Lifestyle Changes: Significant Contribution to GHG Emission Reduction Efforts

Abstract

The EU initiated a campaign “You control climate change”, which was launched in summer 2006. The campaign used TV, outdoor, and newspaper advertising, as well as a range of electronic tools, such as banners and emailings, to attract attention. There was a school student element as well – the Europa Diary for 2007–2008, with more than 2.3 million copies distributed throughout Europe, included a section on climate change and encouraged students to reduce their personal greenhouse gas emissions by making small changes to their daily behaviour. Based on this idea, the goal was set to analyse the possibilities to reduce GHG emissions in our everyday life based on experiments carried out by the students at Vilnius University Kaunas Faculty of Humanities. The aim of the experiment was to calculate GHG emission reduction by one household during the year by changing life habits towards sustainable consumption and recording this daily. The Carbon Calculator available on the website developed by the EU campaign “You control climate change” was used to calculate how many kg of CO₂ can be saved each year by adopting lifestyle changes. The results of the exercise are described in this chapter.