Green energy from your utility provider
Simple tip for those looking to make a big impact on their emissions footprint - look for a green energy supplier. In Australia we're spoilt for choice in this area - not sure what the offerings are like in the rest of the world. For example my provider lets me offset my natural gas supply emissions (used for cooking, heating and hot water) by investing in carbon reduction programs that offset an equivalent amount of emissions to those created by me burning gas in the home. Last 60 day bill included an offset of 1.76 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions.
Likewise, I've opted for 100% GreenPower for my electricity - my last bill was only for 22 days (just moved house), but in those 3 weeks I used electricity equivalent to 0.4192 tonnes of CO2 emissions. I live in Victoria, so most of the state's electricity is generated from brown coal powered plants (some of the dirtiest in the western world) - by signing up to GreenPower my utility has to purchase the equivalent amount of electricity on the wholesale market from wind farms, so I'm helping to create a market for renewables.
Based on those usages, my household of two would normally generate around 17 tonnes of direct emissions per year from energy utilities - for less than around a dollar per day I've offset it all.
Offsets aren't the be-all and end-all of the carbon issue, but at least with the electricity, I've created demand for further investment in renewable power, and have slowed the need for the building of more coal powered plants in my state. There's one on the drawing board right now - I'd much rather see a new wind farm than a new coal plant.
Have a look on your current utility's website and see if they offer a green alternative! Make sure it's a genuine contribution - there's offers floating around in my state masquerading as green energy, and they buy as little as 10% "old green" power from decades old hydroelectric generators and claim to be green. I reckon go for 100% new renewables or nothing!
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