Loco

If you’ve signed up to the 10:10 campaign you’re probably looking for an easy and fun way to cut 10% from your carbon footprint.

Well look no further! At Loco2 we’re here to help you do just that.

Your footprint

Calculating your carbon footprint can be a tricky business, and it’s very difficult to get a fully accurate picture. But broadly speaking flights add a hefty sum to your total footprint, and swapping the journeys for the train can save up to 90%.

The average UK footprint is around twelve tonnes of CO2 when you include all the ‘indirect’ emissions from food, shopping and your contribution to national services like the NHS and Government.

Data from the UK Act on CO2 carbon calculator puts average emissions from flights at around two tonnes of CO2 per year (reflecting the fact that lots of people, especially those on lower incomes, fly less than once a year).

A return flight from London to Sydney produces almost six tonnes of CO2. So straight away you can see how much of an effect flights have on your footprint. If you took a long-haul flight last year and you are able to cut it out this year then you are likely to be smashing through the 10% barrier.

But I like holidays!

So do we. Thankfully, going on holiday by train can be more fun than flying because you get to visit places on the way to your destination, see the landscape change before your eyes and avoid hectic airports.

We’ve developed a journey-planning tool featuring more than one hundred journeys in Europe so you can see just what’s possible for a low carbon holiday, and we’re adding new journeys every day.

One of the easiest ways to plan and book a trip is by purchasing an InterRail pass for your journey. This can often be cheaper and less hassle than working out the options for a normal return ticket. We’ve created a handy guide to InterRail passes to help you work out the right options for you.

We’re working hard to make Loco2 more useful and have lots of exciting plans in store, so please sign up for updates. By the end of 2010 it should be easier than ever for everybody to save 10% and beyond!