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Time to Get Geeky to Solve Our Eco Dilemmas

Sally Hill | 16.08.10

Many of us want to reduce our carbon footprint, but figuring out exactly how to do that isn't always easy.

Fortunately, there are more and more resources out there to help us figure out how we can achieve reductions that actually seem doable in our daily lives. Here are a few of our favourites.

The book 'How Bad are Bananas?: The Carbon Footpring of Everything' - 'for all your carbon geeks out there' says Anna Shepard - is a good resource for anyone who wants to know the carbon footprint of a supermarket bottle of lager vs a pint, or a broadsheet vs a tabloid. The book is chock full of tangible solutions for everyday life.

Personal carbon calculators have also been present for some time, and go a long way to helping us measure and understand the impact of our behaviour. We like the WWF Footprint Calculator.

The video below - about 'the geeky decisions' involved in building a sustainable home - shows us that it's not always the obvious things that are the most energy and resource intensive. It can take a lot of investigation and effort to fully understand how energy intersects with lifestyle, which is why it's helpful that resources like this are becoming more accessible.

Carbon footprints are dealt with in a less technical manner in the Guardian's weekly 'Ask Leo & Lucy' column in which experts opine on questions along the lines of 'Can I eat tofu and be green?', 'Can I spend money and be green?' and so on. Again, useful for making daily decisions for those of us on the path to live as eco-friendly as possible.

Carbon measurement has also been undertaken by companies who have been forced by both regulation and industry pressures. Here, calculation and reporting has proven to be extremely complex. More environmental science is being directed toward industry, like the 'Carbon Calculated' software we talked about last week.

With all the tools at hand, it has become easier to get geeky to help sort out our individual eco dilemmas. If you have tools that you like and want to share, we'd love to hear about them.

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