?

That's certainly what Bee believes. I asked her if she would consider making one of those draught-proofing sausage dogs that people put under their doors. It's something that a number of people e-mailed Newsnight to suggest when we launched this project.

"I'll make you a sausage dog when you learn to close the ******* doors," was her reply. Clearly my makeover has a very long way to go.

6 MARCH

Ever since my editor dubbed me Newsnight's Ethical Man it has been open season.

Colleagues, friends - indeed, everyone I meet - seems to have a witty question or quip for me. It is going to be a tough year.

Ethical Man has a hard life

Last week the project began in earnest when Richard Wallace visited my house armed with a heat sensitive camera. The idea was that his hi-tech equipment would show how energy inefficient my pretty ordinary 1930s mid-terraced home is.

Richard began with the front of the house. It was immediately apparent that he was not impressed with a cherished "period feature" - my single paned, steel framed 1930s windows.

My wife is not impressed - 'They've asked you to be ethical man, not DIY man,' she says.

The image on his camera shows heat not light: the lighter the image on his screen, the hotter the surface. Parts of my windows were reading white hot - 10 to 12 degrees centigrade on a night when the temperature was hovering near freezing. That's hot air - air I'd paid good money to heat - pouring out into the cold London night, Richard explained.

"So how bad are my windows?" I ask. "These are bad," I'm told. Richard is a man of few words; he lets his thermal images do the talking. But they're eloquent enough to persuade me to draw up a list of jobs around the house in an attempt to make it more energy efficient.

I've set aside Saturday to try to draught-proof those windows and to attempt to insulate parts of the roof. My wife, Bee, is not impressed. "They've asked you to be ethical man, not DIY man," she says. She's seen the results of my DIY efforts before.

Wednesday was altogether more entertaining. We went to that temple to consumerism, Harvey Nichols, for the launch of Bono's "Product Red" campaign to raise money for HIV/AIDS victims in Africa.

It is a deliciously paradoxical scene. Supermodel Elle MacPherson is photographed by a score of paparazzi buying a pair of knickers from her own lingerie range with a "Red" American Express card.

...and we're told this is part of a revolution in ethical shopping!

28 FEBRUARY

The response to our request for help with the Ethical Man project has been astounding: we've had hundreds of e-mails and they're still coming in.

We've certainly prompted a lively discussion about the nature of ethics. There's a feeling that we've drawn our definitions too tightly, focusing too much on the environment.

Ethics are "about the nature of what is right and what is wrong", writes Caroline Murphy of London. "To be environmentally ethical is easy peasy compared with some other modern dilemmas," she says.

I accept that, having chosen to call this project "Ethical Man", our remit must be wider than just ecology. So Caroline, rest assured, in the coming months we intend to look at the impact my life has on other people including giving my finances an ethical overhaul, exploring ethical consumerism and examining how I can become more involved in the community.

I can't agree with those who emailed to say that the only ethical diet is vegan or who claim that vivisection is necessarily unethical

As part of that we'll look at the powerful argument for charitable giving put by, among others, David Moss of Canterbury.

But, what is very clear from the post-bag is that my attempt at ethical living - indeed, any attempt at ethical living - is not going to satisfy everybody. As an example, let me tread into just one of the many ethical minefields offered up to me by our viewers.

I can't agree with those who emailed to say that the only ethical diet is vegan or who claim that vivisection is necessarily unethical.

I have no doubt that, in the coming months, many people will disagree with some of the decisions that I make

This Ethical Man will need a lot of persuading before he gives up meat, and poses this question: whose stand is more ethical, the 700 people who took to the streets of Oxford last weekend to support animal testing or those animal rights activists who described anyone connected to Oxford University as a legitimate target?

Deciding what is right and wrong is surely the essence of ethical behaviour. I have no doubt that, in the coming months, many people will disagree with some of the decisions that I make. But if you do, please write in and say why because we hope that the debate about what constitutes ethical living will be central to this project.

It's certainly something that a lot of Newsnight viewers are interested in. Many people have written in to say that they believe we should all try to live as "ethically" as possible and there is a lot of resistance to those who argue that individuals can't make a difference.

Brendan Monaghan of Amsterdam puts the argument very succinctly. "Our relative insignificance as individuals does not absolve our individual responsibility," he writes.

And we've received many admirable examples of people who are trying to live good, or at least better, lives. One particularly stands out: Loppy Garrard of Swansea. There is no question (or is there?) that if we all followed her example the world would be a better place.

Vasectomy - one 'devilishly tough' suggestion quite a number of you had for me

As she says, if she can do the things she does on her modest income, then I should consider that windmill or solar panels - or, for that matter, the composting toilet so many of you are keen on.

John Cossham, a "Rotter" from York, takes the composting toilet crown. This is a man who says that "The Humanure Handbook" changed his life!

I'll be in touch soon John and hope to test out that toilet myself.

Oh, and one last theme. Vasectomy. That was one "devilishly tough" suggestion quite a number of you had for me and for my ethical sister's husband, Chris.

Chris' - half joking - explanation for his burgeoning family is that when society collapses he's "going to need some kids around to work the fields and look after us in our old age".

I'll sign up to that too. Unless, of course, Sara - the producer - has other plans.