Going Carbon Neutral

So, as I mentioned, my household is going carbon neutral by the end of the year. What does this entail?
Well, there's the lazy way and the thorough way it seems to me. The lazy way is to estimate your carbon emissions using one of the many free online carbon calculators and then just buy an offset. Clearly this is better than doing nothing but I have two problems with it. The online carbon calculators all use slightly different means of calculating emissions - which is more accurate? How can you get a real figure for emissions? And then of course just buying an offset is the rich man's solution. Surely we have to do what we reasonably can to reduce emissions and then offset what can't be reduced. I also want to engage the kids in understanding an individual's contribution to pollution and responsibility to contribute to a wider benefit - in this case reducing carbon emissions. It'll matter in their lifetimes. Writing a cheque doesn't quite do it.

And before all that you have to decide whether you are calculating this for yourself as an individual, for your family as a household or for yourself or your family in terms of lifestyle (including travel, leisure etc).

So we're going for the home first as a family and having done that will extend it to our wider lifestyle.
I'll be doing some research to get the most accurate estimate I can of real household emissions, and we'll be researching what more we can do to reduce them. We already recycle, have low energy bulbs throughout the house and serious insulation in the house. But I'm sure there will be more. Updates soon - I know you can't wait..

Comments

[RobinH]

I often find myself wondering why it isn't mandatory to put solar panels on all new build houses and flats. Doing so would not only make an immediate positive environmental impact but could help the British renewable/environmental energy industry get an invaluable headstart. Pass law, increase sustainability, help industry = no one loses but the existing global energy cartels which I suppose is why I'm still wondering why that law hasn't been passed yet...

[Jackie Danicki]

I often find myself wondering why it isn't mandatory to put solar panels on all new build houses and flats.

Because we don't live in a totalitarian country, and still pay lip service to the notion of individual freedom, perhaps?