Carbon foot prints

Cold frosty windows, lit up by flickering candles really capture the heart of the Christmas experience. However, you might want to consider your choice of festive candle very carefully before you settle down to roast those chestnuts. Paraffin candles are from petroleum residues which pollute both the environment and the lungs - yuk, cough, splutter! Impress your friends this year with your green credentials by getting creative and choosing a soy, beeswax or vegetable based candle. These types of yuletide lights are far better for the planet because they are biodegradable AND smoke free. And do remember, just because it's Christmas, try not to burn the candle at both ends!

We all know that our childhood friend Santa is super green because as he uses reindeer to power his sleigh around the world, with no emissions other than Rudolph´s occasional droppings. Although we don´t expect you to hook up with a magic flying vehicle and nine woodland creatures, you can make a difference by embracing the carpool concept! Driving alone is very inefficient, especially when others are going your way. Back in the car lovin´ USA, the  verage American emits a massive 3.7 tons(3700 kilograms!) of CO2 each year on the commute to work. By sharing the

As we approach Christmas, we know that a new year is just around the corner. Why not make some truly green resolutions for 2010? Have you considered where you consume all your day to day news? There’s something undeniably special about unfolding the newspaper over your morning coffee and taking in the headlines. However, the environmental impact of printing that newspaper and delivering it to your door is immense. Newspapers contain more recycled fiber than ever before, but making the paper for them still consumes a frightening 12 million tons of wood and emits 20 million tons of CO2 each year. You can get the exact same news online at a tiny fraction of the impact. Printed newspaper circulation has been declining for five years, and now most major newspapers offer online subscriptions.

T´is the season to give and receive, so why not double the fun by sharing a shower with someone and help save energy. If we all made a splash by working that shower hose with our favourite people, just once a week, we would make CO2 savings equivalent to the annual emissions of a coal power plant! So clean up your act and make a shower date in your diary today. Scrubbing backs has never been sexier or better for the planet.

DOWNLOAD THE WEEKLY DESKTOP WALL PAPER it s nice, fancy and free!! ;-)

So, you´re putting those Christmas lights up again. How exciting! But did you behave like a bad elf by leaving them switched on all night? If so, give yourself a little slap on the wrist. All it takes is the flick of a switch to save a huge amount of energy in your household. You can massively reduce your yearly personal power consumption by doing some very simple things. Cut out those red lights! Don´t leave TV´s and other appliances on stand-by as they are still gobbling up energy. Give your computer a break by switching off printers and scanners when you don´t need to use them. We all love our mobile phones but do we really have to keep those chargers going all night? Of course not. If a charger feels warm when it is plugged in without being attached to a device it is still converting energy.

You´ve got a beautiful smile. One that will look great when you flash it at your office party this Christmas. But why be so "tap happy" when you´re brushing your teeth? Be a water buddy and only use what you need when you´re getting your gnashers pearly white. We waste so much water in the bathroom by casually leaving the taps running merrily whilst we go to work on our snags. Try using a smaller or medium flow of water too, it won´t hurt! There´s no need to have the taps going full blast all the time. Remind yourself of your good deeds at first by putting a little post-it note on your mirror. It´s simple. You´re a true water saver now. That deserves big grins all round.

Its holiday time soon, so we´ll all be getting ready to feast. Before you start cooking all those veggies for the Christmas table, think about exactly where you source your food from. Did you buy your sprouts from a local farmers market or could you have grown your own potatoes? Or did you take the easy option and cruise down to the nearest giant supermarket where you filled up your trolley without a moment´s thought as to where all the products came from? Shockingly, the average meal in the United States travels an unbelievable 1200 miles from the farm to the plate. Fear not, you can make this the season to be truly jolly by really supporting your community through buying locally grown produce. Doing this saves fuel and pours money back in the community.

So you´ve got a nice Christmassy snow scene as your screen saver right now. Very pretty, but did you know that you can help the planet out by eliminating screen savers from your life. All you have to do is set your display to sleep. Yes, it´s surprising but these days most screen savers don´t actually save energy. Back in the dinosaur days of computers, screen savers were originally designed to prevent "burn-in" on the old fashioned CRT monitors. The science behind it goes like this: CRTs create an image by shooting electrons at the screen to excite phosphors which then emit light. The phosphors eventually “burn out,” becoming dimmer over time.

We all love trimming our Christmas trees at this time of year, but is it better to buy a real tree or opt for one of those cheap artificial ones? Well the no nonsense news is that the greenest and most eco friendly option is to buy the real thing. So what if you get the odd pine needle on your carpet? You really can´t beat the joy of picking up your fresh tree, smelling that lovely pine in your room and really getting into the spirit of Christmas. You might think that buying an artificial tree and then using it for a few years is a better recycling option, but think again. Although artificial trees last for an average of 6 years, they´re made of bad things like metal and derivatives of PVC that require loads of energy to make and are not naturally biodegradable.

Everyone wants to create a cosy, warm atmosphere during the Christmas holidays and this usually means lots of shining lights. You know in cartoons, when a character gets a bright idea, a magical light bulb suddenly appears above their head. Well, here´s a brilliantly simple idea that literally involves magic light bulbs! Did you know that by replacing a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (cfl) CFLs you will use 60% less energy than with a regular bulb. This basic switch will save about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Even better, you can now buy a fantastic selection of super energy efficient LED holiday lights to decorate your Christmas tree. Plus, these can last for up to 100,000 hours. Blinding!