What does “carbon footprint” mean?

The scientific community now agrees that global warming is happening and human activity is almost certainly the cause. Since the Industrial Revolution human activity has led to a vast increase in the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) pumped into the Earth’s atmosphere and we are all responsible for adding CO₂ just by doing everyday things such as heating our homes, washing our clothes and driving our cars. This is often referred to as our “carbon footprint”. It has been estimated that over 40% of CO₂ emissions in the UK come directly from what we as individuals do. There seem to be new stories almost every week in the media about the impact global warming will have on our lives and the lives of our children and grand-children – from melting ice caps and rising sea levels to extreme weather conditions.

What can we all do to reduce our “carbon footprint”?

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges faced by our generation and we all have a responsibility to do what we can to reduce our carbon footprint. The good news is there’s lots we can do; and it can save money; and it can be fun! Our founder, Graham Simmonds, has written about three positions that people tend to take on climate change, ostrich, alarmist or activist (see Graham’s blog October 2009) and Green Rewards wants to help stimulate the activists. So please see our 12 top ideas below on some simple measures you can take to reduce your carbon footprint.

The Green Rewards “dynamo dozen”

1. Turn off the lights when you leave the room and switch to energy saving bulbs (check out our biobulb)
2. Switch appliances off at the mains (our eco button could save 20% energy use on your pc)
3. Turn your thermostat down by one degree (it could cut your fuel bills by 10%)
4. Install loft insulation (this is a big one which the Government is really keen on)
5. Fit draft excluders and close the curtains at dusk
6. Only boil as much as you need (our eco kettle will help!)
7. Take a quick shower rather than a bath
8. Wash clothes at a lower temperature and hang them to dry
9. Try walking and cycling instead of driving (our dynamo lights will keep you peddling in the dark!)
10. Try not to waste food
11. Recycle everything your local council will collect
12. Switch your shopping to the green and ethical path, particularly as there are so many wonderful new products being developed - and this is what Green Rewards is all about, as you’ll see at Our Green Shop

Choosing to offset

Even when you’ve done all you can to reduce your carbon footprint, there are still almost certainly going to be unavoidable emissions, and carbon offsetting allows you to compensate for these emissions by helping to fund projects that deliver and equivalent CO₂ saving elsewhere. Green Rewards has teamed up with Carbon Impacts and at offset your carbon you can offset your home energy, your car use, flights and other activities.

Mitigating our parcel deliveries

We are proud to mitigate the impact of every single parcel delivery made by Green Rewards and are building up a fund to be spent on a mitigation project to be agreed with our Sustainability Advisory Panel – we are quite intentionally using the word “mitigate” rather than “offset” as this means we can support a less formal project and are currently exploring a national peat project in the UK (please see Graham’s blog, November 2009).

Earn extra Green Points with your carbon reduction ideas

If you’ve got an idea for cutting CO₂ emissions, we’d love to hear from you. customer.services@greenrewards.co.uk - and we’ll reward the best ideas with another 500 points!