I write in response to your recent column by Wayne Hemingway (10 January, page 26) which, among other things, was intended to set us thinking about the paltry amount that most of us do to improve the environment.
It certainly made me feel rather guilty about the little that I do in this respect – my sole contribution being to recycle much of our household waste (lots of wine bottles).

On page 32 of the same issue, you printed an interview with Richard Saxon, the marketing director of Building Design Partnership and now chairman of think-tank Be, who is described by yourselves as "the industry's helmsman", presumably someone to whom we should all look to to set us an example. He says that his lifestyle in Phoenix Arizona, including "a 4 tonne air-conditioner" and "a lawn where I shouldn't have a lawn", is deeply sinful from a sustainability point of view, but that he's earned it.

Are we all supposed to adopt his attitude? Or does he think he is so much greater than all us lesser mortals that he has the right to ignore the message that we should all listen to regarding sustainability?

Perhaps, next time, you could ask him.

Postscript

Wendy Coggan, Coggan Associates Chartered Quantity Surveyor, Worcestershire.