40 ideas to reduce your household carbon footprint

The Easy Peasy 10

Turn your lights off when you leave a room and don’t leave outside lights on.
Always shop with your own lifetime bags, tip: leave some in your car.
Unplug when you can, e.g. unplug phone chargers.
Set the washing machine to a lower temperature.
Turn the water off while you brush your teeth.
Switch to paperless billing - including your credit card & bank statements also helps reduce identity fraud.
Don’t print anything unless you have to.
Bring your own mug and reusable water bottle.
Cut the junk mail, contact the Post Office and ask to stop all junk mail.
Buy fruit and vegetables in season and UK grown.

The Simple 10

Switch your energy supplier to a renewable energy supplier/contract.
Eliminate use of single use plastics, check the packaging of what you are buying is recyclable.
Compost your green waste, including tea leaves and your own garden waste.
Reduce your use of the car, walk/run/cycle or use public transport.
Capture rain water into water butts and save money on your water bills.
Take back plastic plant pots to Garden Centres.
Return coat hangers that come with new clothes to stores.
Reduce the amount of meat you consume - go for “meat-free Mondays”.
Only use and buy fully seasoned logs for your fire/wood burning stove.
Buy locally sourced foods, such as from a butcher, a farm shop or even direct from the farm; you will be surprised what is on offer in our area, will taste so much better!

The 10 ideas that need a bit more thought:

Travel more wisely, maybe take fewer longer holidays to reduce your travel.
Consider going on holiday by train instead of flying, if you can.
Don’t replace your mobile phone with a new one when your contract runs out, go to SIM only - even just for one extra year - and will save you money.
Give your old phones to a charity or send away for recycling – but don’t forget to delete your data.
Install smart heating controls at home and a smart meter, they will save you money.
Give some of your garden over to wild flowers and save on mowing
Enrich your garden with wildlife corridors, bee and butterfly friendly plants, wood piles for beetles, bee hotels and bird feeders.
Find a suitable spot in your garden and plant a tree.
Do a weekly meal plan and only buy the food you need to reduce waste.
Go 2 days a week meat free.

The 10 if you can ideas

Check if you are eligible for a Green Homes or Renewable Heat Incentive grant: see the Grants page.
Change your gas or oil boiler to an air source heat pump, check if you can get a grant to help pay for it, will save you money from month one: see the low carbon heating page.
Install Solar PV, the costs have come down enormously – worth a look and will save you money over time.
Go vegetarian.
Try buying from a shop that does not use plastics and provides refills (search zero waste shop Farnham).
Grow vegetables in your garden/greenhouse/ or pots on a patio, take advice and grow things you want and that will save you money.
Replace kitchen appliances over 10 years old, and always buy A+++ rate appliances - they will also save you money, an A+++ fridge could save you £40 per year.
Use rechargeable batteries - will save you money in the long term.
Replace all bulbs with LED, replace the lights where you cannot just change the bulb.
Change to an electric car, they are getting better and the long term cost of ownership is now cheaper than running a petrol or diesel vehicle, also no road tax, lower service and running costs and no congestion charge until 2025.