One of the things which bugs me about the environmental lobby is the stupid figures.
For example, I followed a bus the other day with a poster on the back telling me I could reduce my carbon footprint by as much as 1 tonne per year just by getting out of the car and taking the bus, but what does that mean?
Well lets see if you know. Take a look at my little quiz:
How much CO2 do you pump out per year?
How much of that is down to travel?
How much of that is from your house?
I can honestly say I cannot answer these questions, I have no idea. So I had a look on Google and came up with this fabulous web site http://
actonco2.direct.gov.uk this is the UK government CO2 calculator which allows you to see what it is that you are doing to the environment.
Just to give you some idea the UK national average CO2 figures per person are:
310kg to heat your house,
340kg from your electrical appliances,
1800kg from travel.
In my case my carbon footprint is more than twice the average due to my excessive mileage (35000m / year) and my penchant for holidays in the sun.
So what can I do to reduce my figures?
Even if I move to a cave and sit around a dung fire wearing nothing but an animal skin I can only reduce my impact by 25%.
To really make an impact I'm going to have to give up driving and stop taking those holidays in the sun. Maybe with global warming the South of England will soon be like Canne and I will no longer need to travel, problem solved.
But on a more serious note it appears that travel is the thing we need to address first so next time you go to a meeting where people discuss energy efficiency and how green they are ask them how they all got to the meeting and how far they came.
Its amazing how many environmental crusaders in our industry drive massive gas guzzlers but will preach to you about the savings which you can make by installing the latest technology.