reduce your carbon footprint.com
What does 10 tonnes of CO2 look like? It would be enough to fill 2 Olympic size swimming pools (5 million litres).
Here are some steps you can take to begin to reduce your carbon footprint. These actions will not cost you anything and could lead to saving money.
Latest Tip - Offset your CO2
1. Visit uswitch.com and sign up for an energy company that invests in reusable energy. Companies that offset by investing in green projects also help to reduce your carbon footprint.
2. Turn the central heating down by 1 degree and this will cut your gas bill by £60 and reduce the carbon footprint by342Kg.
3. Turn down the thermostat on your hot water, if you need to add cold water to have a bath or do the washing up then it's too hot. This could save a further £60 and 342Kg of CO2.
4. Try washing clothes at 30C, by doing 2 washes per week at 30C you will save £19 and 80Kg of CO2.
5. Use a washing line for half the time instead of a tumble dryer, this will save £36 and 150Kg of CO2.
6. Check you have the correct tyre pressure for your car, this could increase your fuel efficiency by 3% and save up to 115Kg of CO2.
7. Defrost the fridge and freezer to make them more efficient.
8. Only fill the kettle with enough water to make the drinks you need.
9. Turn your PC off at night, this could save 63Kg of CO2.
10. Switch to low energy lighting, this could save £96 and 430Kg of CO2.
11. Shop locally for local food, this could save 1825Kg of CO2.
12. Unplug all chargers once the unit is fully charged, or use a solar
battery charger.
13. Save water, processing drinking water uses energy.
Carbon Offsetting
Many
companies offer to offset your carbon footprint, usually by pledging to
buy a few trees somewhere. The theory being that the tree will turn
the CO2 into carbon and hold it within the tree. What they don't say
is that a tree will only remove about 5Kg of CO2 per year, so the 3
trees you buy to offset that flight to Spain will take around 50 years
to remove the CO2 from that 2 hour journey.
The
average Carbon Footprint is 12 Tonnes per person per year. To remove
this from the atmosphere it would require 2400 trees; a 6 Acre (2.5
Hectare) area of woodland. It's just not practical. So once you have
done all you can to reduce your own carbon footprint then try
offsetting and helping others.
BeGreenNow.com offers a wide portfolio of carbon offsetting visit them to see the various projects.
are very active in reducing climate change with a variety of projects that you could add your support to