Kick the Habit: A UN Guide to Climate Neutrality

energy-efficient light bulbs and turning appliances off (and unplugging Fifty per cent of emissions related to lighting in a house can be reduced by replacing old incandescent lights with the lowest energy versions available. Optimized design to make the best use of daylight cuts the remaining 50 per cent in half again. Those who have no access to any form of modern energy, about a third of the world’s people, burn fossil fuels directly, representing about 1 per cent of the world’s lighting and about 20 per cent of lighting-related GHG emissions. This is just one example of how money and knowledge could very well be invested to improve people’s living situations and create a positive impact for the whole world. them) when you do not need them. There is a lot you can do in your house without having to rebuild it or invest a lot of money, and most activities that cut your energy consumption will also reduce your energy bill. Energy efficient lighting (lighting can account for up to 40 per cent of a company’s total electricity bill) makes sense. Simpler still, make use where you can of sunlight and natural shade. Make sure heating and cooling are provided where they are needed and nowhere else. Save water – mend that dripping tap. Save it out of doors as well, by mulching a garden, using timed irrigation or irrigating at night. Reuse water, collect the rain that pours off the roof – it is free and requires not much effort to use it for sim- ple purposes. Guidelines and organizations that provide businesses with useful information on how reduction can be achieved and how it works for business exist. One of them is the is the study by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Energy Efficiency in Build- ings: Business Realities and Opportunities , which promotes the idea of zero net energy buildings. Computers and other IT installations are remarkable energy consumers. The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy calculates that the production of one PC requires 3 000 kWh (that is about as much as a family consumes in a year) and 1.5 tonnes of raw materials. Data cen- tres (also called server farms) are where companies like Google or Amazon or internet service providers locate the hundreds or thousands of com- puter servers that provide their online services. Data centres use massive amounts of electricity; large ones can use megawatts of power, with each SMALL AND LARGE ORGANIZATIONS

THE CYCLE – REDUCE KICK THE HABIT

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