Your carbon footprint is a number of greenhouse emissions you produce on a daily basis. It’s calculated by measuring all the emissions generated as you live your life and includes things like lighting, heating, and how energy efficient your home is.
In Australia, 20% of emissions are produced from our buildings split evenly between domestic and commercial establishments. Australia has eight million homes that are responsible for almost 13% of the nation’s energy use. This is expected to grow at an extraordinary rate of more than 55% between 1990 and 2020.*
The bad news is that Australians produce more greenhouse emissions than any other developed country in the developed world per capita including China, India, the United States and
the United Kingdom. The main reason is that we produce most of our electricity by burning coal, plus there’s our significant mining industry, farming and deforestation to take into account. All the more reason for us to take responsibility and ensure that we conserve as much energy as possible to reduce our carbon footprint.
It’s estimated that every person could reduce their carbon footprint by 20% by taking action^. Draft proofing and creating air barriers is just one step you can quickly make now that will help the environment, by reducing your homes energy consumption.
*According to United Nations Human Development Report, United Nations Development Program
Al Gore ‘An Inconvenient Truth’