Before Christmas 06 I signed up to a Tory project to encourage people to ’save a tonne of carbon’ and to blog about the process…
Here’s a link to the Carbon Challenge – part of the excellent Quality of Life huge policy review the Tory party is currently undertaking… http://qualityoflifechallenge.typepad.com/carbon_challenge/
Here is my blog that I posted when I first calculated my own carbon footprint…
Carbon calculator a sobering experience for Mrs Smug Married with 2 children (no dog)
As rather a greenie Tory local district councillor (mum of 2 under 5s, thankfully both now out of washable nappies) I have been putting an increasing amount of effort into reducing both my personal and our District Council’s carbon emissions. I’ve volunteered to take on this Carbon Challenge knowing that I’ve done the easy bits personally, and I’m wondering where to go next. I’m hoping for some inspiration, some ideas …and doubtless some more challenge.
It is slighly unnerving to disclose one’s personal lifestyle habits and choices to all who choose to read it – so please be gentle with your feedback, and recognise that for each of us this carbon thing is a learning, evolving journey, and I believe only when taken in good heart will it get us globally anywhere. But please do send some.
I feel rather smug. The light bulbs are all low energy, even finally the downlighters; we have a solar thermal water heater that I’m thrilled with; the central heating is mostly off or down low, and we are much more aware of heating just the space, or the water, we are using; we have cavity wall insulation and at least 10” insulation in the loft; we shut our curtains and plug the gaps; we’ve definitely decided a small cheap wind turbine on the rafters is not a good idea for us (but I’d love to have some medium or biggie turbines in the countryside around us, as would at least one neighbour, but more of that later..). We have plans to replace our oil fired boiler (old, inefficient and starting to break down) with a wood burning boiler and large hot water storage tank; and all the other straightforward things, and where do I find myself personally on the Carbon calculator….
Crikey – not only do I find myself contributing just a little over the UK average carbon amount on a personal basis (6 tonnes/annum) (am I being too honest?), I also find that as much as that again is added onto me by the carbon calculator as standard secondary carbon from things such as recreation, buildings and public services.
It is sobering. 12 tonnes, and the guidance on ‘emissions/person to stop global warming’ is 2.5 tonnes per person.
More than double this – 6 tonnes – is emitted by my ‘average secondary footprint’ as calculated by the Carbon Footprint Calculator. Perhaps I’m not really so bad, perhaps as we do think about what we buy before we buy it, we do recycle (hence helping using less ‘initial manufacture carbon’), and buy recycled goods and local food where possible. However, of course, maybe we’re worse. Maybe my recreation/public service consumption is above average. Who knows, I won’t really go there for now. Save to say that my primary carbon footprint is just above average.
The ‘biggies’ within it are heating the house, and driving my car. I’m not surprised at the sources but I am surprised as to how much carbon I add to the atmosphere.
I play around with the ‘type of car’ dropdown and find I can vary my emissions by a tonne easily by classifying my car in a similar bracket… is it MPV diesel (better) or 4×4 diesel (considerably worse). As our diesel 4×4 is not a big one and does over 40 to the gallon (we did look into fuel consumption when we bought it, though perhaps not as much as we would now, almost 5 years later), I hope perhaps it is not such an offender……Yet, even with a 1.2 supermini the calculator tells me that my average mileage (8000 miles /year) would produce 1.8 tonnes carbon, almost all my 2.5 tonne allowance.
I resolve in a Bridget Jones fashion to do the following: 1. Consider all journeys more carefully. Make more efforts to car share (I’ve made some but apart from the odd school run journey (4kg)) nothing substantive. 2. Really try to use more local public transport. I’ve been toying with the idea of taking the bus to council meetings in Hailsham, a 40 minute drive away… it is one of the few significant journeys I do that is busable, so must at least try….It’s been very cold and I’m always in a hurry and cutting journey times fine. 3. Consider flights even more carefully. We took just one last year to a friend’s wedding in Edinburgh, but I’ve often taken more in the past. 4. Must commit to doing the wood burning boiler (this would make a big impact). 5. Finally and possibly the most significant, keep on with efforts to raise the sustainability and carbon profile in Wealden District Council. I will post more about this in future, but it is a clear objective, it’s been gathering pace and achievement, but there is so, so much futher to go.
Rowena Moore
