The Impact of Our Carbon Footprint

Did you know that the average family of 4 creates around 10 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year?
If you keep up with the news, then you’ll hear that we have around 10 years to change our ways before climate change takes a turn for the worse. We worry so much about taking care of ourselves that we often don’t think enough about taking care of our home – the planet.
We all need to start doing our part to keep CO2 emissions as low as possible. In this blog, we have listed 5 simple steps we can follow to reduce our carbon footprints.

Spend Less Time in the Shower

We’re all guilty of spending too much time in the shower at times. However, according to statistics, if you spend 1 minute less in the shower you can save 23kg of CO2. Instead of doing all your ‘thinking’ in the shower, just think about how hopping out as soon as you’re done is helping the environment for future generations.

Turn Off Electricity When Not in Use

If you think about all the electrical items that we have plugged in at home, you already know you’ll be creating CO2 emissions without even thinking about it. In the morning, you may charge your phone, use the TV, kettle, toaster, hair straighteners and maybe more.
Just by turning off one LCD TV for around 20 hours a day, you’ll save around 5kg of CO2 a year. It might not sound like a lot but remember that this is just for one appliance. If you add up all the others, then the savings will soon tot up.

Only Boil the Kettle with The Water You Need

It might sound crazy but by doing so you could save 72kg of CO2 a year and £23 off your electricity bill. This is a significant saving just by making sure you don’t overfill the kettle when you make a cuppa.

Recycle

There are large amounts of energy and water that go in to producing ridiculous amounts of packaging, a lot of which we don’t really need or even end up using. Recycling can help as it’s taking all the packaging that we hardly used in the first place and reusing it. Even when it comes to items around the house, try getting them fixed rather than replaced where possible. This is because the carbon footprint of repairing items is significantly lower than buying new ones in yet more waste packaging.

Use More Public Transport

We have become far too reliant on our cars and driving everywhere. Sometimes, it’s unavoidable, however, if it’s just for a trip to the local shop it may not be necessary to drive. You might think that this means driving only on longer journeys but taking the train or tram can often get you there a lot faster and cheaper. It’s important to only drive when the journey is necessary.
You don’t always have to use public transport to reduce your carbon footprint either. You could try car sharing with friends, walk or cycle. If possible, see if you can work from home one day a week.

There are a lot of other ways that you can reduce your CO2 too. You should think about your secondary carbon footprint which is based on the purchases you make. Without spoiling your enjoyment of life here are a few ideas:

  • Reduce your consumption of meat
  • Buy local fruit and veg
  • Don’t buy bottled water if you can drink tap water
  • Don’t buy products that are over packaged
  • Think about what you do in your spare time. Do any of these increase CO2 emissions? E.g. going to the cinema, saunas, restaurants and go-karting etc
  • We hope that we have gave you some ideas about how you can help reduce the impact of CO2 on our environment.

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