By taking small steps, you can contribute to the global climate change effort - and save money on your energy and heating bills!
Learn how easy it is with these simple tips:
1. Use energy-saving light bulbs.
Just one can reduce your lighting costs by up to € 60 and avoid 400 kg of CO2 emissions over the lifetime of the bulb - and they last up to 10 times longer than ordinary light bulbs. Energy-saving bulbs are more expensive to buy, but cheaper over their life span;
2. Do not leave appliances on standby.
Use the "on/off" function on the machine itself. A TV set that's switched on for 3 hours a day (the average time Europeans spend watching TV) and in standby mode during the remaining 21 hours uses about 40% of its energy in standby mode;
3. Switch to green electricity.
By doing so, you'll help strengthen renewable energy sources. Currently, only 14% of Europe's electricity is generated from climate-friendly renewable energy sources such as wind, hydro, wood, biogas, and solar - and demand creates supply! You may also want to think about fitting solar panels on the roof of your home;
4. Turn down the heat.
Reducing the temperature by just 1 °C can cut 5-10% off your family's energy bill and avoid up to 300 kg of CO2 emissions per household and year;
5. Use a tumble dryer only when absolutely necessary.
Each drying cycle produces over 3 kg of CO2 emissions. Drying clothes naturally is by far the best way to do it - your clothes will last longer and the energy provided is free and non-polluting!;
6. Install good home insulation.
This is one of the most effective ways to reduce CO2 emissions and to save energy in the long term. Heat loss through walls, roof and floor commonly accounts for over 50% of overall space heat loss. Insulate your hot water tanks, the pipes of your central heating as well as your wall cavities and fit aluminium foil behind your radiators;
7. Recycle more! Bring used glass to the bottle bank and sort paper and cardboard, plastics and cans from the rest of your waste.
Recycling one aluminium can saves 90% of the energy needed to produce a new one - 9kg of CO2 emissions per kilogramme of aluminium! For 1 kg of recycled plastics, the saving is 1.5 kg of CO2; for 1 kg of recycled glass, it is 300 gr of CO2; and recycling 1 kg of paper instead of landfilling it avoids 900 gr of CO2 emissions as well as methane emissions;
8. Try one of the following ways to get to work: cycling, walking, car-pooling, taking public transport, tele-working. On average, for each liter of fuel burnt in a car engine, more than 2.5 kg of CO2 is released;
9. Before you print a document or an e-mail, consider whether you really need to print it. A European citizen uses around 20kg of paper per month!;
10. Make friends and relatives aware of the need of these measures!
