186...

... the number of kms we did last week. Significantly less than the 900 or so we used to do when we lived in Beeliar, owned 2 cars and Ainslie drove to work!

I will maintain a weekly log of kms over the next month and use the average to r-calculate our carbon footprint.

Downshifting...

Ainslie and I have now become downshifters. Well kind of. It hasn't been entirely voluntary. Let's just say that when the bottom fell out of the sub-prime market in early 2008 we were perfectly aligned to feel the full force of it.
Anyway, that doesn't really matter because we are embracing the whole downshifting concept with relish!
We have now moved into a rental property which is perfect for allowing us to grow a significant amount of our own produce. It already has mature orange, grapefruit, mandarin and plum trees and there is plenty of room for us to set up our chook house.
The location is great - we are walking distance to a railway station, very close to our very favourite daycare centre, Como Children, and the local school is excellent.
It has allowed us to sell one of our cars which will significantly improve on our carbon footprint figure.
And finally, I've been offered a place at Curtin Uni to do a Ph.D!

Check out our lovely oranges!

Work is now underway...

25.16 tonnes of carbon/year

So how do we get this down and,
what figure would be a reasonable figure to aim for?

I would love to say "zero" as being the target for our emmissions but unless we consider becoming totally self-sufficient like these 2 characters, then it's just not realistic. And even they couldn't do it - they were still tied to the National Grid and used petrol driven farm equipment to boot!

I'm going to leave the final figure to aim for at present and look at the question of how to improve on our current situation. The breakdown of our figure is as follows:-

Waste - 3.3 tonnes
Travel - 11.76 tonnes
Energy Use - 6.95 tonnes
Food - 3.15 tonnes

I will look at these items individually in the next few posts...

So... Which Calculator?

Right, so I have 4 different figures for the amount of carbon we, as a family, produce.
The Climate Friendly calculator did not include for waste production and type of diet so it was always going to come up shorter than the rest. There was really nothing to choose from with the other three. They all used the same or similar variables as the base for their calculations and came up with different figures but as the carbon offset industry is unregulated this isn't really a surprise.
So, I'm going to use the carbon neutral calculator because it was nice and simple to use, and it had the added feature of including public transport as a factor, which will become a feature in our carbon footprint in the next few months. The site also provides a figure of 28 tonnes as being the average amount of carbon produced by a single Australian in a year.

Carbon Offset Companies (cont.)

To their credit, the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council came back to me after I emailed them that their website was broke!

They suggested using the Carbon Neutral Calculator which returned

25.16 tonnes of carbon

based on emisions from waste, cars, energy, air travel and food.

Carbon Offset Companies

I'm using the top 5 carbon-offset Companies as listed in "G Magazine" to establish what my family's emissions are;

CLIMATE FRIENDLY

18.2 tonnes of carbon based on the use of cars, flights and power consumed at home.

CLEANER CLIMATE
A struggle to find the carbon calculator and then, after some redirections, I couldn't get it to work on my computer.... hmm

CLIMATE POSITIVE

24.72 tonnes of carbon. More complicated calculator basing it's figure on location, number of occupants, power consumption, amount of waste produced, car travel, food and flights

SOUTHERN METROPOLITAN REGIONAL COUNCIL
Link to carbon calculator did not work!

CARBON REDUCTION INSTITUTE

26.5 tonnes of carbon based on all travel, car useage, waste and power consumption. Power calculated on amount of energy used (both gas and electricity).

Worm Farms

What a great way to contribute towards reducing carbon emissions....

- Feed organic waste to your worms (instead of contributing to land fill where it would generate nasty methane!)
- Have the worms produce a great compost for the garden
- There's also something called worm "juice" or "tea" which is a fantastic fertiliser
- and the whole thing can be contained in a box not much bigger than a shoe box.

It's only a small contribution but the kids love it and can learn a lot from it!

Carbon Emmissions from Driving...

Today has been a great day! We've managed to get rid of the Kia Grand Carnival "Bus" and will be replacing it with something(s) more practical....

The Kia did have its uses but I always hated the idea of having a people mover but there were bona fide reasons for the original purchase. Thankfully these reasons no longer apply.

Now if I'm going to Walk the Talk so to speak, as a "Greenie", having a 3800 c.c. V6 powered "bus" was never going to be a good look!
So, we are now going to be the proud keepers of;

• a VW Polo 1.4i, and
• an Alfa Romeo 156 Wagon

The combined capacity of these 2 vehicles is still 400 c.c. less than the SUV so it is certainly a step in the right direction.
The idea is that Ains will use the Polo for everyday commuting and I will drop of the kids at daycare with the Alfa and hopefully, use my bicycle as my main form of transport to and from University....

What I'd really like to know is how much this will ACTUALLY reduce our cabon footprint by. I know there are websites around that give figures but these tend to be for new cars - not the likes of these that are fast approaching 10 years old. I'll come back to this blog when I have researched this a bit further.....

In the meantime, thanks to "Granny" Choate for funding our transport in these, our desperate times!