This list may scare the hell out of you first - most of us are still working on Step 1 and 2. We will get there. Remember there are so many changes you can make first before outlaying money for new appliances.
Changes can be made in the home, you can influence your friends and family, your children can influence school mates and we can affect change in our local area by our vote. Demand for change is slowly getting to the Government - we'll have to keep applying the pressure. There are also local action groups popping up everywhere. And get that media attention!
Remember work through Step 1 first. The overall summary is below. Remember it is the big picture we are looking at over the next 5 - 10 years. Let's get creative and please send in your ideas to the ZYC Blog.
We recommend bringing your carbon emissions (your carbon footprint) down first by reduction and efficiencies before you offset with carbon credits. Refer below:
Bring Down Your Power Bill 1. Bring down your power bill as much as you can. Change your bulbs - at the moment the best thing to do is change your bulbs from candescent to fluoro or LED. The technology will be continually updated as to which is the best. ...more
Change to Green Power 2. Better still change to Green Power as well as decreasing your power consumption in the home. Power is sourced from renewable energy. These are wind, solar and biomass. Into the future there will be tidal/wave and geothermal. Exciting possibilities. ...more
Go Self Sufficient 4. Even better- Go totally self-sufficient. Remember rebates for solar hot water and tanks are constantly changing, do your research and prioritize. There is so much info. out there- just Google it! ...more
Slow Down On Air Travel 5. Slow down on air travel (swap your frequent flyer tag for a climate neutral tag), stay longer if you can and increase your telecommunications at home. ...more
A Chemical Free Household 6. Think about a Chemical free household, purchasing Organic products and even grow your own vege garden- Permaculture is a great example... Also decrease your meat consumption a bit! Yes, animal farming does add to greenhouse gases. ...more
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle 7. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle- garbage, clothes and building materials. Most of us are doing this already, however there may be room for improvement. Check your local council is also following through! ...more
Composting 8. At one stage not so long ago the food scraps went to the chooks and meat scraps went to the dogs. Throwing food stuffs into the garbage became too easy and convenient. That's why we did it- convenience. After a little practice composting is easy. ...more
War on Plastic and Disposables 9. War on Plastics and Disposables - This is a hard one- plastics and disposable products have been so entrenched in our lives. They have infiltrated every aspect of living. They are made from petro-chemicals and last 1,000 of years at the tip. So to wean ...more
Conserve Our Existing Forests 10. Conserve - our existing forest, can you imagine if we stopped worldwide logging of all forests! That is going to be a huge ask be we need to be mindful of using wood from plantations instead of rainforests. And let's all individually plant more tree ...more
Animal Magnetism 11. I don't mean the attraction of footballers! I'm referring to the big brown eyes of our closest relos. ...more