ENVIRONMENTAL campaign group Energy Alton wants people to reduce their carbon footprint - starting at home - before it’s too late.

Energy Alton said the “future is beating a path to our door” so now is the time to start considering climate change and the implications of your carbon footprint.

And there are things that can be done, for example repeating the measures undertaken by Dr Thomas Lankester who addressed Energy Alton members recently, sharing insight into how he converted his “standard brick box home” of the 1980s into a “super home” of the 21st Century.

His talk, which attracted the group’s biggest audience to date, had the room “buzzing” with inspiration. The changes to his Farnham home mean Dr Lankester has saved an estimated 60 per cent of his fossil fuel use, substantially reducing his carbon emissions and energy bills too.

“This huge saving was achieved gradually over 20 years as he learned how to make his home more energy efficient, and took advantage of improvements in technology, without changing the way the house looked from the road,” an Energy Alton spokesman explained.

Dr Lankester started with basic insulation, low-energy lighting and replacement of old appliances as they wore out. During the next few years he changed the lights to LEDs, invested more heavily with solar thermal panels for hot water and a wood-burning stove.

In recent years he has added renewable energy with solar panels and an air-source heat pump.

The last major improvement to the house was even more insulation, together with triple glazing.

“Tom presented a future that is achievable now and members of the audience were buzzing with ideas for their own homes,” the spokesman added. “Tom’s other aim was to reduce his carbon footprint - a measure of how well each of us is doing to reduce our carbon emissions below the magic number of 1.2 tonnes per person, which would avoid catastrophic change in the climate across the world. Tom’s audience at the Energy Alton talk learned how to achieve it at an individual level, to complement the global effort by governments and the United Nations.”

Other actions included swapping his family’s car for an electric model and buying an electric scooter for himself. Altogether his household carbon footprint (household fuel and transport) fell from three tonnes per year to one-and-a-half tonnes.

Your carbon footprint, including household fuel, transport, flights and general goods, can be calculated using the website carbonfootprint.com.