Five easy ways to reduce your carbon footprint
By Unsplash
By Joanne Malakassiotis
We’ve been hearing a lot lately about global warming and reducing our carbon footprint to help the environment, to better our lives as well as those of future generations. Fundamental societal change is necessary.
If someone were to ask you what measures you take to reduce your carbon footprint, what would the top five be on your list?
Here at Sustainable, we strive to reduce the carbon footprint of our buildings, the environment, and the construction industry. However, there are many simple things you can do in your day-to-day life as well.
Here is a list of 5 easy ways you can help reduce your carbon footprint.
1. Transportation is a big carbon emitting culprit and quite possibly an easy one to tackle, if you live in a major city. Living in Toronto, we have access to public transit, like buses, electric street cars, and subways. But that is not all, weather permitting we can ride our bicycles, use a bicycle share program or walk. If driving is a must, consider getting an electric vehicle or if an electric car isn’t in the budget, try a car sharing program. The possibilities for alternative methods of travel are endless.
2. Shopping or rather, thinking before we shop, can hugely impact our carbon footprint. Avoid buying new products, and opt for second hand or pre-loved. Heavily resourced products, or heavily packaged products are also detrimental to the environment, creating waste in landfills, using resources, and emitting carbon into the atmosphere. Some items that take a toll on the environment include the manufacturing of plastics, like toys and household items, as well as the clothing industry. Lucky for us, there are many shops in our city that sell second-hand clothes, toys and housewares. There are also websites like Kijiji and Craigslist as well as Facebook swap groups where second-hand items are sold at a fraction of the cost.
3. Energy loss in our homes is a big one. Reducing energy consumption in our homes by changing the way we heat and cool it, will pay itself back in dividends. Homes can lose a lot of energy in the winter months, through windows and doors as well as through your roof. There are many ways on the market that can help diminish heat loss in our homes. Like installing triple-paned windows and sealing all holes and cracks that let heat escape. One way to check if your home is losing heat is to schedule a home energy audit. The team will use specialized equipment (i.e. blower door) to determine energy loss and where exactly your home is losing heat. Here at Sustainable we offer energy testing services and can come to your home with the right equipment to conduct tests as well as offer solutions.
With the right design elements, you can start saving dollars by going through retrofits
4. Air Travel with a purpose. Air travel is a huge contributor to carbon emissions. We know there are many options out there for reducing our daily carbon emissions when it comes to daily commuting, but there are not many green alternatives to air travel. Many well-intentioned travellers consider offsetting their trips by purchasing offsets via carbon offsetting programs (https://offset.climateneutralnow.org/aboutoffsetting).
How do you do this? First you calculate your flight footprint (https://offset.climateneutralnow.org/footprintcalc). The calculator will tell you how much carbon dioxide your flight has emitted, and will convert it into dollars and suggest a suitable cause to support. Companies such as Intrepid Travel (https://www.intrepidtravel.com/ca ) will do the offsetting for you; 100% of your donation goes to the cause of your choice. There are many carbon offsetting companies out there that will do the work for you, thereby making it easy. And then there are some companies that sound good on paper but will take your money and do very little to offset your carbon footprint, so do your research and choose wisely.
5. Make smart food choices. Pay attention to the kind of food you buy and the packaging that it arrives in. Take note of the food’s country of origin or country of manufacturing. Is it local or was it flown in from Florida? Was it transported on a big rig truck from California? Is your store-bought soup packaged in a glass jar or in a plastic non-recyclable pouch? These are just a few things we need to consider when we make our weekly or bi-weekly supermarket trip. Certain foods like red meat have a large carbon footprint. Can you reduce your meat consumption by 25% or 30% and feel good that you are doing something positive? Unless you really want to, there is no need to go 100% vegan in order to make a significant change. Informed and conscious decisions will point you in the sustainable direction.
By Ecosia
The possibilities to offset your carbon footprint are endless. Some ways can be easily implemented just from sitting on your couch. Ecosia (https://www.ecosia.org), for example is a carbon neutral search engine. Here is how it works: While you use the search engine, certain searches will generate revenue. Ecosia will then donate 80% of their ad revenue from that search to partner organizations that plant trees in threatened environments around the world. How do you know your money will go towards the greater good of carbon neutral practices? Just like Sustainable, Ecosia is B Corporation certified, which means they meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance. That’s a good thing.
By adopting new habits, we as consumers, wield collective power in redirecting how we spend our money. As carbon savvy individuals our habits of spending wisely, can – AND WILL reduce our carbon footprint each day.
