What else can you do?

Whilst reducing your home energy consumption can go a long way to reducing your CO2 emssions, there is always more you can do. 

Over the next four months we will be setting a number of climate challenges.  The purpose of these is to help you become more aware of how other aspects of your everyday life can contribute towards climate change such as the food you buy or simply how you get from A to B. 

We will of course be providing you with a whole host of ideas to help make that transition to a low carbon lifestyle as painless as possible.  However, if you have a top tip on how to lighten that carbon footprint, we would love to hear from you.  Contact karen@swea.co.uk.

Ecological U-turn - transport

We want to get wherever we want, whenever we need to and in whatever way we like - it is what we expect now!  However, our most often preferred mode of transport tends to be the car which unfortunately also tends to be the mode of transport that will have the most negative effect on our carbon footprint! 

Our 4th climate challenge looks at how we travel and is designed to help reassess any dependence on the car and provide possible alternatives.

Food for the Future

The Energy Neighbourhood project looks mainly at how we use energy in the home and we can make savings but we use so much more energy than that every day.

Our food for example.  Have you ever thought about how much energy is used to bring it to the table.   This month's climate challenge will help you to develop the knowledge you need to be able to create climate friendly meals!

To buy or not to buy, that is the question?

We rely on a number of electrical appliances but knowing when to get rid of them and invest in something new and which one to invest in can be difficult.  Are we buying a new washing machine because the old one really needs to go or does it just not look right in the new kitchen?  A new wall-mounted television would look a lot better and it may even use less energy than your old one but have you thought about the lifecyle of your new product. 

To buy or not to buy, or even what to buy, these are the questions!  This link will help guide you when considering new purchases; how to work out whether you really do need a new one; what questions do you ask when buying something new; how to use the labelling scheme; comparing products and looking at the their lifecycle.

Climate Friendly Christmas

Your first challenge as an Energy Neighbourhood is to look at some of those old Christmas traditions to see if you can make them a little 'Greener'.   Click here for ideas on what you can do. 

In the countdown towards Christmas we will also put a daily climate friendly Christmas top tip on this website.