The easiest way for you to reduce your CO2 emissions is for you to change your lifestyle. Here are a few simple lifestyle changes:
1. Turn off electrical appliances when not in use, this means turning of at the wall socket at night. Do not leave on "Stanby"
2. Turn down your central heating by a degree or so.
3. If you have air condition, turn it up by a degree or so to say 26 degrees.
4. Turn down your water heater; you generally end up mixing with cold water anyhow.
5. Do not cool or heat the house when there is no one there.
6. Use washing machines at full load.
7. Don\'t use dryer, hang the washing out.
8. Wash your dishes by hand.
9. Only boil as much water as you need with the kettle.
10. Only do one shopping trip per week.
11. Walk where you can.
12. Use only energy saving light bulbs, change from your incandescent light bulbs to CFL or even better LED.
13. Use thermostatic valves on you central heating radiators.
14. Insulate your house, your hot water tank.
15. Car share.
16. Use public transport.
17. Limit the number of aircraft flight you take.
So as you can see from above, our everyday actions use energy and therefore produce CO2 emissions.
However it is not always possible to stop these emissions, so the next item is a way of compensating for the emissions generated with an equivalent CO2 saving somewhere else. This is called offsetting. i.e. offsetting our emissions with something that uses CO2 or creates energy without CO2.
To offset we take the CO2 emissions calculated in Calculate Your Footprint, and we offset them by buying Carbon Offset Certificates, also known as Carbon Credits. These certificates are used to fund projects for the purpose of reducing CO2 emissions. These projects could be the planting of trees to use CO2 from the atmosphere, or in the generation of Renewable Energy.
As CO2 emissions are generated worldwide, we can do the project anywhere in the world and still have a positive affect on CO2 emissions.
Carbon Offset Certificate products are available in a number of options.
Option 1 is international tree-planting projects. The trees planted reduce CO2 by a process know as carbon sequestration, i.e. the trees breath in CO2 and exhale oxygen. In addition trees have additional benefits by providing sustainable eco-environments for wild life as well as encouraging biodiversity and enjoyable landscapes.
Option 2 is renewable energy saving projects. In this we provide education and renewable energy technologies to developing countries (e.g. low energy light bulbs, power generation systems). This ensures that CO2 emissions are minimized for around a 90% savings on CO2 emissions.
You can buy these Carbon Offset Certificates by simply visiting one of these links:
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