Eco tips @ home

• Use public transport (check national rail enquiries for train times, Solent blue line, unilink and first for bus times and national express for coaches). If you have to use your car make sure you have a vehicle with good efficiency and not a fuel guzzling 4x4.

• Offset your CO2 emissions from your car with a carbon offset scheme such as Climate care.
• Try to buy local produce and organic produce. If you can’t buy local then buy produce from a near by country to reduce the distance the food has been transported (click here for information about food miles)
• Avoid restaurant and supermarket chains and instead support small local businesses.
• Conserve water by turning off taps when brushing your teeth, use a washing up bowl rather then leaving the hot tap running, add a water saving bag to your toilet system to reduce the amount of water used when the toilet is flushed, take showers rather than baths and connect water butts up to your drain pipes to collect water for cleaning the car and watering the garden.
• Buy fair trade products.
• Build a compost heap or buy an urban compost bin to reduce the amount of waste you produce and make your own compost.
• Make sure you TV is off and not left on standby. Also, make sure your PC monitor is off and all the computer peripherals.
• Recycle your old PC and electrical equipment or donate it to a charity.
• Have a green Christmas and give gifts that will help the environment from charities such as Oxfam, RSPB, or check the charity gifts website.
• Turning down your heating by 1oC will save you lots of in energy costs and help the environment.

More eco tips from Greenpeace International