climateXchange

Most ecological footprint calculators just measure your home statistics. In Canberra, showering is only about 10% of household energy use and emissions. Heating and cooling is about 80% of household energy use and emissions, so concentrating on reducing that is much more important.

If you are swimming and staying fit then that is a fantastic step for sustainability. You will be better able to cope with the cold, and the heat and thus need less heating in winter and less cooling in summer. Changing your thermostat setting by just one degee reduces your energy bill by 10%. Try to rug up in winter and use fans in summer. Collectively, we can all make a big difference.

re Green Power, it is so expensive! I really think the government should be subsidising it. Having solar or green power can reduce your carbon footprint to nil if you have no gas. Don't know how it sits with solar hot water systems. That would reduce them to nil too, wouldn't it?

So swim, shower with a friend and get green power but mostly get polically active so we can get our local and federal governments to do the big things that really need to be done!!