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University of Bristol
Wellcome Trust
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The Carbon
Express


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Question: What action can I take to reduce my Carbon footprint?

 
Background:

  • For an interesting look at your electricity and gas use in your home,  look at this booklet from EDF energy.
  • N.B. Electricity suppliers charge us for "Units" of electricity where one Unit is 1kWh, or 1 kilowatt used for 1 hour. So a 100W light bulb will use 1kWh (1 unit) of electricity in 10 hours.
  • Gas consumption is measured in cubic feet but the bill is based on kiloWatt hours. They suggest that 100 cubic feet of gas is 30kWh.

Your Task

  • Make a list of actions that will help to reduce your Carbon footprint for your home.
  • Use the Carbon calculator to establish the Carbon footprint for your home.
  • Now plan to carry out your ‘action plan’ over a month. You will need to monitor your use of electricity, oil, gas etc.
  • Recalculate this at the end of the month and determine your saving. Try and estimate how much you would save over the year.


Discussion points:

  • Have you managed to make a significant saving on your home’s CARBON emissions?
  • How hard was it?
  • What motivates me to do this?
  • How could you convince others to do the same?
  • Will you keep it going and change your actions permanently?
  • If you had the money and resources, what would you do next?
  • Do you think that other people should be made to do what you have done?
  • How much more do you think you could do to reduce your CARBON emissions?
  • If you had used another CARBON calculator, would it have given another result which would have influenced your actions plan in another way?
     

visit STATION FOOD MILES to find out how the way we produce food contributes to carbon emissions.