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| The Merrill Family - Full Story |
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The Merrill Family
Meet a typical Somerset family who have cut their carbon footprint by two-thirds.... |
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| Melanie and David Merrill and their three children are a fairly typical family from Glastonbury. Until last year they were generally unaware of the impact they had on the climate and felt they were too busy to do anything much about it. That was until they were approached by ITV news to take part in a green makeover.
The Merrills took part in 10 weeks of filming, investigating the families carbon footprint and what action they could take to reduce it. The cavity walls were insulated, lightbulbs were switched to low energy one and the family even had solar panels installed (with a little help from company Solar Century).
However, some of the most important actions were those that cost no money at all. The family got into the practice of turning off lights and appliances and switching appliances off standby, they began walking and cycling more short journeys and they now buy the majority of their food from local producers. They have even begun growing some of their own vegetable and keeping chickens to cut down on food miles.
Over the course of the programme the family managed to cut their carbon footprint by two-thirds. “The experiment definitely opened my eyes,” said Melanie, “people are really interested in how we did it, especially the kids as they were the biggest energy users. If we can do it, especially with our teenagers, then anyone can.”
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