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STEPS TO REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT

We believe that climate change is one of the biggest threats we face today – for our children and our children’s children. We also believe that we have the power to do something positive – to change the way people think and to encourage people to take action.

As a family we have been looking at reducing our carbon footprint, whilst at the same time educating our children. We believe our children can adopt good practices and view it as normal, rather than the efforts of introducing a ‘new’ concept later on in life.

“Carbon footprint is the measure of the amount of carbon dioxide or CO2 emitted through the combustion of fossil fuels in carrying out a process or making a product. The increase on CO2 in our atmosphere has a negative impact on global climate.”

Reducing your carbon footprint is simpler than you probably think, and we would like to share with you some of the activities that we undertook in three months with surprisingly very little effort. 

Long-term, our actions may reward not only the planet, but also our bank balance, as we begin to save money on our household bills.

Car Insurance

We changed our car insurance to a carbon neutral provider meaning your insurer will invest in a scheme to offset the CO2 emissions your car makes during the year. We decided to go with 'The Green Insurance Company', a company who were as competitive as our previous policy and provided a very good and clear service.

Our CO2 saving each year: 2,000Kg

Heating

This is the quickest and simplest of our recommendations. Although my wife likes the whole house cosy and warm, if you turn your thermostat down by 1 degree you can reduce your bills and carbon usage buy 10%. Trust me, you will not even notice the temperature change in the house, my wife hasn’t yet!

Our CO2 saving each year: 300Kg

Now this was easy and something we were already doing. However to keep things tidy and in order we purchased a set of three recycling bags (glass/metal, paper/card and plastic) from Ethical Superstore. The bags click together, are labelled and easy to keep clean.

We were astounded by how much plastic we got through each week and how much less rubbish we were putting in our wheelie bin. Also we felt it important for our children to understand what we were doing and make recycling second nature to them. We also try to reduce the amount of packaging that we use in the first place.

Our CO2 saving each year: 3,000Kg

Transport

I now take the train to London, walk/ride to work and walk/ride to school. This approach saves you money, keeps you fit and reduces ever further your CO2 emissions. The hardest part is to convince my wife that buying a bike is a nice birthday present!

Our CO2 saving each year: 4,000Kg

Utilities

Getting fed up with rising prices of fossil fuels which were being passed on to us we decided to move our electricity to a 100% renewable energy. This basically means we now get the power to heat and run our household through natural resources, such as the sun and wind. The company we chose was Good-Energy.

Our CO2 saving each year: 8,000Kg

The Carbon Quilt

Check out this short film by Carbon Sense. This explains carbon emissions and climate change via a concept called "The Carbon Quilt" .