If you find yourself at a loose end this weekend, you could do a lot worse than to check out your carbon footprint in preparation for National Carbon Footprint day which is coming up on October 2nd.

It's all part of an ongoing effort to educate people in reducing their energy usage. By registering with the site, you can not only get lots of tips on how to save energy but you can monitor your efforts on an ongoing basis. The site will remind you via email each year on Carbon Footprint Day  so you can see how you did over the previous 12 months.

National Carbon Footprint Day Patron Jenny Jones GLAM says “With the Arctic summer ice now melting over six times faster than predicted only 4 years ago and with the permafrost predicted to melt three times faster than expected barely a year ago, climate change is now truly a climate crisis. It is essential that we all take action urgently”.

The point of all this is to get people to make carbon usage reduction part of their everyday lives. If you do something enough times it becomes habit right? So turning off that gaming PC when you've finished destroying your enemies, or making sure that you always do your laundry wash on a full load will become as natural as breathing. Here in the high consuming developed world we really have been a bit lazy - including my good self - in these matters. I thought that I was quite good until recently when I was given an electricity monitor and hooked it up to the meter. I was amazed at just how much I could shave of my electricity usage, although I do admit to becoming more than a little obsessed with that little nagging reminder sat on my kitchen window sill! Every time I switch off an appliance it tells me not only the number of watts that I just saved, it translates that into actual money saved. Clever.

So instead of collapsing on the couch to watch the TV this weekend, logon to the National Carbon Footprint day website and start making changes. Get the family involved, and don't forget, you will not only be saving energy and carbon, but you may end up with a bit more money in your pocket too..

Read the complete post at http://www.1e.com/1EBlogs/post/2009/09/25/National-Carbon-Footprint-Day.aspx