Carbon Fast during Lent?

One resource I didn't include in the initial round-up of Lent resources is from Tearfund, who have produced a Carbon Fast to be done over the period of Lent - 40 days to examine our carbon footprint and take some steps to reduce it. It is firmly based in prayer and action. You can sign up for Carbon Fast emails and get the daily actions, facts and prayers emailed to you, and Tearfund will also add you to the carbon map. You can also download resources for personal or church use.

What's the carbon footprint of a potato?

With increased concern about food miles and our carbon footprint, its intriguiug to learn that local firm Walkers Crisps has become the first firm to put carbon footprint figures on its products, with nine more companies set to follow. In April, Walkers Crisps began labelling its cheese and onion bags with a carbon footprint - how many grams of greenhouse gases were emitted in its production - and that has been rolled out to other flavours. The calculations are done by the Carbon Trust, which spent several months working out that 75g of greenhouse gases are given off in the production of a 33.5g bag of Walkers crisps, taking into account the energy used in farming, manufacture, packaging, distribution and disposal.

Transport Direct: online journey planner

I'm doing a lot more travelling by train again and have recently discovered the Transport Direct website. It offers information for door-to-door travel for both public transport and car journeys around Britain and aims "to provide you with comprehensive, easy-to-use travel information to help you plan your journeys effectively and efficiently". I particularly like the Check journey CO2 emissions gizmo in the Tips and Tools section.

The Bishop of London on the environment

In a recent Guardian interview the Bishop of London, the Right Rev and Right Hon Richard Chartres, discusses his active stance on issues such as climate change. The bishop pledged not to fly for a year after criticism that he was not practising what he preached because he was taking flights for "diocese work" as well as retaining a chauffeur-driven car.

In the article I spotted a reference to a book, How many lightbulbs does it take to change a Christian? by Claire Foster & David Shreeve. The blurb says that it "provides hundreds of practical ideas for making SMALL changes to your lifestyle that can make a BIG difference to the environment" and suggests "actions that will reduce your ecological footprint, from turning off the tap, to starting a church compost heap".

Offset your Holiday Carbon and Support Developing Countries

Summer is a time when we use less energy for heating and lighting but more for travel as we go on holiday, and increasingly perhaps more for cooling. Whilst avoiding and reducing the associated carbon emissions in various ways is the best approach, the unavoidable emissions can be cancelled out quickly by investing in zero carbon energy systems. Where such systems are implemented in developing countries there is a double benefit.

A range of companies and organisations now offer offset schemes. The most effective only invest in zero carbon energy systems, not tree planting. The Pure Clean Planet Trust is one of these. It is also attractive because it is a charity, and caps the proportion of offsetting donations it receives which it uses for its own costs. It therefore contrasts with commercial companies whose aim might be to maximise profits.

Pure is just beginning to invest in projects, and the first one is a large local power station in India using unused parts of crops such as coconuts and sugar cane. It supplies almost zero carbon electricity for about 10,000 people in 47 villages.

Average CO2 emissions for cars in the UK in 2006 were 274 grams per mile. A holiday involving say 1,000 miles in total would therefore emit 274 kg of carbon dioxide – probably a bit more if the car was fully loaded. The typical cost of offsetting this mileage is around £5 or less.

More information on Pure can be found at http://www.puretrust.org.uk/. There may be similar carbon offset organisations to Pure.