Make An Effort To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint This Year
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As the rise of Climate Change is starting to become more and more of a globally covered issue, it can be easy to feel useless in making any real change. Especially when a few superpower continents refuse to acknowledge the impact they may be having on the melting ice caps, and breaking down of the Ozone Layer. It is easy to ask yourself what difference is one little person in this huge world going to make? The obvious answer is not very much. However, these positive changes can set an example to other people in your life, who set a positive example to the people in their own lives and so on. Before you know it, you have created a catalyst of carbon footprint reductions that has really taken off. Becoming conscious of the effect you are having on the environment around you rarely has any negatives connected to it - only positives. Read on to find out how you can help to reduce your carbon footprint and lead an environmentally healthier lifestyle.
Reduce Your Home Energy Waste
Participating in Earth Hour, using energy efficient appliances, and looking at the environmental cost of solar panels in comparison to the use of gas and electric can all contribute to the reduction of your carbon footprint. Creating simple reminders around your house to ensure you are not leaving electric devices on charge too long, and turning the tap off when you brush your teeth, are all positive steps in the right direction for our planet. You’ll be surprised how much you can make a difference both to the environment and your monthly bills by being conscious of the energy wastage levels in your home. Choosing to walk rather than use your car will not only save you petrol money but also reduce the number of carbon emissions you are personally pumping into the atmosphere. These aren’t monumental changes, and will not make any big difference to your daily routine, but they will have a big impact on the changes being made to the environment around you. Encouraging everyone in your household/neighbourhood to make these changes will have a bigger, more positive effect then you may have first imagined.
Reduce Your Waste
Do you find yourself constantly reaching for the plastic bottles of water on your local store’s shelves? When you put your recycling out it is plagued with plastic bottles and unneeded packaging from online orders? Do you always forget a bag for life and continuously buy plastic bags only to throw them in the garbage after unpacking your weekly shop? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you could start your reduction with your waste levels. Plastic is a global problem, as it is filling our oceans to the brim, to the point that the fish we eat are riddled with plastic debris due to their consumption. Simply by using a refillable, sustainable water bottle, you will reduce the harm you are personally having on the environment around you. Looking for petitions to sign that ask companies to reduce their waste, or seeking companies out that make a conscious effort to reduce waste levels, are also great ways of reducing your personal footprint. Keep your bags for life in your handbag also - that way you will rarely be without one.
Re-evaluate Your Diet Habits
Veganism has really taken off on social media recently, and not just for the obvious reason of love and respect for animals. The journey from animal to meat on your plate is actually riddled with harmful carbon emissions. Not just the transportation from factory farm to store to your home, but the process of slaughtering the animal and making that animal into the meat we see readily available in our stores - meatballs, mince, burgers, chicken wings, chicken nuggets etc. The factories in which these processes take place are continuously pumping CO2 into the atmosphere. A vegetarian diet actually produces half the carbon footprint than a meat lovers does, and a vegan diet even less, due to the dairy factories also contributing to the overall carbon footprint. Just by making a simple change and lowering the amount of meat you include in your diet - even if you are not up to committing to a fully vegetarian or vegan diet - can help to significantly reduce your carbon footprint, and potentially help you to lead a healthier lifestyle. Win-Win.
Hopefully, this has given you some food for thought on how you can reduce your carbon footprint, and outlined some simple changes that you can start making today. There is only one planet Earth, and it is essential to sustain it for our children and grandchildren’s futures. Taking responsibility for your own carbon emissions is the first important step of many to work towards a brighter future.
