Ecorazzi

The UK Sunday Times has gone around thermal imaging some homes of green celebrities in the UK and the findings are probably not that surprising. The residences of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, Sir David Attenborough, John Sauven, director of Greenpeace, and others were found to have heat loss either worse or no better than that found in the average family home. From the article,

“Attenborough, the veteran naturalist and broadcaster, has lived in the same Georgian villa in Richmond, southwest London, for 40 years. Despite the installation of new boilers and insulation of the roof, the windows remain single-glazed because the property is in a conservation area. As a result, it loses 1,107kWh of energy a year. ‘I’m talking to people about solar panels,’ Attenborough said. ‘The property is 200 years old so we are limited [in what we can do].’”

Obviously, there are some factors here preventing some of these famous folk from completely weather-proofing their homes. As we’ve said before, anytime a person in the spotlight encourages others to go green, they better be damn sure they’re doing everything in their own lives to back those statements up. People love to be lead by action and less by talk. But articles like these seem to only further encourage anti-green sentiment — as if the actions of a few negate the great impact so many could have when it comes to home energy.

But back to the audit — at least some people are walking the walk. According to the article, Hilary Benn, the environment minister, Ed Miliband, the climate change minister, and David Cameron, the Tory leader, had the most energy efficient of the 10 properties. I wonder how Tony Blair’s “green flat” would fare in comparison?

Read the rest of the article here.