One of the blog posts that I really enjoyed writing recently was when I shared which talked about the changes I’d made in order to be kinder to the planet and save money at home. Since I wrote this post I’ve become more and more enthusiastic in my efforts to find greener alternatives to my every day habits, as well as attempting to learn more about living consciously and responsibly. I’ve been searching out podcasts like Low Tox Life and Altitude and reading the My Green Pod blog to keep up with the latest news in all things green. One of the things that comes up time and time again as a really quick way to make a contribution to sustainability and the environment is to switch to a renewable energy supplier – my supplier is Octopus Energy and I genuinely rave about them to anyone who will listen.
I came across Octopus Energy when I was desperately browsing uSwitch a few months ago after receiving a £400 bill from the supplier that my flat used when I moved in. The reason I chose Octopus was not only because they use renewable energy (and all of their tariffs are 100% renewable energy tariffs) and not only because they were also a lot cheaper than my other supplier, but also because uSwitch had a neat little badge next to their tariffs on the comparison page to show that they had won their supplier of the year award this year, and had a 5 out of 5 customer service rating. It’s fair to say I was pretty sold.
I know it sounds like I’m being overly enthusiastic about an energy supplier but I genuinely have every reason to be. For a start, renewable energy is a no-brainer for the planet. According to the WWF, if governments and businesses embrace the renewable economy, the whole world could get all of the energy it needs from renewable sources by 2050 – which would mean no more fossil fuels and use of depleting resources. Just switching to a renewable energy supplier is a small step that we can all make to start the change and minimise the escalating impacts of climate change.
As I learned more about Octopus I really became an evangelist for their brand and the things that they are trying to achieve. They arrange tree planting events at schools as well as showings of An Inconvenient Truth (a must watch) and it’s clear that they really live their values of focusing on sustainability and the environment. One of their aspirations is to make people more aware of their energy usage – I recently had a Smart Meter installed which I’m a little bit addicted to checking! It’s made me so much more conscious of turning off lights and appliances and understanding what exactly is contributing to my energy bills. Another option that Octopus have, which I love, is their Agile Octopus Tariff which can actually pay you for using electricity when there’s a surplus on the grid (how clever is that?) So when there is more electricity being generated than used you’ll get a notification telling you that ‘Plunge Pricing’ is occuring and you can whack on your washing machine and other electrical devices!
It’s worth mentioning the average UK home could save over £200 a year by switching away from the Big Six energy suppliers. (EON are to raise their prices for a second time in as many months) so it’s pretty much a no-brainer, and it really only takes two minutes.
If I’ve managed to convince you to follow and support Octopus Energy then you can use my referral code to nab yourself £50 credit. Or if you don’t want the credit then you can just Google Octopus Energy and go from there.
Disclaimer: I’m genuinely an Octopus Energy customer and I genuinely LOVE them – turns out I raved about them so much on social media that they agreed to work with me on sharing a bit more about them. But as always, all opinions are my own and I hope that you’ll be able to tell that my enthusiasm for their brand, and renewable energy as a whole is totally legit.
