Climate tip 1Mobility: Commuter and leisure traffic is responsible for a quarter of all CO2 emissions in Switzerland.
The impact of mobility on the environment depends on the distance travelled and on the type of vehicle used. If you walk or cycle, you do not pollute the atmosphere at all. If you travel by train, you produce about ten times less greenhouse gas than if you go by car. So: whenever possible, give up your own car and use the train, car sharing or a bicycle to get around.
|
|
Climate tip 2Car: Each person in Switzerland travels a good 10,000 kilometers by car every year. Overall, cars are responsible for more than 20 per cent of Switzerland’s CO2 emissions. For individuals, the car bears an even greater share of responsibility: depending on the amount of fuel used and the number of kilometers travelled, it accounts for one third or more of their personal carbon footprint. But not all cars affect the climate to the same extent. There are huge differences in their CO2 impact. Depending on how much fuel it uses, a car releases into the environment anything between 100 and well over 300 grammes of CO2 per kilometer. As a rule of thumb: the bigger and heavier a car is, the more pollutants it produces. So: when buying a car, consider its size and look for the lowest possible fuel consumption.
|
|
Climate tip 3Building: An average household uses most energy for heating. So anyone building a new house or renovating an old one has plenty of very effective ways to protect the climate. Merely by using efficient energy-saving measures, you can often halve your consumption in comparison with what you would use in a house built by traditional methods. So: If you own an older house, renovate it to make it energy efficient, with heat-insulating windows and good insulation of the roof and exterior walls. If you are planning to build from scratch, build to the Minergie standard, which regards the building envelope and building services (heating, sanitation etc) as a single system. What is important is not so much having a maximum of energy-saving technology; combining the technology sensibly counts for far more.
http://www.mingergie.ch/ http://www.bau-schlau.ch/ http://www.energie-schweiz.ch/ http://www.topten.ch/ http://www.wwf.ch/ |
|
Climate tip 4Living: Whether you rent or own: within our own four walls we can set the room temperature ourselves. |
|
Climate tip 5Travelling: For many people air travel accounts for the biggest proportion of their personal carbon footprint. From a global perspective too, planes are accounting for an ever larger share of greenhouse gas production. Worldwide, flying is the fasted growing source of CO2 emissions. If you travel by plane, you produce as much CO2 in just a few hours as you do in a car over the course of years. So: think before travelling. Fly as little as possible, whether on business or privately. For shorter distances go by train. Take fewer, but longer holidays. Regular city breaks pollute the atmosphere more than one lengthy flight every few years. |
|
Climate tip 6Consumption: It makes sense to save electricity, but it is not equally efficient everywhere. The greatest potential is with refrigerators and freezers. There are huge differences in consumption according to the efficiency class of the appliance. Only appliances in class A and above protect the climate. Your daily shopping basket also offers you numerous opportunities to behave in a climate-aware way. In Switzerland, food is responsible for about 20 per cent of energy consumption. Eating less meat makes a big difference, since the fodder used to fatten animals requires an very large amount of energy. There is also a lot of energy stocked in hothouse-grown vegetables. Vegetables grown out of doors have on average nine times less impact on the climate than products grown in hothouses or hydroponically. So: when buying household appliances, look at the energy label. Use energy-saving bulbs. Buy seasonal food from your local region.
|
|