Siobhan did a Carbon Challenge group organised by Cambridge Carbon Footprint. As a result of this, she and her family have embarked upon a plan to lower the CO2 emissions they are responsible for. They have been monitoring their household gas and electricity use, and trying to reduce it, particularly by switching things off, and turning down heating, but also by replacing their old and inefficient fridge freezer. Future plans include a wood-burning stove; and solar panels for hot water heating.     

2. Food shopping

Hero and Steve are trying to reduce their carbon footprint where food shopping is concerned. Local, seasonal and organic are the things to aim for although managing to tick all three boxes at once can be a challenge. With pigs and cows as the largest worldwide greenhouse gas emitters, avoiding too much meat is a good thing too.

Hero and Steve have a weekly organic fruit and vegetable box delivery from a supplier with a major emphasis on local produce and use the farmers market regularly. Bread also comes in the box and they could order much more with it too e.g. eggs. Cambridge market can also be good place to buy affordable, minimally-packaged and often local fruit and veg. - take your own bags. Buying staples in bulk from the Daily Bread Co-operative in Kings Hedges also reduces car journeys and unnecessary packaging. Regular use of local shops like Station Stores and Co-op has made the big weekly supermarket shop in the car a rarity. And the doorstep milk delivery from Plumbs of Balsham is good for recycling and reducing supermarket trips.

3.     Lift-share to work

Nigel Butcher works at the RSPB’s headquarters in Sandy, Bedfordshire, as do four others in the village and its surrounds.  They take it in turns to drive, with each driving once a week.  The daily return journey is 45 miles, and with this they each save around £40.50 per week (this is based upon 30p per mile and that individuals are in the office an average 4 days per week). The arrangement saves around 6 tonnes of CO2 per year.  

An added bonus is that unlike single-occupant car drivers, they can always find space in the car park.  In order to encourage CO2 reductions, the RSPB reserves ‘green’ spaces for lift-share cars and has details of lift share arrangements on its intranet site.  

4.     Low carbon garden office

David Chandler has been working from a garden office since early 2007 and was keen to keep the financial and environmental costs of creating and running the office as low as practically possible.

The basis for the office is what was originally a simple timber ‘lock-up’ on a property development site. This was moved to the back garden, adapted and extended. The double glazed door is a £15 bargain from Milton tip and the brand new double glazed window came from Polarglaze – it was the wrong size for the hole it was originally intended for but we built around it – it cost less than £60. The office is better insulated than any room in the house with insulation in the concrete underneath as well as in the walls and roof.

All of the office furniture is second hand including the book shelves which came from another house in the village (with permission!). Heating is via an oil filled radiator and the two lights can be switched on and off independently. The office has been wired so that a solar photovoltaic panel can be added, though current thinking is that if we’re on a good green tariff this could be a bit of a red herring. One day a water butt will be added!