Your One Week Jump Start To Low Carbon Living

Given the challenges the world faces due to global warming, it’s natural that many of us have taken a look at our lifestyle and our homes. We glance over the things we do, perhaps even calculate our carbon footprint, and wonder where we could cut back.

The train of thought then tends to go one of two ways.

You make a plan to change your ways, beginning to adopt more eco-friendly methods of living. You make the change for life, unable to imagine that you will ever go back to your high consumption ways of the past.
You have good intentions about making all those changes… but life tends to get in the way.

If you have mastered the first response then good for you, you’ve pretty much got it made. If, however, you fall into the second “well intentioned but not quite doing enough” category, then it might be beneficial to take the time for a single week of low carbon living.

One week in which you aim to be as environmentally-friendly as possible - what could be so hard? The things you do during this week might not be realistic all the time, but the exercise is still worth doing. It gives you time to zero in on your necessities, see what workarounds you can come up with, and learn a little more about sustainable living. So why not give it a try?

As the ideas are often good but the implementation less so, here’s a jump start guide to how you can make changes for your low-carbon week.

1) Get groceries delivered to your door. Online shopping has made this easier than ever; a few clicks and you’re home free.

2) Keep social events at home or in the garden. Rather than wasting energy on making extra journeys for social events, invite people to your home. On nights when no one is available, you can amuse yourself by calling your parents, playing old-fashioned board games or more more online versions like FoxyBingo, or just sitting with a good book - all keep you at home using relatively little energy.

3) Switch your cleaning products. It’s easier than ever to find eco-friendly products; you can throw a few options in with your supermarket shop. When you see they are just as effective as the more toxic-heavy options, you won’t go back.

4) Turn off the lights. We all have a tendency to use more light than we need, especially in rooms we’re not actually using. Make a mental note to check your house every so often to ensure there’s not extraneous lights on anywhere. One light per person is sufficient.

5) Solar lights for the garden. Having your low-carbon week doesn’t mean you can’t sit outside of an evening, but make the switch to solar lighting rather than anything powered off the mains. The lights might be a touch dimmer, but unless you are reading a novel, it shouldn’t make a difference.

6) Practice ecological driving techniques. The idea of ecological and driving going together in a sentence might seem odd, but there are ways and means of reducing the amount of petrol you’re using. For a start, ease up on the brake; instead, take your foot off the accelerator and let the car come to a natural stop wherever possible.