KEY POINTS:
Bored with book clubs? Tired of wine-tasting evenings? The new vogue is chatting carbon emissions.
And this latest club craze is about to hit our shores.
CRAGs (carbon reduction action groups) have taken off in Britain and Aucklander Conor Roberts is hoping to help get some groups up and running in New Zealand.
The aim is to get members to reduce their carbon emissions. But members beware - there are penalties for those who exceed their carbon limit.
"What we are trying to do is get real people involved in helping stop the climate crisis," said 27-year-old Mr Roberts.
The idea is for the group to meet, set a carbon emission target, then try to reduce it.
"Each person measures how much greenhouse gas they emit into the atmosphere a month. Then everybody comes together and talks about their lifestyle and their carbon emission figure."
The group then sets a carbon emission target for the year, or time period agreed upon, for each individual or the group as a whole.
"The groups are quite fluid. The main point is to give people a way of understanding how their lifestyle is impacting on the world around them."
But, if at the end of the 12 months, a member has exceeded their target, they are penalised.
"If you go over your allowance, you have to pay the agreed amount your CRAG has set," Mr Roberts said.
"That money then goes into projects the group has agreed upon to reduce carbon in the atmosphere. Or the person who has been bad pays for improvements to their home to reduce the amount of carbon."
Mr Roberts said CRAGs could be made up of people from rugby clubs, schools or local communities.
"We are trying to establish CRAGs in local communities or regions and the hope is they will spread as a result. The key is that we won't find more sustainable ways of living until normal people change their everyday routines."
Go to nzcarbon reduction.googlepages.com/ or email Mr Roberts at nzcarbonreduction@ gmail.com.
