Originally published in GreenSWord June 2005 as editorial piece following articles on CO2 and Peak Oil

But of course as we have seen above you are going to have to change your lifestyle as well.
In order to change your habits you can start by understanding what you use today – Benchmark your energy use. Every week take your own meter reading and see what effect changes have. Once you are monitoring your use you can start to reduce it.

Measure the actual MPG you get your from your car – fill up your tank and note the miles and litres till you next fill right up. MPG=4.5 times miles divided by litres

Now what is the difference in real journey time and mpg if you drive at a maximum of 65mph on the dual carriageway instead of 70+ – you might be surprised.

If you need to replace your boiler or roof investigate solar options – see ads in this issue. The payback period may be over 5 years at today’s prices, but you know energy prices are going to rise dramatically, and grants are available now.

As a local group try lobbying your council and other non-commercial sector local organisations to get into micro-generation for their buildings. There are massive 50% grants available through ClearSkies to fund community projects so why not approach your village hall committee to get them interested.

Devote one of your regular meetings to discussing energy conservation and generation - invite a council officer to come along and discuss with you what the council is doing.

And then there are the obvious things for a local party to do lobbying your MP to pick up on Early Day Motions and other parliamentary measures for renewable energy, reading through and reviewing the MfSS sections on energy to see if there are loopholes or improvements that should be put to conference.