The 23 ways Brits are helping the environment day-to-day - how many do you do? (2025)

Most people in the UK are taking steps to help the planet – but they are generally the easiest measures and tend to be those that are cheap and save money, a major poll has found.

A nationally representative survey of 4,054 adults, looking at the practices they have adopted in their daily life, found recycling to be the most common, with 60 per cent saying they do it routinely.

Switching to low-energy lightbulbs came next, with 43 per cent of adults doing this – followed by people choosing to walk, cycle or run rather than drive (43 per cent) and second-hand shopping (35 per cent).

At the more expensive and time-consuming end of the spectrum, just 3 per cent have replaced their gas boiler with a heat pump, 5 per cent have fitted an electric vehicle charging point and 6 per cent have installed triple glazing, according to the survey, conducted by the Public First research agency.

Experts said the survey showed people are increasingly doing their bit to help the environment – but that much work remains to be done.

They said cash was a significant barrier to the more expensive measures, especially in a cost-of-living crisis, and said it was important for the Government to invest heavily in areas such as public transport and cycleways – to encourage people to travel less in cars.

“The vast majority of the public can claim sustainable behaviour. But the data show that a lot of this behaviour is quite non-intensive; recycling, changing lightbulbs, choosing to walk over driving,” Seb Wride, of Public First, told The i Paper.

Roger Harding, co-director of Round Our Way, a charity focusing on the effects of climate change on people’s lives, added: “It’s great people are increasingly doing their bit”

“However, this data also reveal the class divide between who can, and cannot, access the tech that brings down bills, like solar panels, better home insulation and home car charging.

“Technology that saves people money and helps tackle climate change can’t be allowed to be something only the wealthy can access.”

The survey found, for example, that while 9 per cent of those in socioeconomic group AB had fitted an electric vehicle charging point, only 3 per cent had in group DE.

Meanwhile, 13 per cent of those from socioeconomic group AB had installed solar panels on their roof, just 6 per cent of people in DE had done so.

And age can also play a role – with 6 per cent of 16-to-34 year olds replacing their gas boiler with a heat pump, compared to 1 per cent among 45 to 54 year olds, the survey found.

Wride added that, while environmental factors play a role in people’s decision to take green measures, the main motivation can often be more to do with saving money – for example when it comes to measures to reduce water consumption.

“For the majority, the main motivation of water use reduction was expense. In fact for 27 per cent of those who have reduced consumption, it is exclusively about expense, not the environment,” he said.

“There’s a further challenge in convincing people to make large capital expenditures for new systems or installations.

“When sustainable behaviours cannot be linked to direct cost benefits, it will be difficult to move away from the ‘low hanging fruit’ [of cheap, easy changes that benefit the environment],” Wride said.