10 Easy Daily Life Changes You Can Make to Lower Your Carbon Footprint
Climate change is one of the most serious concerns we face as a species. It is terrifying and has various unknown and difficult-to-grasp variables about future outcomes. Climate anxiety is also rising and becoming a significant mental health issue. Regardless, our carbon footprint continues to grow daily due to increasing carbon dioxide emissions, leading to disastrous planetary consequences.
While scientists cannot anticipate what will happen as carbon levels in the atmosphere keep rising, it is reasonable to believe that the sooner we start thinking about our carbon footprint, the simpler it will be to make effective changes.
Dealing with this problem can be challenging, and difficult to know where to start. However, do you know that you can make a significant difference through your daily-life activities? You can make many small steps and efforts daily for a collective impact. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and combating climate change are possible by lowering your carbon footprint. You’ll help the environment, eat better, promote health, and spend less on energy. Here are some of the easy initiatives you can implement.
What Is a Carbon Footprint?
A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) generated by manufacturing, using, and discarding a product or service. The gases include carbon dioxide, the most prevalent gas released by humans, and other gases like methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases. All these trap heat in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.
Almost all of an individual’s carbon footprint comes from transportation, housing, and food, but you can help the environment and reduce your carbon footprint in several ways. Below are ten simple ways to reduce your carbon footprint.
Easy-to-implement Steps
- Avoid Single-Use Plastic
Every ton of plastic produced results in five tons of carbon dioxide discharged into the atmosphere. Each year, manufacturers process 300 million tons of plastic worldwide. Without action, plastic emissions will take 17% of the global carbon allowance by 2050!
Therefore, it’s no longer enough to recycle tin cans and reuse jam jars to protect the environment. We must all begin living plastic-free or embracing a zero-waste culture to influence environmental change and lessen one’s carbon footprint.
- Limit Your Driving
The biggest producer of greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 was transportation-related carbon dioxide emissions. This industry’s emissions surpassed those from electricity production. Why? More renewable energy sources, such as natural gas, are replacing coal in producing electricity.
Based on a 2017 study by scientists at Lund University and the University of British Columbia, giving up your automobile for a year might help you save roughly 2.6 tons of carbon dioxide or nearly as much as a roundtrip journey over the Atlantic. But how can you get your car off the road? Consider using a bus, rail, or—even better—a bicycle when going to work or your college lectures.
But if you must drive:
- Maintain Your Vehicle Properly
According to statistics, your vehicle emits around 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. The great news is that you can reduce this amount by driving carefully and performing routine maintenance. Generally, everything that increases fuel efficiency leads to a rise in CO2 emissions. When driving, you may lessen your environmental effect through the following:
- Avoid speeding, braking abruptly, or driving recklessly.
- Maintain proper tire pressure
- Regularly change your filters
- Have your sensors serviced
These may seem easy-to-ignore routine activities, but by doing them, you could increase your gas mileage and lower your emissions significantly.
You can also go the extra mile and consider switching to a greener vehicle. For instance, hybrid and electric cars are known to generate lower emissions.
- Yes, Altering Your Diet Also Helps
Livestock and its byproducts emit at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, accounting for 51% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers expect meat’s carbon footprint and emissions to grow by 80% by 2050 unless we widely implement more sustainable agricultural techniques.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. With an ever-expanding number of fantastic vegan and veggie alternatives in our supermarkets and restaurants, the choice to minimize your meat and dairy intake is becoming easier. A vegan may save 1,100 gallons of water, 20 kilograms of grain, 30 square feet of forestland, 9 kilograms of carbon dioxide, and one animal’s life in a single day.
Pescatarian and flexitarian diets, choosing white over red meat, shopping locally and seasonally, and reducing food waste can all drastically reduce your footprint.
- Invest In Carbon Credits
It isn’t easy to reduce 100% of our emissions in the modern world. For the emissions we can’t use, consider offsetting them with Carbon Credits.
Carbon credits investments are a market-based method of offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. Participants can either get an initial allocation of carbon credits for free or participate in an auction to purchase them. Businesses that cut their emissions, later on, can sell their extra carbon credits to other parties whose emissions have grown, commoditizing carbon and establishing a market.
- Avoid Fast Fashion
Inexpensive, trendy goods that quickly fall out of style end up in landfills when discarded, where they disintegrate and release methane. Currently, the average American throws away 80 pounds of clothes annually, with 85% of that ending up in landfills.
Most fast fashion comes from China and Bangladesh producers; therefore, it must be shipped to the United States using fossil fuels. Instead, invest in high-quality, durable apparel. Think about shopping at consignment stores for recycled or antique clothing. You’ll still get fashionable outfits to help you stay trendy.
- If You Can, Avoid Flying
Because aviation fuel is petroleum-based, it is particularly harmful to the environment. It is best to refrain from flying entirely until a less harmful aviation fuel replacement is adopted.
- Create an Energy-efficient Home
Another strategy to reduce your carbon footprint and save money is improving your home’s energy efficiency. When making house improvements, choose energy-efficient alternatives. It might be anything from insulating your home with sustainable materials to renovating your roof and windows.
Besides environmental benefits of an energy-efficient building, you’ll increase your home’s value, cut costs, and get better price homeowner’s insurance.
- Plant Trees
Do you have a yard? Consider planting trees on your land. They’ll offer natural cooling in the summer and a wind barrier in the winter, lowering your heating and cooling bills and decreasing your carbon footprint as you use less energy. Furthermore, trees help in carbon management by absorbing carbon dioxide from the environment and releasing oxygen, resulting in cleaner air, improved health, and a better climate.
- Avoid Wastage
How often have you ordered more food than you need or unnecessarily used water? These inadvertent habits contribute to natural resource exhaustion and more energy use. Consider taking short showers, unplugging your phone once fully charged, and turning off lights when you leave a room. Also, clear your cloud storage frequently, and avoid storing unnecessary data to reduce your digital footprint, which already contributed 3.3% of GHG emissions in 2017.
Takeaway
Want to Make a Difference Today? Start implementing the tactics we’ve highlighted to offset your carbon footprint. By observing mindfulness in your daily life in addition to investing in high-quality Carbon Credits and Carbon Capture projects, you’ll contribute to a greener world.
