Get involved
Get some great tips and advice on reducing your carbon footprint, helping reduce biodiversity loss, and maybe even save yourself some money too with the suggestions below.
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Catch up on our dedicated Climate Change newsletters filled with news and updates on how we are progressing with our climate change targets and action plans.
Commit to some of our top tips on how you can make a difference
There are so many ideas and tips on what we can all do to make a difference to protect our environment and reduce our carbon footprint. Here we have collated a selection for you. See if any inspire you to make some small changes in your life. Themes to get you started include:
Together is better!
Communities across the District are doing amazing work locally to help cut carbon emissions and protect the environment. Why not join them, or you could start your own action group? Active green groups locally include: Sussex Green Living, Greening Steyning, Sustainable Henfield 2030, Transition Horsham, and the Nuthurst Carbon Busters, to name just a few.
And remember that if you have a project in mind to help reduce carbon emissions locally you may be eligible for grant funding to support this work. Visit our Community Climate Fund page for more details.
West Sussex Climate Action Hub
West Sussex County Council have some great ideas to help and support you too, including a new county-wide Climate Action Hub for the whole community. We are supporting County in this exciting project and we very much hope this will be a hub for the whole community to use and engage with for sharing climate-focused events, news and community initiatives.. You are invited to join the discussion forum there, pin your group activity onto the interactive map, and share your event news on this site for all to see.
Know your carbon footprint
A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) that are generated by our actions. For those who want to know what their own carbon footprint is, WWF has produced a carbon calculator. It is an online questionnaire that does not require complicated answers to give you your footprint. This clever tool also gives you guidance on how to reduce your impact. Give it a try!
Watch these short films to get you started
- BBC: Climate Change - the facts: (4 minute programme) Looking at the science of climate change Sir David Attenborough outlines the challenge it poses for all of us.
- BBC: Climate Change - the facts: (60 minute programme). You will need to sign into the BBC account to view this.
- Breaking Boundaries : The Science of our Planet (10 minute on YouTube). This is a trailer for a longer film on Netflix but still informative.
- How to Save a Planet (8 minutes on YouTube) Produced by WWF and narrated by David Attenborough.
- Top tips for fighting climate change and biodiversity loss (1.29 minutes on YouTube, no sounds). Graphics video from The Eden Project.
Why our efforts count
So many different areas of our daily activities are responsible for adding to our household’s overall carbon footprint. Yet many of us may think that, as an individual, our contributions to carbon reductions will be quite insignificant compared to the scale of the problem.
However, as individuals working together for the same goals the difference will be significant. By making small (or large!) efforts to reduce our carbon emissions we can each help to:
- protect our environment,
- protect our own health by reducing air pollution,
- protect other species
- help to generate more green jobs,
- as well as, in many cases, saving ourselves money.
The BBC has produced a handy little video to get you started on thinking how you might reduce your carbon footprint: Watch the BBC Video: Five ways to reduce your carbon footprint
What about biodiversity?
The tips listed in these pages are all great ideas for reducing our carbon footprint and many also include aspects of biodiversity, such as in our food choices, consideration of the resources we use, and reducing plastics which impact on the life of our oceans. Air pollutants, such as those from our diesel cars, also impact on our local biodiversity.
From a more strategic outlook take a look at our Wilder Horsham District partnership work that we have established as a Council in response to the urgent pressures on biodiversity. See also the Sussex Wildlife Trust website for more details on their work and how you can get involved.