It seems logical to me that when wanting to create a greener home, the first question we should ask ourselves is this:

“What is my carbon footprint?”

If you don’t know what that is, it is simply how you personally contribute to the Earth’s global warming. It is:

” The measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide“.

That means the electricity and gas you use at home, how much fuel you consume each day driving, how much you travel by air and so on – it DOES affect the world around you.

Now I have a pretty large household and combined with the amount of travelling we do and power we use at home, calculating my personal carbon footprint was a scary task.  And let me tell you, the results were not pretty. And that’s coming from someone who already has a small awareness of the environment – we recycle, use diesel, have converted all our lightbulbs and try as best we can not to waste electricity and water.  Even my kids brush with the taps off and now bathe together to save water. But in spite of all these little things, our carbon footprint was still terrifyingly high.  Which I am afraid to think, but probably is the case in many homes like ours. But now that I know, the more I am determined to make that footprint a little smaller.

So, have you worked out your CARBON FOOTPRINT? You can do it here.

Welcome to Yurto, the blog about eco-friendly living in the home. Inspired by the yurt, an ancient circular dwelling place built in tune with nature, we hope to explore the ways we can all make a change for the better in the world that we live in – beginning from our homes.

Why is it so important to go green? Al Gore, who woke up the world with his now-famous documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, puts it succinctly:

“…Some of the leading scientists are now saying we may have as little as 10 years before we cross a kind of point of no return, beyond which it’s much more difficult to save the habitability of the planet in the future…”

10 years??? Now that’s a scary thought.  If you have children like me, that’s enough reason to stop procrastinating and do something about NOW.

So from plastic to canvas, wasting to conserving,  lets find ways to care for the earth while we can and live healthier, happier lives.