Britain's Queen Elizabeth is trying to trim her carbon footprint. With the fight against global warming currently high on the political agenda in Britain, the monarch is reviewing royal households to see how they can save more energy.
"For the first time we are doing an overall audit to take stock. We don't have a tally of our carbon footprint. That's what we are trying to assess - how to reduce our carbon emissions," a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
"This is to pull everything together to see what is working and what is not. It will cover everything from changing light bulbs to looking at travel," the spokeswoman added.
But she stressed the Queen, who is known to wander the royal corridors switching off unnecessary lights, was not just following in the carbon footsteps of her son Prince Charles, a fervent environmental campaigner. "The management of energy has been an integral part of royal households for many years and we are now taking a look at where we are at," the spokeswoman said.
Boreholes are going to be used this year to cool the royal wine cellars in Buckingham Palace. Plans are being developed for a turbine in the River Thames to generate electricity for Windsor Castle. Two royal Bentley and two Rolls-Royce limousines have been converted to be more fuel efficient.