How to lead a low carbon lifestyle

How can I be low carbon at home?

Reduce, reuse, recycle – this is a great mantra for low carbon homes. Making sure that you are always being as energy efficient as possible will greatly reduce your carbon footprint. These three tips will help you be more energy efficient at home:

1. Energy efficiency in your bathroom — take showers, fix dripping taps and don't leave water running unnecessarily.
2. Energy efficiency in your kitchen — only boil the amount of water you need, microwaves can be more efficient than ovens (especially if you are just warming up food) and keep a lid on pans (they will heat up faster).
3. Another major way you can improve your home's energy efficiency is to insulate — insulation helps retain heat in winter and makes air conditioning units more energy-efficient in summer. Learn more about different types of insulation and how you can save energy and money.

4. Low carbon meals

• Don't put hot food in the fridge as it will make the fridge work extra hard to try and keep it cold.
• Buy locally produced, organic food.
• Eat less meat – producing meat requires more energy than vegetables. There are a few reasons for this – the main two being that much of the meat on our supermarket shelves involves high-intensity farming and farm animals produce methane.
• If you're looking for tips on low carbon cooking, check out these energy efficient meal tips.

5. Low carbon travel

If you're up for making some low-carbon changes in your life, you could consider walking or cycling to work. When you get to work you can carry on being low carbon with our energy efficient tips for the office. Trains are generally better for the environment than planes, so if it's an option, you could always consider train travel for your next holiday. Even though cars are bad for the environment, for many of us they are still essential for getting around.

These are our top tips to be an energy efficient driver:

• Avoid sudden acceleration and heavy breaking – this saves you fuel.
• Drive away immediately when starting from cold – waiting around to heat the engine waste fuel and wears your engine.
• If you're stuck in a traffic jam, turn off your engine – this will save fuel and reduce emissions.
• Avoid short journeys. Cycle or walk instead – it's better for your health, you'll save money and it's better for the environment.
• The most efficient speed depends on the car – it's typically around 55-65mph, but this will depend on what speed limit you're in.
• Get your car serviced regularly to keep it running efficiently.

6. Low carbon energy tariffs

Did you know our tariffs are 100% backed by low-carbon generation. Check out the different options on our tariff page.

Learn more about how we produce our low carbon electricity.

If you enjoyed reading about how to live a low carbon lifestyle - you might also enjoy these articles: