Taking Action on Climate Change

The average person accounts for about 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Around half of this is directly from household energy use and transport, with the other half made up of your proportion of the UK's emissions from industry.

There is a temptation to feel that as individuals we can't do much about carbon emissions - this is simply not true. There are many things each of us can do - some simple no-cost measures - which will reduce our own CO₂ emissions. A few ideas are listed below.

Energy Efficiency

• Turn it off
  Did you know that leaving appliances like TVs, set top boxes, DVD players, phone chargers and PCs on standby costs the average household over £37 a year in wasted electricity? Make it easy to switch them all off by plugging items into a power strip, and turning off and unplugging the power strip when not in use.
• Just 1 degree cooler
  The ideal temperature for a room is between 18°C and 21°C. Reducing your room temperature by 1°C could cut your heating bills by up to 10% and save you around £50 per year.
• Make life easy for your fridge
  Make it easy for your refrigerator to stay cool by putting it in a cool place and letting hot food cool down to room temperature before you put it in. Clean your coils, clear clutter off the top and defrost on a regular basis to save energy and CO₂.
• Wash at lower temperatures
  Washing clothes at 30ºC instead of normal temperatures means you use 40% less electricity, saving you over £10 a year on your electricity bill and half a tonne of CO₂ over the lifetime of the machine. Need a new machine? Buy an A-rated energy saving recommended appliance - that could save you another half a tonne!
• Hang clothes out to dry
  Save the environment the old-fashioned way: invest in a clothesline. Tumble dryers are large energy consumers. Do you really need to use it? Try hanging you clothing outside, in the utility room or even your shower instead of throwing them in the tumble dryer.
• Adjust your water heater
  Is the hot water temperature scalding? If you reduce the temperature of your water heater from 60°C to 49°C (140°F to 120°F), you'll prevent burns and save CO₂. And make you're your water tank is insulated.
• Take a shower instead of a bath
  Did you know that a bath can take up to 190 litres of water? If you forego a bath in favour of a shower just once a week, you can save 45 kg of CO₂. If you do this daily, it adds up to 317 kg of CO₂. If you fit a low flow shower head, you'll save even more. Take it one step further by taking shorter showers. Each minute under an average showerhead uses more than 9 litres of water. Cutting down on shower time can result in CO₂ savings of 159 kg each year.
• Use energy-efficient light bulbs
  Over its lifetime an 11 watt low-energy light bulb consumes less than one fifth of the energy used by a traditional 60 watt bulb. Each one you fit will lighten your electricity bill by £35, paying for itself in a year.
• Buy eco-friendly appliances
  Don't run out and buy all new appliances to replace old ones, as the manufacturing of new items and disposal of old ones contributes to carbon waste. But when the time comes to replace them, look for the A rating on the energy label.
• Update the insulation of your home
  Insulating your home is the most effective way of keeping it warm. Without proper insulation nearly 25% of the heat in your house will disappear through the roof and around 35% through the walls. By installing the recommended depth of loft insulation (27cm or about twice the length of this card) you could save up to £220 a year on fuel bills. Cavity wall insulation could save a further £160. Together, these measures will save about a tonne of CO₂ per home.
  

Waste and Recycling

• Recycle it
  Use your recycling facilities and cut down on your waste. Less landfill will mean lower emissions, and there will be less lorry movements carrying it around.
• Remove yourself from junk mail lists
  CO2 is stuffed through your letterbox every day. Junk mail is more than just a nuisance: its creation and transportation is adding to the CO₂ problem. The average adult gets 19 kg of junk mail per year. If you cut down on this waste, you can save up to 104 kg of CO2 every year.
• Plastic bags - re-use or don't use
  Every year over 17 billion plastic carrier bags are given away which is equivalent to 290 bags for every person in the UK. Many are not re-used adding around 100,000 tonnes to our landfill sites every year. While some stores offer customers incentives to re-use plastic bags or recycle them, the best option is not to use plastic bags at all. Go on, buy a proper shopping bag for life.
  

Travelling

• Drive economically
  Eco-driving isn't just good for the environment, it's lighter on your pocket too. The UK's Driving Standards Agency proved that by driving smoothly, avoiding sharp acceleration and heavy braking, fuel consumption can be improved by over 8%. For the average household that's an extra 1,000 miles for free.
• Give your car a break
  Whether it's the daily commute, a quick visit to the shops or picking the kids up, many of us automatically reach for the car keys. But if we had just one car free day every week, we could save over £120 a year on petrol bills and around 300 kilograms of CO2 emissions as well.
  

Renewable Energy

• Switch your tariff
  Today, about two thirds of our electricity is generated by burning coal and gas in power stations. This releases millions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. By switching to a green electricity tariff you may be able to reduce your contribution to climate change. You may even find it will cost you less.
• Generate your own energy
  Using energy from sustainable sources will reduce your CO2 emissions and save you money over time. A solar hot water system, small-scale wind turbine, solar photovoltaic panels, ground source heat pump, or a wood chip boiler can reduce your reliance on fossil fuels.
  

Food

• Eat locally grown, unprocessed food
  Food typically travels 2,500 km before it gets to you. Each of those miles involves the emission of CO2. To avoid this contribution, buy local: visit a farmer's market, use farm shops or local box schemes or grow your own. If you eat local food just once a week, you can save 2,268 kg CO2 over the course of a year.
• Eat fewer animal products
  A diet of 30% meat, dairy and poultry produces 1,485 kg CO2 each year, but a vegetarian diet generates only half of that. Animal flatulence, processing, packaging and transportation of products are to blame. If you replace red meat with fish, eggs and poultry, you can save more than 430 kg CO2 a year.
  

Gardening

• Create a low water garden
  Reduce your garden's demand for water. Make sure you have a healthy soil with plenty of organic matter as this will retain moisture and nutrients. Choose plants for drought tolerance. Use mulch to retain moisture.
  Lawns are the thirstiest part of a garden. Letting the grass grow longer helps shade the soil and reduces the need for water. If the grass turns brown, it does not mean that it has died: it will eventually recover when it rains. Some varieties of grass are particularly suited to dry conditions, such as fescue grasses and smooth stalked meadow grass.
• Fit a water butt
  Use a water butt to collect rainwater for your garden, rather than using the mains supply. Pumps are now also available to allow the use of hoses with trigger sprays, which are ideal for larger gardens.
  

Offset your Carbon

• Plant a tree
  Trees are attractive, cheap, help with energy costs and reduce the CO2 in our air. They provide cooling shade and absorb CO2 from the atmosphere while creating oxygen.