January is a time for resolutions, and one that may have been more popular this year is for more people wanting to go green and help to reduce their carbon footprint.

There are a multitude of ways you can make your life more energy efficient, and as well as helping to save our planet, a little at a time, you can also save something else... money on wasted energy!

Get efficient behind the wheel!

An estimated 12% of all CO2 emissions in Europe come from cars, and the less efficient your vehicle, the more you are contributing to the problem. But there are easy ways to minimise your impact on the environment. Legislation is coming in over the next few years to seriously limit the level of CO2 emissions per kilometre that cars used for business in particular are pumping out, but there’s no reason private vehicles should be left behind.

Simply ensuring your car is serviced and tuned correctly will reduce your emissions, and just making sure that you have safe and correctly inflated tyres will increase overall efficiency.

Any of thebestof Cambridge’s recommended garage service providers, tyre dealerships and engine tuning experts, will be able to help you get the most out of every pound’s worth of petrol. 

Solar panels 

These may seem pricey up front, but you may have noticed them springing up in more and more locations on more and more properties. As they become more widespread, prices are coming down, and they offer genuinely clean and free electricity for your home. And what’s more, if you are generating more than you are using – common during the summer months, even in the UK – you will be paid for what you feed back in to the National Grid.

Cambridge’s own solar energy experts Projects4Roofing – the first in the area to be accredited to install solar panels - will be able to guide your through the process, from beginning to end.

Plant a tree 

When all else fails, everyone knows that trees and plants mop up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and lock it away. A simple act of planting a tree in your back garden may not be enough to solve global warming on it’s own, but will help offset as much carbon as you might generate by driving 3,000 miles!

If you run a business and want to do something on a bigger scale, then try calling local landscape gardeners, Flora-tec to plant trees on your grounds to offset your fleet of vehicles for a year.

Work from home 

Fancy something a little bit more drastic, a change of lifestyle to help prevent climate change? How far do you commute every year? Would it be possible to flexi-work or even work from home? With soaring petrol prices, it makes financial sense every bit as much as not clogging up the roads.

And if you don’t have the room for a dedicated home office, who about a loft conversion from another of our locally trusted and highly rated companies, Saxon John Brown Ltd? And if you don’t have insulation in the loft yet, you can help keep your home warm with less energy wastage at the same time.

And remember to mention thebestof Cambridge when you call any of our members.