Living Smart is a program offering information on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at home and in daily travel. The program works with selected communities to achieve savings for households and large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The same tips and technical information are available to all households through this website.
Research shows that the community is concerned about Climate Change and most people are keen to be part of the solution.
Living Smart is part of the Premier's Action Statement on Climate Change. The program is run by the Department of Environment and Conservation and the Department for Planning and Infrastructure. The Living Smart Challenge is for every household to reduce their greenhouse gas by 2 tonnes each year. Households can do this by taking energy saving actions such as:
Turning off appliances using standby power;
Switching to low energy globes;
Setting thermostats for efficient heating and cooling;
Choosing to leave the car at home for 1 or 2 extra trips per week;
Taking shorter showers (saving hot water);
and many others.
The typical household creates 14 tonnes of greenhouse gas each year in daily activities such as heating and cooling the home, running appliances and driving around. Add another 16 tonnes for holiday flights and the energy 'embodied' in food and consumer goods.
All of these emissions added together represent your household's 'carbon footprint' - you can calculate the footprint for your household by downloading the GHG-Energy Calculator (zip file 390kb).
