21st Century Thame had a good activity on how to help lower their carbon footprint and it was run at the Scouts hut in Thame with two groups of Scouts. The session was run by a member of 21st Century Thame, and the evening was planned with a few worksheets and fun games for the boys and girls to enjoy while thinking about their carbon footprint.
The start of the session, a game was organised: higher or lower and they had to guess which appliance would create more carbon than the other appliance, those that were incorrect had to stand aside. The aim was for the group to understand everyday appliances we use at home, which one creates the most carbon. Here is a list of home appliances that we used.
| Product Household items | Carbon emitted per year CO2 | Carbon emitted per day |
| TV | 203,000g | 556 (203,000 divide by 365) |
| Toaster | 18,000g | |
| Kettle | 73,000g | |
| Washing machine | 100,000g | |
| Electric Oven Gas | 91000g 71000g | |
| Hob | 71000g | |
| Radiator | 2745000g |
Amount of Carbon a Product/Material or Activity Emits.
| Lights on per room | 12,000g | |
| Dishwasher | 51000g | |
| Computer | 340,000g | |
| Fridge/Freezer | 116000g | |
| Phone | 63000g | |
| Iron | 1.77 |
| Product Materials | Carbon emitted per material | Raft Material used |
| Cork | -278g (per cork) | |
| Tin Can | 1130g | |
| Milk bottle tops | 1.47 (per gram of plastic) | |
| Milk glass bottles | 0.55g (per gram of glass) 200g total | |
| Plastic | 1.47 (per gram of plastic) | |
| Wood | 50% of weight | |
| Tea bags | 200g |
Those that were out, could work out how much carbon was used in a day.
A show and tell was then explained using a range of materials. A huge donation of milk bottle tops and corks was given to 21st Century Thame, so we analysed these materials, plus wood and tin. The idea was to understand how some materials are made but also to understand that some materials need to be made through a production process, and this will create CO2.
The Scouts then completed a worksheet: working out their average carbon footprint. Scoring marks for how they travel to school, how many holidays they take by plane, how much meat they eat per week, etc and tallied up the total. The scouts were then told to arrange themselves in a line with the the highest footprint one end and the lower footprint the other. Some Scouts were then asked to talk about their carbon score and their three aims on how they could lower it or offset it.
The end of the session was pact full of games for the Scouts to enjoy, including bowling with cork bottle tops and scoring points by throwing corks into half cut plastic milk bottles!
21st Century Thame would like to thank Lucy Electric for, once again, sponsoring a new project concept to allow us to help another local wildlife species.
2025 21st Century Thame Sponsors
