Hello and welcome to FutureFootprint, the place on the net for people with an environmental conscience! This is still a bit of a work in progress but the idea is to do a regular blog on current environmental issues and easy ways you can help save the planet in your everyday life. Also do check out our Mythbusting section which takes all those stupid environmental myths and blows them out of the water!

OK I know you get this sort of energy saving rundown in a lot of places but it's so simple to save energy in the home that I thought it was worth giving some top tips to save you money and give the environment a helping hand.
 
Use energy saving lightbulbs - These use on average about a fifth of the energy of a normal lightbulb, which (the mathematicians among you will already have figured this out) will save you four fifths on your lighting bill.
 
Insulate your home - Most heat is lost from a home though the roof (remember hearing in high school science lessons that hot air rises?) so loft insulation can save you a packet on heating bills. Whatever it costs to get the insulation in you'll usually get back through saving on heating within a couple of years. Double glazing is also fantastic at keeping the heat in.
 
Get your boiler serviced - A gas boiler has a lot in common with a car engine. If it's not serviced regularly its efficiency will drop and, along with releasing excess soot and/or unburnt gas into the atmosphere you'll find it starts pushing your energy bills up.
 
Get a bike - Ride to work, get some exercise, leave the car at home a few times a week. Although Britain definitely 'Could do better' we have a tremendous amount of cycle lanes, off-road cycle paths and handy shortcuts that are great for dodging the rush hour traffic under pedal power. Believe me, your body will thank you for it too - you'll find yourself more alert, with more energy and of course more justification for that cream cake at lunch time...
 
Only boil the water you need - How many people do you know who insist on boiling a full kettle every time they want to make a single brew. They stand by the kettle for 15 minutes four times a day waiting for it to boil and then wonder where the day went. Boil enough for a single cup and it'll take two minutes and maybe you won't end up working late every Friday.
 
Turn your washing machine down to 30 degrees - All these new fancy biological, stain-removing, fabric-softening, crime-fighting laundry detergents will usually get you clothes just as clean at 30 degrees as they will at 40 or above. And while I'm on the subject there are some fantastic eco-friendly detergents out there that are a whole lot kinder to the environment when they wash down your drain - why don't you give them a try?
 
Recycle - The world isn't disposable and we need to stop treating it like it is. Rather than letting all you waste end up in a landfill, take your bottles, cans, plastics and paper with you when you head out to the shops and stop by the nearest recycling point. Pretty much every supermarket in the country has good recycling facilities so it's really very little inconvenience at all.
 
Turn the heating down a degree or two - You won't notice the difference in temperature but you really will notice the difference in your heating bills. Why not put on a jumper rather than heating your house to the temperature of Sub-Saharan Africa so that you can spend the day in your pants?
 
Turn off the lights when you leave a room - This one's a no-brainer. Ditto televisions, radios, computers, heaters...
 
Buy local - The fuel involved in shipping your peas from Peru and your carrots from Kuala Lumpur on a daily basis is quite frankly ridiculous. The UK has great farmers producing some of the worlds best produce and we should be appreciating them more. Yeah OK they're not going to be able to give you strawberries in the middle of winter but sticking local can give you back an appreciation of seasonal foods and as such a more varied and interesting diet. Also the UK has much stricter laws on pesticides than many nations we import from so do think about what nature of chemicals your delicious tropical fruit may have been soaked in,

There has been a lot of talk about green energy tariffs lately and how (for a small increase to your monthly bill) you can help the planet by going low or zero carbon in your home. Now many people dismiss these as gimmicks or come out with the same old tired line that it's up to the government to produce clean energy and why should we pay more for it?
Well here's a newsflash - clean energy is growing fast and getting a great deal of investment from many sectors including the government but if we really want to help the planet we have to do our bit too. So I thought what better way to encourage this than to do a rundown of the top green energy tariffs offered in the UK.

British Gas

Zero Carbon gives you a genuine zero carbon footprint for your home at least for an average increase of £7.50 on your monthly bill (assuming you are a dual fuel customer). The endless calls trying to get a word of sense out of British Gas' customer support team however will cause an average increase of £10.42 on your monthly phone bill.
Future Energy is basically giving British Gas an extra £3 a month (on average) that they promise to invest in renewable energies which they will then supply back to the national grid.

