Why is Green Homes so important?
Every year the effects of climate change become more obvious, for example in extreme weather – flood, drought, hurricanes - causing misery to entire populations across the planet.
We also now have scientific consensus that the planet is warming with potentially catastrophic effects to people and communities, wildlife and eco-systems, at its worst to human civilisation.
Our research with Green Homes Concierge Service users show that some think we can fix the problem, some are a bit pessimistic, but all agree that they want to and need to do their bit. We hope you agree.
What concerns me about the environment? Global climate chaos. What else? Lowering our carbon footprint. I think that’s probably big enough to be going on with!
Global warming concerns me because that affects everything else in turn; if we have temperature rises then we have damaging effects on sea levels, on weather systems, pollution, everything.
Green Homes Concierge customers in LDA research, 2007
What are CO2 emissions?
There are five ways in which we use energy in our homes. Typically, heating, hot water and lighting account for 85% of the energy we consume. About 15% is used in cooking and by appliances.
Most of the energy we consume is from ‘fossil fuels’ – coal, oil and gas. One by-product of fossil fuel-based energy is CO2.
How does this impact upon climate change?
The Earth's surface is kept warm by a blanket of gases, which also helps it to sustain life. But by burning fossil fuels we produce so-called ‘greenhouse gases’ that trap too much heat and contribute to global warming
This warming disrupts weather patterns and is widely blamed for, among other dangerous trends, the melting of the ice caps.