Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Your Carbon Footprint

The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Your Carbon Footprint is written by Nancy S. Grant and was published in 2008. It contains information on what makes up your personal carbon footprint and how this can be reduced.

This book starts off with a simple contents section and there is a more detailed index should you be looking for something more specific. The publication provides a pretty good introduction to what a carbon footprint is and then goes on within subsequent chapters to look in more detail at the different aspects of our lives which make up our carbon footprint. Areas such as insulation, heating and appliances are covered, as are school and work, transport and recycling.

The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Your Carbon Footprint does contain some useful information which makes the reader realise the impact that our everyday lives can have on the planet, and there are handy tips, such as how to be an eco friendly driver, which could be helpful. As a UK reader, however, there are many aspects of the book which relate more specifically to an American market. Whilst the basics of reducing a carbon footprint remain the same, the examples and suggestions are not always completely relevant to the UK consumer.

Perhaps because this is a small ‘pocket guide’, I felt there were also a few areas which were only touched upon but which perhaps deserved more attention. Within the transport section, for example, there was very little mention of the suggestion of walking and cycling more, and only solar thermal energy is briefly mentioned as a renewable energy option for the home.

The book ends with ‘A Brief Afterword’ which contains good advice on taking small energy saving steps. A useful glossary completes the book.

Overall, I would suggest that this book is useful in terms of understanding what is meant by a carbon footprint and the areas of our lives which feed into this, but, from a UK perspective, the American focus isn’t ideal and there are areas which could do with greater levels of information.

The book’s RRP is a relatively modest £5.99. Whether the book is printed on recycled paper is not mentioned.