E.On

E.On are focusing on an overall 'green attitude' with great investment in offshore wind farms and an extensive portfolio outlining their future plans for green energy production.
They have one business and one domestic 100% green tariff - EasyGreen and Go Green respectively. Both match every unit you use with a unit from a renewable source.

Scottish Power

Green Energy Fund is quite simple - as they say on the site "Each year, no matter how much or how little energy you use, a fixed amount of £10.50 (inc. VAT) is automatically donated to the Green Energy Trust on your behalf". So it's exactly the same as you setting up an 88p a month direct debit to trust yourself. Well as they say - something is better than nothing!
Green Energy H..2..O is a plan that matches every unit you use with one generated at one of Scottish Power's own hydro-electric plants. To encourage you on to this plan they also offer you an (average) discount of £16.80 a year if you use them for dual fuel (of course some fairly substantial Terms and Conditions apply). This is the first tariff I've seen where it could actually be cheaper to go green.
 

NPower

Juice is a tariff that matches your energy consumption unit for unit (although based on an estimate of your usage) with energy from renewable sources. They also claim it will cost you nothing extra on top of your monthly bills and there is even an £80 discount if you switch to it for gas and electricity (£20 discount if you just switch one). I'm very impressed by this.
 

Green Energy UK

Green Energy UK only have two tariffs - Deep Green and Pale Green. Deep Green being 100% renewable energy and Pale Green being a combination of renewable and 'low impact' combined heat and power generators. They don't give any indication of their pricing relative to other providers but have great eco-credentials.
 

Good Energy

Good Energy claim to be the UK's only 100% renewable energy provider. they don't have different tariffs but claim their weekly premium is "equivalent to 2 pints of beer or an average bottle of plonk" - so about a fiver a week then?
 

Ecotricity

New Energy uses power from Ecotricity's own wind turbines topped up with normal power from the National Grid. Currently the percentage of their own wind power is 30% and rising by 10% a year.
New Energy Plus uses power from Ecotricity's own wind turbines as above topped up with renewable energy from other sources making it a 100% renewable tariff. They claim the premium to be in the region of £20 a year for the average household.
 

The Verdict

Well it's hard to tell what the catches are for any of these plans without signing up yourself but certainly on paper I'd say that Scottish Power's Green Energy H..2..O and NPower's Juice are looking like the best bet. I very much admire these new smaller energy providers with fantastic green credentials but economies of scale mean often that the bigger companies are generally able to provide the same level service for a better price.

Generating your own energy though photovoltaic cells (solar panels), wind turbines or even micro-hydro generators is really not as difficult or expensive as people seem to think. Prices have come down greatly in recent years and of course once the solar panels or wind turbines are installed, every unit of energy you produce is a unit you are not paying for. You can even start selling any excess energy to back to your supplier.
 
Government grants are hard to come by, purely it seems, due to the huge interest that has been shown since they were announced. The Independent has a very good article discussing the issues surrounding these grants and indicates some costing involved in the installation of generation equipment. Do bear in mind however that the article is a year old so these prices will have dropped further by now.
The Energy Saving Trust details UK wide grants available from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and the Scottish Community Householder Renewables Initiative (SCHRI) grants available to residents of Scotland only.
 
Npower have a scheme where they will design and install solar panels for you, factor in any subsidies you are entitled to (through Renewable Obligation Certificates or other green energy certificates) and then buy back any surplus energy you generate.
 
Good Energy also have a scheme to buy back surplus energy you generate and also subsidise the energy you produce for your own home.
 
If you're interested in wind power and are of a DIY persuasion look at BWEA's detailed information on types of wind turbine, how to install them, arranging a surplus energy deal with your energy supplier etc. They even have a build your own turbine guide!
 
Remember also that renewable energy generation is not just about generating electricity. You can harness solar power or the heat produced by digestion in compost bins to heat your water directly. Even greenhouses are a classic way of harnessing renewable energy. Look at the Energy Saving Trust's list of renewable energy types to see which may be best suited for generation in your environment.
Also the Centre for Alternative Technology has some fantastic information on all types of renewable energy generation and what will work best for you. The information sheets are packed full of knowledge but, I'll warn you now, get very technical.