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20 Around 20pc of the heat in the average home is lost through ventilation and draughts, so make sure your windows and doors are well covered and gap free for a cosier Christmas. Close your curtains at dusk, invest in draught excluders for windows and letterboxes, and consider loft insulation, double glazing, or cavity wall insulation if you don't already have it.
21 Glass makes up around 21pc of all the city's recycling. Remember to only put glass in the right bin or box for recycling. You can recycle glass bottles and jars of any colour through your household collection, communal facility or on street recycling bank.
22 Twenty two per cent of CO2 emissions from homes are from hot water usage. Make sure the thermostat on your boiler isn't set
any higher than 60C if you have one, or fit your hot water cylinder with an insulating jacket to make sure your heating system is
working efficiently.
23 The average household spends around £23 per week on fuel and power, which works out as £1,200 per year. For more tips on how you can lower your bills and save energy call the Energy Saving Trust on 0800 152 012 or visit www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
24 Every watt of energy used by appliances left on standby for 24 hours costs about £1 per year. Make sure appliances are switched totally off, rather than left on standby.
25 Every day in the UK, enough apples, potatoes and oranges are thrown away to fill 25 double decker buses. Check out the Love Food Hate Waste website for hints and tips to waste less this festive season.
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As Christmas fast approaches, KATE SCOTTER (the girl I know) teamed up with Norwich City Council to find out how you can be environmentally friendly over the festive season.
Christmas is the time of year when households create a lot of waste but much of the rubbish could easily be recycled.
And with all eyes on the impact of global warming with the Copenhagen summit being held over the next fortnight, now could be an opportune time to kick-start green living.
World leaders are currently meeting in the Danish capital to discuss the best ways to tackle climate.
And our 25-point guide gives some top tips on how everyone could save energy and waste in their own homes, especially at Christmas, a time when more people are in the house, the temperature outside is low, more food and drink is consumed and when more rubbish is created.
So when unwrapping presents on Christmas Day, give a little bit of thought about how best to dispose of the wrapping paper, gift card and box and when you've eaten too many sprouts or turkey, be creative and think about how could reuse your leftovers.
1 More than one billion Christmas cards will be thrown away in the New Year - support the Woodland Trust appeal which collects old cards from high street stores in January, supporting the planting of new trees.
2 The average household could save around £200 a year by taking energy efficiency measures. This is also equivalent to an eco-saving of around two tonnes of CO2.
3 For every three bags of food shopping bought, one is thrown away. The amount of food waste gets worse over the festive season. For hints and tips to save money and reduce food waste, go to www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/norfolk
4 You could be paying as much £400 on your annual road tax if you have car with high emissions. For the most eco-friendly cars, road tax is free.
5 Every day in the UK, five million whole potatoes are thrown away. Make sure you only buy what you need this Christmas.
6 Recycling just one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for six hours.
7 With lots of extra people popping round for a cuppa over the festive season take extra care to only boil the amount of water you need. If everyone did this every time they used the kettle, enough electricity could be saved in a year to run the UK's street lighting for nearly seven months.
8 In 2008/09, the city reduced the amount of waste produced per person by more than eight per cent. This puts Norwich in the top 10 council areas across the whole country for lowering this figure.
9 It is not just what goes in your recycling bin that gets recycled, almost nine per cent of the city's recycling last year was made up of street sweepings cleared by Norwich City Council and sent to be recycled or used in landscaping.
10 Use energy saving light bulbs - they last up to 10 times longer than ordinary bulbs and using one can save around £40 over the lifetime of the bulb.
11 When you've finished in the kitchen, watching a family DVD or playing on your games console, remember to turn appliances and equipment off rather than leaving them on standby, and you'll save about £11 a year.
12 If your hot water tank has an old, thin insulation jacket, fit a BS Kitemarked insulating jacket, 75mm or three inches thick. It can save around £35 a year and costs around £12 to buy.
13 Around 13 million UK homes could benefit from topping up their loft insulation. If everyone in the UK installed loft insulation (up to 270mm thickness), the financial saving would pay the gas bills of around 770,000 families for a year.
14 If all the aluminium drinks cans sold in the UK were recycled, there would be 14 million fewer full wheelie bins to empty each year. You can recycle steel and aluminium tins and cans from home or in the on street recycling banks around the city.
15 The older your boiler is, the more inefficient it is likely to be. If it is 15 years or older, you should think about changing it. Replacing an old boiler could save you over a fifth on your fuel bills and up to 32pc if you opt for a condensing boiler.
16 Sixteen per cent of last year's recycling in the city came from garden waste collected through the city council's brown bin scheme. This equates to 2,500 tonnes diverted from landfill. To find out more about the scheme call the council on 0344 980 3333 or visit www.norwich.gov.uk
17 Make sure you have, and know how to use, a programmer and thermostat on your heating system and you could lower your heating costs by 17pc.
18 Set your room thermostat between 18C and 21C for the most energy efficient results.
19 Norfolk County Council provides 19 recycling centres across the county that collect a range of items for recycling from unwanted electrical items to batteries. Check with the county council to see what you can take to your nearest site
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