Great idea this - a site for the Energy Saving Trust that asks people to commit to saving 20% of the energy we use, and to illustrate it with a picture of a beauty spot from Flickr.
But - Arghh! - they don't allow you to deep-link beyond the main url. So I can't link to the page where people have posted their pledges.
By coincidence today I also took my first steps towards changing my electricity supplier to Good Energy, a UK company who generate electricilty from 100% renewable sources. Wind stations to you and me. They're also after people to sign up to become microgenerators - more info here
It's more expensive than coal and gas powered provision, but clearly better in other ways.
My idea to do it came from this article written by Robert Newman in the Guardian
& in it he makes the very astute observation regarding financial offsetting schemes:
"I decided not to avail myself of British Airways' hook-up with Climate Care - which has created a scheme where the passenger pays money to offset the flight's carbon emissions - as this may have more to do with offsetting the danger of regulation and full-cost accounting being imposed on BA. And anyway, there is not enough money in the world to offset the emissions from flying.
How much, for example, will it cost to put Bangladesh on stilts? What day-rate were you thinking of paying workers to carry ice and snow to the top of Kilimanjaro?
Fossil fuels have to stay in the ground. Carbon offset schemes flatter the fallacy that we can continue pretty much as we are."
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Good Energy have bloody awful customer service - I hope you have a better experience than me. I ended up reporting them to Energywatch after finding emails went unanswered and the phone was never answered and they call back days later when I was out,
I agree - they do have bad customer service. I had to email them after my initial enquiry to remind them that I wanted their service, and so finally I got connected.
It's a shame, because it's a great idea, and a great alternative to the traditional suppliers, but they let themselves down. I haven't been able to persuade any of my friends to change, because the costs are higher.
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