Green Living: Power to make a difference

Despite all of the turmoil, moving is always a good opportunity to look at your household incomings and outgoings and decide how best to spend your hard earned cash.

One big decision will be around utilities and who to choose to supply gas and electricity to your new home.

It's a crowded market out there and many suppliers now offer "green tariffs" which they say will help to reduce your emissions and lower your carbon footprint.

Given that these green options may well cost you more, it's worth checking out just how environmentally friendly they are.

For example, many green tariffs are offered by power companies because they are legally obliged to source a percentage of their energy from renewable sources.

So why should you pay more for an option which the company has to provide by law anyway?

The two established UK companies offering real sustainable power are Ecotricity and Good Energy. Ecotricity in particular stand out as they source 100% of their power from renewable energy.

All profits made by the company then go into building more power infrastructure like turbines or solar parks. So you're not only making your home more sustainable today, you're also helping to build a greener grid.

Perhaps best of all, Ecotricity price match the standard tariffs of the "big six" energy companies, so switching to a greener supply may not cost you any more than you currently pay.

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