Reducing your carbon footprint is more than just a trend, it's a necessity. It's about making conscious choices that contribute to a sustainable future. Let's delve into practical steps to lessen our environmental impact and foster a healthier planet.
Carbon footprint
A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions that come from the production, use, and end-of-life of a product or service
- Usually, the bulk of an individual’s carbon footprint will come from transportation, housing, and food
- Calculate your carbon footprint by calculating the following:
- Approximately how many miles you travel by car, bus, train, etc.
- The energy usage in your home
- How much you spend shopping
- Your diet
Heat, Lights and Appliances
25% of energy is used to heat spaces, 13% to heat water, 11% to cool spaces, and the remainder is spent on appliances
- Even small changes can make a big difference
- Turn down the heat, turn down the water heater, turn off lights and appliances when not using them, and turn off appliances at the power outlet
- Stream movies through your smart TV, not your game console
- Buy a laptop, not a desktop computer
- Replace old fridges
- Choose renewables
- Recycle paper
- Donate old electronics
- Contact your local car dealer or municipality to recycle car batteries
- Do not put non-recyclables in the recycling bin
How to Dress Sustainably
20 items of clothing are manufactured per person, per year.
- Fast fashion: clothes that are produced quickly, cheaply, and unsustainably.
- Look for a fairtrade or similar logo, shop vintage, donate old clothes or donate them.
How to Shop Sustainably
Take a reusable bag to the store
- Invest in quality products that last
- Buy carbon offsets
- Know your facts
- Find local climate action groups or meetups
- Speak to your local representative
- Vote on policies that protect the environment
A Year of Living Better
While food systems are complicated, research mostly agrees that cutting down on meat, and red meat in particular, is a better choice for the environment.
- According to a study published in 2017 in the journal Environmental Research Letters, red meat can have up to 100 times the environmental impact of plant based food.
- Eating a vegetarian or pescetarian diet is also likely to be better. These diets can also have health benefits.
On the Road, in the Sky
One of the most effective ways to begin thinking about how to reduce your carbon footprint is to reconsider how much, and how often, you travel.
- Going carless for a year could save about 2.6 tons of carbon dioxide, according to 2017 study from researchers at Lund University and the University of British Columbia.
Weighing Your Options
When it comes to food, most greenhouse gas emissions happen during production, rather than transportation: What you eat is more important than where it comes from.
- Eating only locally grown food for one year would save the greenhouse gas equivalent of driving 1,000 miles, but eating just one vegetarian meal a week for a year saves 160 miles.
Make Your Home Energy Efficient
Small changes to the insulation and design of your home – from do-it-yourself hacks to building changes – can help you reduce your carbon footprint at home.
- Before starting, you can also do an energy audit, or have a professional come in to rate and score your home’s energy efficiency.
Buying a New Car?
When choosing between gasoline, hybrid and electric, there are a number of factors to take into account:
- Think about where you will be charging up
- How efficient hybrids and EVs are depending on state
- Weigh up both production and use emissions using this app
Fly Less
One fewer long round-trip flight could shrink your personal carbon footprint significantly.
- If you can’t avoid flying, one way to make up for the emissions caused is to offset them by donating money to sustainable projects such as supplying efficient stoves to rural homes or helping farmers in India sell crop waste as biomass.
