Kristianstad goes on a climate diet

Kristianstad municipality has just launched a new project "On a Climate Diet". Twelve households will get advice and support on how to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions during ten months. Within this period they will hopefully also save some money and improve their health. These households are expected to act as models that show that a sustainable lifestyle is attractive.

It is not always so easy to know what you can do as an individual to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The participants in the project "On a Climate Diet" will get help to do this and their experiences will be communicated so that others can follow. - There are several good reasons to join this project: trying a sustainable lifestyle that gives you a richer life, getting a clean environmental conscience, saving money, and improving your health, says Elin Dalaryd at Kristianstad municipality, who runs the project. We have chosen twelve quite different households for this project. The number of persons in the households ranges from 1 to 5, the ages range from 25 to 75 and they live both in apartments and detached houses, both in the city and in the countryside, etc. What they have in common is that they want to learn more about how they can contribute to combating climate changes, Elin Dalaryd continues.

The project starts with each household making a greenhouse gas profile. After that they set up goals for their reduction and then the "dieting" starts. Every month the participants will receive approximately 10 tasks within a specific theme. The themes are, for example: food, transportation, electricity, heating and consumption. A task can be to turn out the lights in empty rooms, try to bike to work or replace two meat dishes a week with a vegetarian alternative. The households that fulfil the required number of tasks participates in a lottery of climate related prices at the end of the project.