What better time than January - month of the New Year Resolution - to start planning ways to green up your house. CarbonNeutral.com can help you out in this department - they say that everyone can reduce the carbon footprint of their home to zero. "Around 20 per cent through small, long-lasting changes inside the home and 80 per cent by international carbon offsets." Which means every kilo of CO2 you produce you need to offset by putting the equivalent money into eco-friendly projects i.e. you could donate money to the World Land Trust or get involved in a tree planting scheme.Some of the ways you can reduce the carbon footprint of your home in order to reduce the amount of carbon offsets you need to make are:
- Double glaze your windows to keep the heat in
- Use solar panels for energy
- Insulate your roof
- Buy white goods with an A energy rating
- Fit energy saving light bulbs
- Switch off appliances at the wall and that includes computers!
- Replace your old boiler with a condensing boiler (according to CarbonNeutral.com this will save 1,100kg of CO2 a year)
- Switch energy suppliers. Ecotricity is the only UK supplier reinvesting in extra capacity / renewable sources. They're also in the top six companies on price so it needn't cost you or the earth!
As we're still in the midst of winter - these ones may have to wait until spring but you could certainly get a start on the preparations, like researching where to source materials.
- Create a compost heap and add to your garden with organic matter rather than buying oil based pesticides and plant growing enhancers
- Use a water butt to collect rain for watering your garden
- Line dry your washing - we all know how energy zapping tumble dryers are!
