Families across Brisbane are lowering their household carbon emissions and saving money on bills. Find out how you can also join the Brisbane Carbon Challenge.

The Brisbane Carbon Challenge is in full swing, helping Brisbane residents lower their household carbon footprint and save on bills. We wrote about the Challenge last year. You can read more about it here.

Since then we have found our 20 Champion Households who will aim to halve their carbon emissions within a year. Our families are all in different circumstances with different opportunities and challenges in meeting their emissions reductions.

Read on to find out more about these families and how you can also reduce your carbon footprint.

MEET THE HEARNE FAMILY

Current footprint: 7.74 tonnes | Target footprint: 3.87 tonnes

Declan, Verna and their two children (pictured above) are all onboard to halve their carbon emissions.

With active travel not a convenient option, and not yet ready to upgrade their petrol cars to hybrids, their teenage daughter jumped at the chance to take the bus more regularly to and from school.

The Hearnes are also going to focus on food waste, as they’ve found they often buy more food than they need.

This family is a great example of engaging kids of all ages in your carbon-lowering journey!

Zero-emissions electricity
The Hearne family are not sure if they’d like to install solar, given they may move in a few years.

If you’re in a similar situation and don’t want to commit to solar just yet, GreenPower is a great option to lower your energy footprint.

MEET THE JACKSON FAMILY

Current footprint: 12.93 tonnes | Target footprint: 6.47 tonnes

Carly and Kent, a young family with a two year old daughter, are trying to be as green as possible (look at their awesome veggie garden).

While they have a low waste footprint and are conscious about their energy use, they use their two cars to commute to work. Kent’s shift work makes driving necessary, although he is keen to start cycling.

They have good habits to minimise their car use, picking up their daughter from daycare and buying groceries on their commute home.

They’re already very savvy at switching off, after installing smart solutions to control their lights and using selected power points to reduce their energy use.

Try active travel
If you use your car to commute to work, try reducing your travel emissions by cycling or walking to work a few days a week. You’ll be able to improve your fitness and significantly reduce your carbon emissions. Check out your local bikeways at Cycling Brisbane.

MEET THE GITTUS FAMILY

Current footprint: 18.02 tonnes | Target footprint: 9.01 tonnes

Ian and his family of four are renovating their original 1970’s home, which has old light fittings and no insulation, into an eco-friendly home.

This will be a large renovation that will include a new solar power system for his electric vehicle (Ian is pictured here with the new inverter).

Even though their energy and transport footprint habits have a low carbon contribution (Ian’s partner commutes to work on an e-bike and they drive an electronic vehicle), there’s still room to improve with food waste.

Renovating for an energy-efficient home
The Gittus family are about to undertake a large renovation and will make some changes to increase their home’s energy efficiency. This won’t be an easy task with an original 1970’s house, but it also means there’s plenty of room for improvement.

Renovating is a great time to look at how you can reduce your future living expenses by considering better insulation and solar energy. Check out this article for some more information.

Reducing food waste
Food waste will be a focus for both the Hearne and Gittus families. Even though both families compost their organic waste, they both buy food that doesn’t get eaten. Have the same problem? Take the Love Food Hate Waste challenge to help fight food waste.

JOIN THE BRISBANE CARBON CHALLENGE

Has your family been taking on the Brisbane Carbon Challenge? Take the calculator again to see how your carbon-lowering actions have reduced your carbon footprint!

If you want to find out how you can reduce your carbon emissions and household bills, use the Brisbane Carbon Challenge Calculator. It estimates your carbon emissions and offers tips to reduce carbon output and lower your energy bills.