Take the Pledge! It is time to slim down -Lose 5,000 lbs. of your household's CO2 emissions in just one year and 25% of your carbon "fat" over the next five years! (Here is a list of pledging households)

It's easier than you think to adopt practices that reduce CO2 emissions and help the planet, while saving you money at the same time! Let us show you how!

Sign your family up to join the Lexington Million Pound Diet Challenge: If just 200 households lose 5000 pounds this year (and it really is easy) Lexington will send one million fewer pounds of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere!

Scientists agree there is little time left to take steps to avoid the most drastic effects of climate change. We can't leave this for someone else to do - each of us needs to act.

Here's how the Diet works:

Step One:

Begin with the Low Carbon Diet Workbook, a fun, easy-to-use guide that shows you, step by step, how to start reducing your energy consumption by making simple changes to your everyday life. You can get the LCD workbook locally at a discount at Sundial Bookstore in Lexington.

Step Two:

Use our website to:

1. Use our carbon calculator to establish your current energy usage, so you can measure your progress.

2. Download our Five Year Carbon Reduction Planner (to be available soon) - a user-friendly, interactive worksheet that will enable you to plan ahead and budget for up to five years of additional carbon dieting actions that you can take to enable your household to continue losing carbon pounds to reach our long term goal of 25% reduction in five years.

3. Make your pledge to lose carbon weight. Fill out our pledge form, so we can keep track of the collective pounds Lexingtonians are losing. Be a part of the Lexington Diet Challenge to Lose One Million Pounds of the town's CO2 emissions in the next year. If just 200 families pledge to reduce at least 5,000 pounds of CO2 in a year, Lexington can lose one million pounds! (Even if you don't quite meet your diet's goal, please pledge on line - we'd like to keep track of the numbers of households watching their carbon emissions calories!)

How to get started:

Attend one of GWACS's Low Carbon Diet introductory workshops on Monday February 11, Thursday March 13, or Wednesday April 16 from 7-9 pm in the Cary Library Learning Center, downstairs.

Join a Carbon Diet Support Group through local houses of worship or other groups.

Start your own Carbon Diet Support Group. Contact GWAC for guidance and support. Ask us to present an introduction on the Lexington Low Carbon Diet to your group.

Do it yourself using the Low Carbon Diet Workbook, GWAC's Five Year Planner, and other resources on our website. (Instructions for using our 5 year planner can be found here.)

Download our materials with facts and figures to learn what actions you can take to lose CO₂ pounds. Then use our tools to calculate your carbon savings and cost effectiveness.

If you have questions or comments, email us at info@LexGWAC.org. Let us know what you have been doing to reduce carbon emissions and share your experiences with us.