Donnachadh McCarthy

Were you always a keen environmentalist?

No. I didn’t take up dancing until I was 21, so I had to be very focused on that. As a dancer you can be quite detached from the world around you – I never even used to buy a newspaper.

So what changed?

Through an alternative therapist I used to visit when I was a dancer, I ended up spending two weeks in the middle of the Amazon rainforest with a tribe of Yanomami Indians. When I came back to the UK, I became very aware of the destruction to the rainforest. I knew it was a symptom of our destructive lifestyle – you could spend your life trying to save the planet, but as long as our destructive lifestyle continues you’d just be pushing a stone up a hill.

What did you do about it?

My policy has always been to lead by example. It started with small things such as buying organic food and gradually I started greening my own life. Then I found out the council was trying to sell off about 14 acres of a local park for development. I felt that I couldn’t protest about the rainforest and not do something about a local park.I got swept up in it and ended up taking a year off work – I never went back to ballet. Through that I became a local councillor and did a lot of work on the environment over three or four years as an opposition councillor for Southwark.

You installed a 1.2 kW pv installation on your roof and became the first homeowner to sell electricity back to London Electricity – how easy was it to achieve this?

It took a three-month negotiation before I got everything I wanted. They were very constructive, but attached a lot of charges initially, such as testing the equipment, and were only paying me wholesale rates for the electricity. I took the stance that I wanted to get rid of all the charges – I was spending a huge amount of money and wanted to set a precedent. They were brave, they were breaking ranks with the industry.

Is it cost effective?

I accepted right from the beginning that I’d never see my money back, that’s true of nearly all renewables still. Each year I try and be more efficient because I want to be a net exporter. Last year I achieved it – I exported 20% more electricity to the grid than I imported.

Even on an overcast day you can sit in this living room and see that the meter is exporting electricity to the grid, even when powering the background stuff in the house.

Isn’t yours also the first house in London to get planning permission for a wind turbine?

Yes. The search for the turbine started about four and a half years ago. I needed one that had an inverter and was AC compatible because I’m trying to show that it’s possible to have a reasonably modern lifestyle and look after the planet. I heard that the unit I was considering was noisy and couldn’t risk it being a disaster with my neighbours so started the search for a quieter alternative and eventually got it installed last November.

What else have you done to green your house?

In 1998 I installed rainwater harvesting which is used to flush the loo. It works for around 70% of the year.

With my gas boiler I was aware that my heating and hot water was emitting CO₂, so 18 months ago I put in a solar water system that is backed up by electric. The tank is now (in mid September) at 51ºC, I’ve had a shower and washed the dishes this morning from yesterday’s sunshine and it was too hot it was around 55ºC this morning, I had to add cold water to it. Even in winter if you get direct sunlight it is 20ºC which is pretty good.

As part of your work, you carry out eco audits – what do they entail?

They cover everything from whether an organisation recycles and what they doing with their water, to energy and management systems and purchasing policies. The environmental impact of a building includes far more than energy, for example are they using recycled paper to print on or organic food at events. Almost all of it will have a CO₂ price.

If it’s a household, I’ll go through the house and look at their carbon footprint balance. I then go back six months later to see how they are getting on – this is as much a learning process for me as I find out what has worked, what didn’t and why it didn’t work. Every audit brings up stuff you don’t know.

What’s your own carbon footprint?

I calculated my carbon footprint last year and for travel to work, heating and lighting my CO₂ footprint was 0.5 tonnes. I use around 17 litres of mains water a day – the average is around 160 litres. I’m saving about £100 of electricity a year and about £100 a year on water.

You were involved in drawing up the UDP for Southwark – what does it require?

Way back in 1994, I was proposing rainwater barrels and composting should be part of all new developments and got it through as policy so the planning committee has to regularly impose it. We were the first council in the country to do that.

As part of the UDP process this time around, I submitted 60 proposals as an ordinary member of the public. I’ve got rainwater harvesting now required for all new buildings in Southwark as well as composting, proper secure cycle storage, integration of physical space for the London cycle route. The council recognises that domestic wind turbines and pvs have a positive role to play in generation and it pays special consideration to the orientation of roofs so that they can take advantage of solar energy.

With Ken Livingstone’s 10% renewables’ requirement, I took it to appeal and got the ‘where feasible’ clause deleted. I think Southwark now has probably the most environmentally progressive set of planning regulations in the country. Hopefully others will follow suit.

Could more be done?

Ideally we should be moving towards 50 or 100% renewables not 10% but there are practical problems. The renewables industry is really still a cottage industry, and a lot aren’t proven yet so we need to avoid spending money on crap ones and make sure the industry is able to cope. Investment in R&D is criminally low but the commercial potential is huge.

Where do you see your future?

I decided that British politics follows rather than leads, so I think the best thing is to go out and try to create the atmosphere and momentum that would mean the party leaderships would be overwhelmed by public opinion. My ambition is to be a full-time media environmentalist. I really do believe if everybody had my lifestyle it would make a difference.