The Guardian is encouraging people to be more energy efficient with their new Tread Lightly community site http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/tr...

By encouraging people to make small lifestyle changes, they hope to show that individuals acting collectively can achieve impressive results. The changes proposed range from switching to energy efficient lightbulbs and turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby

Figures show that 8% of the total electricity used in our homes comes from appliances left on standby. According to the Energy Saving Trust (EST), This is the equivalent of around two power stations' worth of electricity each year, and adds up to £740m a year of wasted electricity,. Wasted energy from appliances left on standby is also responsible for 4m tonnes of excess carbon dioxide each year.

Although Tread LIightly sounds good in principal, the changes they currently propose are quite basic and I imagine have already been implemented by a large percentage of the population already.  Of course we should always continue to try to get the message over to the public at large, but it seems to me that campaigning to get governments and other public and private institutions to take action is the way forward.