Get your household together and prepare for some competition. You get points for each climate-friendly action you take over a week — the more points, the more savings you're making on energy use.

The points awarded for each action are directly related to the carbon emissions saved and show the impact that our everyday choices have on the planet.

Small actions, big impact

All the points you can score come from making small changes in your day, like:

  • Using cold water laundry washes
  • Switching to LED lights in high-use areas
  • Turning off the second fridge
  • Setting the heat pump/heater to between 18-21°C
  • Switching your car for car sharing or the bus for one day
  • Switching your car for walking or biking for one day

Check out the numbers

If you can aim to score 200 points in a week, that equals roughly 1 tonne of carbon saved over a year. Right now, New Zealand households create about 8.5 tonnes per person per year, so 1 tonne makes a real difference.

Transport makes up a big part of those carbon emissions. For example, if 100,000 people used the bus for a 20km ride, we’d stop 13,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions from entering our atmosphere – that’s approximately the CO2 emissions of 5000 petrol or diesel cars per year.

But we can also save energy and money inside our homes. If a person who has one shower a day switches to an efficient showerhead, they’ll save $100 per year, while the average household can save about $85 a year by using cold washes instead of warm ones.

Download your scorecard and get started

Why not try it out in your home? Download our Gen Less scorecard, see how many points you can score in a week, and then decide which ones you can make a permanent part of your routine.

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