Christmas time needs to go through its own environmental review or we are at risk of there not being a Christmas anymore!
Paul Webb, Energy Expert
Founder of B2B Energy Ltd | Chartered Energy Manager MEI, ESOS Lead Assessor, Energy Expert,Energy Manager, Author of Energy Management Books, Podcaster and an established Energy Manager Trainer.
Christmas time needs to go through its own environmental review or we are at risk of there not being a Christmas anymore!
I can hear the comments now of “Scrooge”, and luckily this is just an observation, but the more you dig, the more it impacts.
The environmental cost of Christmas regarding energy only,?is a future cost consideration.?When you look at your own carbon footprint,?it is tiny so lets focus on what that really is?
One average Christmas tree with 70 LEDs = 0.004kWh per 1 hour. When you think about how you turn the lights on and off in your ‘Carbon Bubble’ the impact on the environment is tiny… so who cares?
But now let’s look at the volumes…
- Between 6-8 million Christmas trees are sold alone in the U.K. (imagine the figures across the world) so multiply your carbon footprint by 8 million.?
- Some house holds have not upgraded to LEDs, so that figure can be multiplied by 10.
- Commercial properties’s value could be significantly higher and they appear never to be turned off.
- External Christmas lighting on houses and in the street seem to be on 24/7 and there is a significant growth of this within our generation.
- Christmas lights seem to be getting earlier, with them now coming on in November and lasting until the 1st week of January.
Please don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas and I love Christmas lights, therefore all I feel we need to consider strongly is the control and the timing.
I have calculated some significant savings that could be made if 8 million people all turned their lighting off for just 1 hour everyday in the U.K. alone.
If we don’t start to apply a process to Christmas lights, the carbon crisis will eventually mean we will have no power, no lights and no cheer. However, if we build a process, the cheer will be able to remain.
Personally,?I would rather see us all look to reduce our usage, rather than eventually having no lighting at all.
This article doesn’t even begin to consider the impact of cutting Christmas trees down or disposing of the tree after the festivities.?
Evolutionary Psychologist
3 年What? No air polluting logs on the fire and eco-degrading products by the uprooted tree? what kind of sustainable eco-mass will that festival be?
Engineer
3 年Great awareness day Paul Webb sir.
Educating Energy Consciousness | Engineer by Qualification | MBA by Choice
3 年Truly said Paul Webb, Energy Expert As you mentioned, these tiny actions have the power to bring a cumulative effect on reducing individual’s carbon footprints. I will go a step further and say that we should consider energy pollution in its entirety and not just as a result of a single carbon intensive activity.
While we should look at it as a "once in an year festival " figures raise concerns. The other day I was reading about candles being lit which could be in several millions and the amount of CO2 being emitted. My take would be not to raise concerns about the festivity, like what some environmental experts comment about Christmas or the diwali festival ( festival of lights) in India rather look at ways and means of cutting co2 emissions in day to day usage -.24x7 - 365 days. We have been having these festivals for generations and let us continue with those forever.
Founder of B2B Energy Ltd | Chartered Energy Manager MEI, ESOS Lead Assessor, Energy Expert,Energy Manager, Author of Energy Management Books, Podcaster and an established Energy Manager Trainer.
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