Enjoy (massive!) bill savings with carbon calculators
Take the free carbon calculator. Created by the co-founder of Mitchell & Dickinson (which specialises in reducing energy bills for listed buildings using a modern alternative to double glazing). By taking the advice from results, you’ll not only reduce your footprint, by save a fortune on energy bills.
A third of emissions are from heating draughty buildings. Britain has 27 million homes, so if we knocked them all down (and old buildings are part of her heritage) and built new ones, it would take 270 years. Retrofitting insulation can save owners of older homes over £1000 a year. Mukti Mitchell
His company would like to insulate Buckingham Palace, National Trust buildings and churches, that all spend a fortune on energy bills.
His company has already retrofitted all the homes in the Devon privately-owned village of Clovelly, which resulted in massive energy savings for all residents.
He really is the expert voice on this! Son of ecological writer Satish Kumar, he once built a solar-powered boat and sailed it around the British isles, to show how to live on clean energy! And he recently holidayed in Greece – travelling from Devon by bicycle!
It sounds much more interesting than a flight. As after falling off his bike en-route in Montenegro, he rested up around the corner from a vegan café which served 15 different kinds of cake!
It’s not an under-estimation to say that if you go for the whole shebang, you may have your energy company calling up to ask why your bills are so much lower!
There’s ‘taster calculator’ that takes a few minutes. But for best results, make a pot of tea and do the 45-minute full one. It covers:
- Home energy
- Transport
- Flights
- Food
- Goods & services
You’ll need a copy of all your bills, as you will be asked to enter the Kwh used etc. Enter your fuel use from a generator, if you live off-grid.
Mukti’s top 10 carbon-reducing actions!
- Insulate your home (if not so already, do so or see if you can get a grant.)
- Visit closer destinations (instead of seven-hour flights!)
- Downsize from a gas-guzzling car (or don’t drive!)
- Travel to work differently (walk, cycle, public transport, car-share)
- Buy less, buy better
- Switch to green electricity
- Buy seasonal organic food from local farms
- If you eat meat, go for local organic (and dairy)
- Take the train to Europe, if you can
- Repair, reuse what you’ve got!
A free carbon calculator for farmers/growers
If you’re a farmer, also take the Farm Carbon Calculator, created by an organic veg grower on the Isles of Scilly, who also offers consultancy services. This is more specialised for your sector.
With both of them, you can not only save carbon and money now. But take the suggestions on board, then keep coming back to see how you can improve and tweak things.
