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There is no agreed definition of carbon neutral (sometimes called ‘climate neutral’) but it is generally understood to mean calculating total carbon emissions, or carbon footprint, reducing them as much as possible, then balancing out the remaining emissions by purchasing carbon credits, so that a process or an individual, household or business has a carbon footprint of zero.

In the home it needs a combination of measures such as:

• Limiting energy usage and emissions from transport – avoiding flying, and using the car less by walking or using a cycle or public transport instead.
• Reducing energy use in the home and insulating and draught-proofing the house to make it more energy efficient.
• Switching to a renewable energy source, perhaps by installing solar panels or changing to a green-energy provider.
• Offsetting remaining emissions through a carbon project or by buying carbon credits. 

Posted under carbon footprint, educational resources

Everyone knows that we are supposed to reduce our ‘carbon footprint’, but what is it?

The carbon footprint is a measure of total carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas emissions of a person, a household, a business or even a whole country. It is usually expressed in tonnes of carbon per year, or in planets. The national carbon footprint of the United Kingdom is 3.1. This means that if everyone in the world lived at the same standard as we do in the UK we would need 3.1 planets to sustain us all. The national carbon footprint of India is only 0.4, China is 0.9, but the United States is 5.3. The dilemma is in  finding ways to reduce our high carbon footprints in the developed world but at the same time allowing people in developing countries to improve their standard of living without their carbon footprints rocketing.

You can calculate yours at http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/

Posted under carbon footprint, educational resources