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Let's get power smart

Our population is increasing and each one of us is using more electricity all the time.

That's having a growing impact on our environment because almost all the electricity generated in NSW comes from coal-fired power stations. Burning coal to generate electricity causes a lot of carbon pollution (or greenhouse gases) to be released into the atmosphere.

In fact, electricity use accounts for more than a third of the carbon pollution in NSW.

Office of Environment and Heritage is supporting the community (households, businesses, public facilities and government agencies) to reduce our power use by being more energy efficient. This means we are all working together to lower the state's carbon pollution.

Reducing electricity use doesn't mean less comfort, it's just using power more wisely – like we've become more aware about the importance of conserving water. Of course being power-smart also means lower electricity bills, so saving power is a win-win situation for everyone.

The Save Power campaign is a NSW Government initiative set up in response to the community's request for more information about how using electricity impacts our environment and what can be done to save power and lower power bills.

The Save Power campaign is designed to show households, business and public facilities simple actions that can be taken to reduce carbon pollution and save money on power bills.

It also provides information for all sectors of the community about the many energy efficient programs the NSW Government is providing.

Have a look around the Save Power website for more information about how you can save power and make a Power Pledge to lower the number of black balloons you produce.

Save Power black balloon

A black balloon is a great way to show the impact our power use has on the environment. The Victorian Government was the first to use the black balloon concept and many states are adopting the idea because it helps us to visualise something we can't see - carbon pollution.

Imagine one black balloon contains 50g of carbon pollution. The average NSW home produces 160,000 black balloons of carbon pollution a year - that's easier to visualise than eight tonnes of carbon pollution! Multiply that by 2.7 million homes in our state and that's an enormous number of black balloons being released into the atmosphere each year.

If we see how many black balloons our electricity use produces, and how many balloons can be saved by easy changes, it's more motivating for us to make those changes happen and lower the number of black balloons we are producing.

The Save Power campaign and website provides tips and tools to help you measure how many black balloons your home and workplace produces and shows you how to start making changes that will have an impact straight away - both on our environment and your power bills.

Save Power black balloon

The campaign also provides information for all sectors of the community about the many energy efficient programs the NSW Government is providing.

Have a look around the site for more information about how you can save power and make a Power Pledge to lower the number of black balloons you produce.

Let's get power smart

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Switch on to Save Power

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