4 ways to reduce your carbon footprint without leaving the sofa
Not to be rude, but anyone else out there feeling climate change fatigue? It seems like every day there’s a new thing we need to buy, service we need to subscribe to, or appliance we need to update in order to be more eco-friendly. And while we’re 100% down to adopt new habits and upgrade our homes in order to reduce our own carbon footprints, it’s overwhelming to know where to start, not to mention the only free time we have to do so is on the precious weekend. So, for all of you out there who are passionate about being green, but also love vegging out on the sofa all Sunday long, we found the antidote for you. Clever chatted with Max Moinian from @futureearth—the climate change–focused Instagram account she started with Steph Shepherd—about dead-easy things you can do with your feet up and laptop in hand to reduce your carbon footprint today. “We can’t buy our way out of the climate crisis,” explains Max. “But as consumers there is collective power in our individual pockets. So when you need to spend, spend smarter.” Here, Max’s four tips on how to do just that:
Purchase Renewable Energy
Apartment dwellers in dense urban areas may believe their personal carbon footprint is smaller than that of their suburban counterparts since their home takes up less square footage. But we’re not off the hook: Buildings account for about 66% of New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions, and half of New Yorkers’ energy use happens at home, mainly for lighting, heating, air-conditioning, and stove cooking. And while apartment dwellers in any city can’t exactly throw some solar panels up on their fire escapes to reduce their personal carbon emissions, they can switch their energy source to a company that generates its electricity mostly from renewable sources like wind and solar. For New Yorkers, that means Con Edison will buy as much electricity from renewable energy companies as we demand them to. Will the actual electricity generated from a remote wind farm make it all the way to your apartment? Probably not. But what you are doing is essentially demanding Con Ed (or whoever your provider is) to feed the grid with more clean energy, rather than fossil fuels like oil, coal, and natural gas. (Ew!) This is referred to as green power purchasing.
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