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Green Home is the perfect way for you to check how efficiently you are currently running your home. This can help you to plan how to improve your environmental behaviour and choices.

With a combination of tips, advice and our unique Green Home survey, we have made it easy for you to “green” your home.

Quite simply – most of us need to improve our behaviour at home. Energy use in Ireland’s residential sector (24%) is second only to the transport sector (42%).... and private cars account for 43% of the total energy used in that sector. The energy related CO2 emissions are similar; with the residential sector responsible for 25%, second only to transport with 37%, and again we have to remember that private cars are the biggest users of energy.

Our waste generation per person averages at approx. 344kg, and approx. 1/3 of the food we buy ends up being wasted.

We are also one of the biggest consumers of water in Europe at an estimated 160l per person per day.

Behavourial changes in households can collectively have a huge impact.

Small changes made by a large number of people will make a difference to the bigger picture. For example, if we spend 1 minute less in the shower, each person can save 9,000 litres of water per year (based on a 7 min power shower).

Who can do this?

Anyone can become involved with Green Home; individual households, community groups, Tidy Towns groups, schools, colleges, teachers and business staff.

Many groups have taken Green Home on as a project and have got their communities and local schools involved – making positive changes in their local areas as regards health, environmental & financial improvements as well as involving people socially in their local areas.

Along with achieving environmental improvements in their communities, many groups report knock on positive impacts such as health benefits (sustainable travel), financial benefits for households and therefore for the local area, along with bringing people together and building relationships.

It takes 7 litres of water & 162g of oil to make 1 plastic bottle (PET).

We have designed 2 surveys for you to check how sustainably you are living. The Quick Green Home Survey will give you a snapshot of how you are doing. We encourage everyone to take 5 minutes to register and complete the full Green Home survey, which will give you a baseline score of how sustainably you are running your home.

Most people use this information to change some of their behaviour; many utilise the Green Home Action Plans and advice to do this. The idea is that no less than 2 months after completing the full survey, you log in to take the same survey again – you can then compare the new scores with the baseline scores and see how and where you have improved. This is particularly effective for groups – as people can see both their individual and group scores. Many Tidy Towns groups use these surveys as an easy comparison tool to see how projects or workshops they have organised, have influenced participants behaviour change.

Green Homes Save Money

On average participants who engaged with the Green Home programme save €320 per annum on their energy, transport and waste bills. Plus, the average household electricity cost saving from a Green Home energy awareness project resulted in a saving of €257 per annum. Further savings can be made on food waste/food purchasing, estimated at up to €1,000 per year for an average family (Stop Food Waste).