CRAGs Carbon Footprinting Worksheet

John Cossham

CRAGger York

I’d like to ask ‘anonymous’ why s/he would rate ‘green electricity’ as 90 – 100 % of the normal? The company I use, Good Energy Ltd, only buys and sells leccy from wind, solar and existing hydro. They asked customers about purchasing from landfill gas turbines, and we said no, and they don’t support new hydro dams as these can cause methane emissions from rotting vegetation. They seem pretty green to me and I wouldn’t be happy for a calculator to consider that my £200 a year (one unit per day) use is as much as 90% of the carbon footprint of a coal or gas – heavy electricity bill. I do understand that photovoltaic cells and wind turbines have a carbon footprint/embodied energy, but still cannot imagine how this might make it worth 90% of fossil based electricity.

I approve of a biomass rating, but think this should be flexible as some of us gather our biomass by bike and trailer. Hardly any of my 6 tonnes a year of logs are brought to me by motor vehicle, I’d say perhaps 5%, although many of the logs will have been cut using a petrol-powered chainsaw before I get to them.

Finally, what do people think of British Gas’ claim that their gas is green as they offset it? I buy my £50 a year of gas from them and have been asking them for about 4 years about a ‘green gas scheme’ and paying a bit extra for it whenever they’ve rang up and asked if I’d like to pay less for my gas. Should we be congratulating them? Are there greener gas suppliers? Is there a green gas supplier called Oxymoron Ltd?

John Cossham

john ackers

website team CRAGger Islington

Here is the green tariff electricity thread.

david

website team CRAGger Sevenoaks

Sorry – the ‘anonymous’ is a bug on files’ comments – it’s David here. The rationale behind the green electricity is on the thread above. There’s also a “green gas” thread at 'Ethical' gas suppliers? Guardian article 15 March 2007.