A really interesting article appeared in the press this week headlining that peoples’ concern for the environment is at an all time twenty year low. The GlobeScan Radar survey highlighted that issues such as CO2 emissions, water shortages and water pollution are not really considered to be “very serious” issues.

However, the report did point out that water pollution is seen as the most serious of environmental problems, fortunately not such a big issue for us here in the UK. Water is a precious resource which needs to be managed and we enjoy the best water in the world.

Indeed an article on the BBC news website highlighted that “The recession and high fuel prices are demonstrably changing behaviour more than concerns about the environment”. 2/3/13.

Evidence suggests that the decline in concerns for climate change, which first started in developed countries, has now spread more globally to include developing countries such as Brazil and China. Arguably, this decline in concern for climate change comes amid a backlash to costly green energy investment in an age of such severe austerity across the world.

Question is, what can we, as consumers, do to protect our natural resources and help keep our energy costs down?

We need to think more about what we as consumers can do to help keep our energy bills down especially as the energy suppliers continue to increase their prices. British Gas recently announced a 11% rise in their profits. We also can’t forget about protecting our natural resources.

*Opinions expressed in this blog are not those of the organisations taking part in this project and only meant to stimulate ideas.

Have you ever wondered how much water we actually use on a day to day basis? How much water each one of us uses?

We are not talking about just the amount of water we put in our kettle to make a cup of tea, but the water we use to shower and bath with, wash our clothes, our cars and how many times we flush the toilet, the list goes on.

According to Waterwise, we use on average 150 litres of water a day. This is a figure that has grown by 1% every year since 1930. www.waterwise.org.uk

Water is a precious resource which needs to be managed and looked after.

You might wonder if Scotland has a water problem, as we do enjoy lots of water. The challenge for us is that whilst it rains a great deal in Scotland, it doesn’t always rain in the right place i.e. in our lochs and reservoirs. It needs to be captured, transported, cleaned and looked after before it comes out of our taps and cleans our clothes.

Another key issue is the link between water and our energy use.

According to Waterwise, up to 25% of our household energy bill comes from heating water.

For more energy information try also www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/scotland.