Thinking about going green? Living a low-carbon life and reducing your carbon footprint is a profound adjustment. Choosing a sustainable lifestyle affects how you make decisions regarding what you eat, what you buy and how you use energy.

Whether it’s Monday morning, New Year’s Eve, or you're blowing out candles on a birthday cake, making decisions to change our habits is something we often do. But sticking to those decisions can be hard.

Going Green? How to change your habits

We’ve all heard about the 21 day rule, but Phillippa Lally, researcher at University College London, carried out a study in order to find out how long it really takes to get a new habit to stick.

Turns out the time it took participants to reach 95 per cent of their new habit ranged from 18 to 254 days. In addition, missing one opportunity to perform the behaviour change did not materially affect the habit. (Good to know next time I decide to stuff my face with cake)

Basically, it doesn’t matter if you don’t stick to your goal 100 per cent of the time. It’s ok to try and try again because commitment to making real change in the long-term is what will reshape your behaviour.

If you've decided to go green, we’ve put together some pollution cutting activities that you can start implementing at home now to reduce your carbon footprint.

Habits to reduce your carbon footprint

1. Turn off lights, phone chargers, electronic equipment 

Reduce your household electricity waste every day by cutting your CO2 pollution by turning off lights, gaming consoles, phone charges, computers, TVs, DVD players, stereos etc when you're not using them. Not to mention the all the savings you’ll see as a result on your electricity bills.

2. Install low-energy lights wherever you can in your home

LED bulbs use 80 per cent less energy than traditional globes.  Amazingly 95 per cent of the energy in LEDs is converted to light and only five per cent into heat, while fluorescent lights transfer 95 per cent energy into heat and only five per cent light!

They last much longer than regular light bulbs making them much cheaper in the long run.

3. Switch off appliances on standby at the power point

Did you know that roughly 10 per cent of your electricity bill consists of standby power?  Standby power is the mode on your appliances that kicks in when you’re not actively using them. When you do start using your appliance or device again, standby mode allows you to fire it up quickly so you can pick up where you left off.

You can cut down on waste by switching off all appliances left on standby at the power point whenever they’re not in use.

4. Generate your own solar electricity

Using electricity from a solar panel setup on your roof can be cheaper than buying it from your energy company, and it’s one of the most significant activities your household can do to reduce carbon emissions.

Not to mention, when added to a smart energy management system like Reposit First, you can time your power hungry appliances to use energy when you're generating it. Reducing your power bill, carbon emissions and your reliance on the electricity grid.

5. Purchase Green Power for your home

Electricity companies such as Diamond Energy and Powershop offer Green Power products. You can choose to power your house with a percentage, usually 10, 50 and 100 per cent, from renewable energy sources.

Currently more than 60 per cent of all electricity in Australia comes from high-polluting coal-fired power generation. So choosing to power your home from renewable energy sources, even if it's only 10 per cent can drastically reduce your carbon footprint.

6. Reduce electricity use in your home each quarter

Get to know how and when your household uses electricity. You can use your electricity bill or get a home energy audit kit. There are free audit kits in most capital cities that you can borrow from your local library.

Adding a smart home energy management system like Reposit, can help you monitor and tracks your energy usage and generation effortlessly. It helps you to identify how to use your energy more efficiently and gives you better control over your energy savings and power bills.

Know when and how your household uses energy can make it easy to reduce power use, saving you money and lowering pollution.

7. Wash your clothes in cold water

Heating water to wash clothes and using the dryer to dry them is a waste of electricity, causing unnecessary CO2 pollution. Next time wash your clothes in a cold water wash and dry them in the sun.

Washing your clothes in cold water can save you $115 a year. Most machines will use the same energy for a half load as they do for a full load, so try using your machine when you have a full load.  

If you're on the hunt for a new machine in the foreseeable future front loaders use less water and detergent and are more energy efficient than top loaders.  

Learn more about Reposit

Reposit is one of the world’s most advanced energy management systems. It'll help you identify your energy usage and empower you to change your habits to reduce your CO2 emissions. As an added bonus you can expect a lower electricity bill.
Learn more about Reposit or get in touch with our awesome consultants for more information about how you can get one installed at your house.