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We all want to save money: on our cars, in the sales, on holidays. But increasingly, we desire more and more to not only save our wallets, but also our world. There are many ways in which the individual can help to make the little differences that summate to real change, but the power really lies with multinational companies. I wish to outline some of the ways in which we, together with our power-supplying corporations, can actually feel like we are trying our best to save the planet. British Gas is the country’s most recognised and used domestic energy supplier, and is very well covered on this website. It has various offers to help you save money (for putting into other green projects of course) but they also have options to keep you environmentally friendly. In fact, on the second of September, the energy giant launched two new plans to help reduce the consistently spiralling emissions produced by the people of the UK. The two-pronged attack consists of Energy Savers Club and Climate Aware. The Energy Savers Club is an online offer for homeowners which will be running over the course of two years. The idea is not only to reduce excessive fuel usage and therefore cost – in effect, to pay less money to British Gas – but also to give online bills to customers, saving paper and the climate impact of postage, and other little ideas. Those who sign up will be provided with renewable energy at no extra cost, and if you reduce the amount of fuel you use over the two-year period, you will be rewarded with up to £20 cash back per year! To facilitate this, they will provide lots of tips, tailor made plans and advice alongside deals on energy reducing gadgets. The second initiative – Climate Aware – is a unique opportunity. The idea behind the scheme is actually very simple. For those of us who feel burdened with our necessary climatic impact, we can lighten our load by donating money to renewable energy plans around the world. The last twelve months of our household’s carbon emissions are estimated, and then a contribution of approximately £30 is paid to British Gas. Every penny of this money is then put towards these projects via the environmental experts, Climate Care. The maths, and indeed the science, behind this is that domestic emissions are culpable for one third of all carbon dioxide released within the UK. This basically means that by using the online carbon calculator at www.house.co.uk/climate, you can pay a premium and have the last twelve months of waste offset by future renewable works. Whilst this is happening of course, you can still reduce your future bills and therefore help the environment. This is just another in a long line of green energy programmes set down in recent times by the company. They claim, on their website and other literature, to have the lowest carbon dioxide emissions of all the major UK energy suppliers, and place a lot of emphasis on renewable sources of energy. For example, they are building the UK’s largest offshore wind farm, off the coast in The Wash. Fifty-four 3.6 megawatt turbines are expected to be finished by the end of 2008, and supply electricity to 130,000 homes in the UK alone. This will be the flagship in their new greener policy, having already committed £750 million towards green energy generation and already using three large wind farms. Some of the policies discussed here will be available soon, for example the Energy Savers Club, and some are already operational, for example Zero Carbon. They will help to increase the UK’s commitment to green fuels, and the more the people invest in such projects, the more the multinational companies will do to help us find carbon efficient fuel sources. Soon the other fuel suppliers will employ similar plans, and indeed the other articles on this site detail the most interesting and exciting of these, present, coming soon and in the more distant future. Please refer to other articles on this website for more information on offers, green schemes and advice for the more discerning household in the UK.
Staff editor, Gas & Electricity Section, November 2007 |
