Carbon footprinting stall, Energy Expo, West Bridgford

LAEP Communications Pick n Mix

Rushcliffe Borough Council                        

Carbon footprinting stall, Energy Expo, West Bridgford

29/08/2009

Visitors:                                  over 100

Footprints completed:               20

Highest footprint:                      33,680kg

Lowest footprint:                       5,468kg

Average footprint:                      2,374kg

While it was quiet at the beginning of the day, we visited all the other stallholders and left them each with a carbon footprinting form. Several returned these towards the end of the day. One man in particular was rather shocked at his large footprint, but explained it mostly due to his high mileage travelling the country selling renewable energy products!

We had many interesting conversations during the day, including one that started with a visitor asserting that he didn’t have a carbon footprint because he “never went anywhere”. He eventually sat down to fill out a form and discovered his footprint was quite large despite not having been on any flights recently. Discussions with other visitors covered topics including the lack of funding for solid wall insulation, energy efficiency ratings for household appliances, the carbon ethics of cannibalism and the need to cut down on all travel, even travel by public transport.

Many more people took away footprinting forms to complete at home, and factsheets on renewable energy were also flying off the shelves. It was useful to have both Rushcliffe Borough Council and the Energy Saving Trust at the event, as we were able to signpost people for more local information, and advice on grant funding and insulation.