What measures can you take to reduce CO2 emissions?
Now that you know your carbon footprint from attending the BAQ 2008, you might want to look into some ways of offsetting your carbon footprint.
The participants of BAQ 2008 are encouraged to make pledges to fight global warming through concrete changes in their everyday life. Our choices in our homes, travel, consumption patterns and at work can lead towards signigicant reductions in GHG emissions. Below are some of the simple actions which you can do to be able to help reduce your carbon footprint.
Please download and fill-out the application form , then send to the BAQ secretariat (baq2008@cai-asia.org).
At Home ...
Replace frequently used incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps (CFL)
CFLs use 60% less energy than regular light bulbs. Replacing some of the incandescent light bulbs in your home with CFL will not only result to lessen GHG emissions but energy savings will also be generated.
Estimated CO2 savings: 90 kgs CO2e/light bulb/year
Unplug electronic appliances from the wall when not using them
A simple gesture of uplugging electrical applicances when you're not using them, particularly if you'll be out of your house for a few hours can lead to significant GHG and energy savings. An estimated 2-8% of a home's energy usage goes to phantom load, which are basically the appliances which are plugged in but are not in use.
Estimated CO2 savings: 287 kgs CO2e/year
Reduce consumption of heavily-packaged products
About 5% of the weight of a basket of supermarket goods is packaging. Production of heavily-packaged products entails excessive extraction of resources from the planet and emissions of CO2. If you cut down your garbage by 10 %, you can save 544 kgs of CO2.
Estimated CO2 savings: 544 kgs CO2e/year
Move thermostat down 2 degrees in winter and up 2 degrees in summer
Regulating your thermostat properly and sacrificing those 2 degrees (if possible) can lead to substantial energy and CO2 savings. For every degree that you save, you also save around 3% of your energy costs.
Estimated CO2 savings: 827 kgs CO2e/year
Clean/ replace dirty air conditioner filters
Dirty filters in air conditioning units lead to higher energy consumption. Clean filters enable the unit to cool down quickly and use less energy.
Estimated CO2 savings: 119 kgs CO2e/year
Install low-flow showerhead to use less hot water for bathing
Heating water uses a lot of energy. Using a low-flow showerhead lowers your consumption of water for bathing and therefore, less energy is used.
Estimated CO2 savings: 147 kgs CO2e/year
On the move ...
Reduce driving speed and drive more evenly
One's driving style is also associated with GHG emissions. Studies have shown that reducing driving speed will reduce fuel consumption. At 70mph you could be using up to 9% more fuel than at 60mph and up to 15% more fuel than at 50mph.
Estimated CO2 savings: 680 kgs CO2e/year
Drive 25 kilometers less per week
Shrink your gas cost and burn more calories by biking, walking and taking public transportation. To give an idea of the emission factor for cars The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of of the UK Government estimates that cars (depending on the size, fuel used and age) emit 159.2-169.6 gCO2/km.
Estimated CO2 savings: 253 kgs CO2e/year
Avoid car engine idling
Try to cut out at least 10 minutes of daily idling. Turn off your car when you're not moving, except if you are at a stop light or in traffic (of course)! One hour of idling can unnecessarily burn about 0.5 gallons of gas. And one gallon of gas emits about 20 pounds of CO2.
Estimated CO2 savings: 262 kgs CO2e/year
Ensure that car tires are properly inflated
You can improve your gas mileage by around 3.3 percent by keeping your tires properly inflated, according to the US Department of Energy. Greenerchoices.com states that that a tire that is under-inflated by only 2 pounds per square inch could increase fuel consumption by about 1 percent.
Estimated CO2 savings: 111 kgs CO2e/year
Tune up and maintain cars
CO2 emissions from cars come from incomplete combustion of fuel. If your car is not tuned up properly, it will not burn fuel efficiently and shall emit more CO2, not to mention other air pollutants.
Estimated CO2 savings: 263 kgs CO2e/year
At work ...
Avoid use of virgin paper and shift to recycled paper instead
Shift towards using post-consumer recycled paper for printing. Recycled paper is cheaper and there are brands out there which are comparable to virgin paper in terms of quality. Excluding transportation and shipping, one ream of paper generates 18.5 pounds of CO2.
Estimated CO2 savings: 5 kgs CO2e/ ream
Put computer to sleep, or better yet, turn off when not in use
If you are not going to use your computer, turn it off! It's not so hard to shut down and boot up your computer, is it? You can also use the "sleep mode" features of your computer. By enabling the screen sleep mode and the computer standby an 85% reduction in electricity use from your computer can be achieved
Estimated CO2 savings: 297 kgs CO2e/year
Replace old monitor and printer with Energy Star models
Energy Star is an international standard for energy efficient electronic equipment. Energy Star qualified computer monitors use 25-60% less electricity than the standard models. Energy Star printers automatically enter sleep mode when at rest and consume 80% less power than an always-on machine.
Estimated CO2 savings: 90 kgs CO2e/year
Note: The CAI-Asia Center acknowledges the fact that the figures above are only estimates that are collected from different sources. The average is taken for similar items across different sources that have been accessed during the development of this form. These figures are only indicative of the levels of CO2 that are to be saved by doing the aforementioned activities. The estimation procedures used by the different sources vary and we cannot ensure the validity and accuracy of the calculations.
Sources:
http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/carboncalculator.asp#0
http://www.greenerchoices.org/printGlobalWarming.cfm?page=Intro§ion=...
http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/whatyoucando/
http://ethicalandgreen.com/2007/10/10/top-tips-to-reduce-co2-emissions/ http://green.yahoo.com/pledge/create#2
http://www.eecom.net/footprint.php
http://www.yogablu.org
http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/global_warming/ClimateSolns.pdf
http://www.carboncommentary.com/2007/10/29/39
http://www.leicester.gov.uk/index.asp?pgid=88096
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/business/envrp/pdf/passenger-transpo...
http://www.organicpicks.com/blog/2007/10/29/green-journal-stop-idling/
http://paperless-productivity.org/ecoimpact.htm
http://www.anu.edu.au/anugreen/files/437_2002_issue_1.pdf
