Earlier this month LCL BM’s Annabel Murray has been recognised as one of four national climate change leaders by crowdfunding gurus StartSomeGood and Future Super. Annabel has been running the Low Carbon Living Blue Mountains program for the past two years, during which time her hard work and determination has seen the program grow from 30 local schools and businesses to now over 80.

Annabel writes below about what she has learnt from running the program and what has driven her to become a climate change leader;

Since running Low Carbon Living, I have learnt so many ways to reduce our rental household carbon use that our Powershop energy bill is now less than a third that it was previously.  With up to 67% of energy produced in a coal fire power station lost during grid transfer; and then with every 1Kw of power used when you flick on a switch burning 6kg of coal, any direct heat transfer or thermal retention of heat around the home is going to reduce your carbon footprint significantly.  

We cook on a gas cooker outside or on our fire inside during winter. We save hot water in a thermos to cut the use of the electrical kettle by one third. We use the indoor electric stove when we are too busy or tired, or when we have visitors. We have cut our red meat consumption down to less than once a week.  We walk, ride and catch the train whenever possible. It all takes a bit more time and planning, but many of these changes have improved our health and lifestyle and it also brings some peace of mind to know that future generations and ecosystems may now have a chance.   My Mother, a trained nurse, was on the Bathurst Hospital Board in the 1970s and managed to have smoking banned in hospital wards and to allow partners to attend births, for the first time in NSW. She also worked setting up the first play group, childcare centre and community bus in Bathurst.  In the 1980s and 1990s she established the first Organics Retailer and Growers Association in Sydney, and achieved her later in life goals of making organics mainstream and fashionable.

In the 1980s my Grandfather, a packet-a-day smoking GP at West Walls, quit cigarettes and went cold turkey once the health alerts were widely accepted and then drove to Darwin to visit his estranged daughter in one leg.  I hope that by the time my grandchildren are born, mining and burning or fossil fuels for any reason will be considered forms of archaic craziness for the uninformed.   

To support Annabel and the LCL program further please check out the rewards on offer as part of our crowdfunding campaign here.