Despite recycling, Green Deals and some of the leaps and bounds made in recent years in styles of poncho, some homeowners are still lacking a little in their green, earth-loving credentials: and it means they might well turn to tradepersons and contractors when it comes to advice over how to provide energy efficiency around the home.

And as vice president of flooring provider Mohawk Howard Lindsay can attest, it's not just draft excluders and compost heaps that can boost the green credentials of a home: getting the right suppliers for basics such as flooring can drive down the CO2 cost of building and maintaining a home.

"Such is the widespread coverage of our impact on the environment, we are constantly presented with ways of reducing our carbon footprint," says the expert. "Using the car less, energy efficient lightbulbs and making sure our homes are properly insulated are just three - but we can also take other, less obvious steps to make our planet a better place to be."

And it means researching the manufacturing practices that go into making a product are as important as the impact the product itself has on your home.

"Take your floor, for example," says Howard, taking your floor. You won't get that back. "The lengths manufacturers are taking to reduce their own carbon footprint is commendable and now you just need to pop into your local retailer to see that you can now get your hands on a range of green-centric floors."

And contractors and tradespeople are perfectly poised to offer that kind of information. Interacting with suppliers every day, they'll know the sourcing of flooring, carpeting and lighting better than anyone, and can pass such information on to homeowners.

That goes for lighting, too. As a recent Puragen study found, reducing carbon emissions is increasingly important for homeowners, both at the point of supply and when their renovated home is up and running. LED lighting can play a major part in that: running on significantly less energy and with a longer lifespan for traditional bulbs, the relative investment of switching is a change that pays for itself within five years.