What you can do to reduce your impact

Cheap and simple tips

There are a lot of simple actions that we can all take that will help cut our carbon emissions, help the environment and save us money on our fuel bills:

• Fit low energy light bulbs where you can - each bulb can save you £100 over the lifetime of the bulb, they last up to 12 times longer than ordinary ones and you can recycle your old bulbs at household waste recycling centres (new window).
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• Always turn off lights when you leave a room.
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• Turn things off at the wall when you no longer need them on.
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• Close your curtains at dusk to stop heat escaping.
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• Turn your thermostat down - reducing your room temperature by 1C could cut your heating bills by 10 percent.
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• Insulate your home to make it more energy efficient - for information on what you can do try Suffolk Energy Action Link (SEAL) or the Energy Saving Trust (new window).
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• Wash lightly soiled clothes on economy or 30C.
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• Cover your pans when you cook and only boil as much water as you need (but remember to cover the elements if you are using an electric kettle).
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• Fix dripping taps - a dripping hot tap wastes energy and in one week wastes enough hot water to fill half a bath.
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• Recycle paper, glass, plastics and tins.
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• Compost vegetable waste at home or put it in your brown bin.
  
• Invest in the most energy efficient appliances (new window) when replacing old ones.
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• If you are able - cycle or walk to places that take less than 20 minutes to do so.
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• Sign-up to the CRed 60% challenge (new window) - it’s a fun way to make your personal energy saving pledges and more importantly it helps others know that they are not alone.

Some other ideas

Avenues to explore after this are very much down to individual taste but you could think about ...

• Switching to an energy provider (new window) who invests in wind, water, or solar power.
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• Planning travel to ensure the most fuel-efficient environmentally friendly approach is always taken.
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• Switching to food that is more fruit and vegetable than meat, less processed and packaged and travels less.
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• Reduce waste by opting to buy second-hand or try freecycle (new window).
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• Choosing hobbies and leisure pursuits that have a low environmental impact - jogging, cycling, walking, wildlife gardening, local volunteering, local outdoor sports or think about how often you enjoy higher impact activities.
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• Fly for long lifetime experiences rather than rushed exhausting weekends.
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• Enjoy longer breaks by train in Europe.

There are many more things you can do. They just take common sense. And if we all do them and if we use our voices and money to show industry that the environment is important we will help to reduce man’s heavy footprint on the earth.