January - On the internet
1. Enjoy texting: at 0.014g of carbon dioxide a text it’s a very low carbon cost way to communicate
2. Think before you click: each web search requires energy on your computer, laptop or ‘phone and more at the server finding the webpage for you, costing 4.5g CO2e a time. Just 10 searches a day adds up to 16.5kg CO2e a year.
3. Switch to using a green search engine on the internet such as www.ecosia.org, which plants trees to absorb the carbon emissions from your web searches.
4. Email with care: an email generates 4g CO2e and a large email with lots of attachments up to 50g. Don’t stop communicating, but think before you copy everyone in!
February - Be informed
1. Are you responsible for more or less than the average UK carbon footprint of 12 tonnes CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent)? Challenge yourself to reduce by 1 tonne this year. Climate Stewards have an easy to use carbon calculator www.climatestewards.org
2. Find out how to reduce your carbon footprint: listen to BBC Sounds New Year’s Solutions 15 minute guides on Radio 4.
3. Read a book to become more “carbon literate” and understand the greenhouse gas cost of your choices. Try “How Bad are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything” Mike Burners-Lee.
4. Do your own internet research to become more “carbon literate”: choose one item a day this week to find out what its carbon “cost” is. For example a kg of rice produces 4kg of CO2e in production or a kg of potatoes is 0.37kg CO2e.