According to the latest
report from the World Meteorological Organization and the Copernicus Climate Change Service, 2023 has been the hottest year on record for the entire planet - and this raising trend is expected to continue.
All evidence points that the rapid warming of the planet is a direct consequence of human activity, and the only way to reverse this dangerous trend is to drastically reduce our emissions of hothouse gases, registered as our carbon footprint.
But, what is a ‘carbon footprint’?
In basic terms, carbon footprint refers to the energy required to create a good, or the energy to operate a product.
Every single human action and activity requires energy and releases CO2 into the atmosphere. This includes daily activities such as eating, taking a shower, commuting, working, studying, watching television - even sleeping!
For this reason, no one is 100% free of carbon emissions, but we can make conscious choices towards lowering our energy consumption and thus reduce the amount of CO2 that we generate.
You can calculate your personal carbon footprint here.
According to the Deep Decarbonization Pathways project, in order to hold the global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celcius, every person on the planet would have to stick to an annual average carbon footprint of 1.87 tons.
Currently, the average carbon footprint per capita in the United States is 18.3 tons per year.
While many other countries are smaller and have already established firm eco-conscious practices, this figure evidences our consumption rate in industrialized countries and raises the flag on the urgent need to improve on this matter.
If you are eco-conscious, you may have already taken measures towards lowering your carbon footprint by avoiding plastics, reducing your waste, recycling, turning off the lights you don’t use, reducing your water consumption, switching the car for a bike, etc. If you have done so - Congratulations!
However, the planet’s overpopulation and the alarming increase in global temperature means that we need to do even more to reduce the carbon emissions generated by our activities.
“Overconsumption and overpopulation
underlie every environmental problem
we face today” - Jacques Cousteau
Although it is true most of the hothouse gases come from the manufacturing industry (20%), the production of electricity and heating (27,6%), and farming (15%), let’s not forget that the global population is currently over 8 Billion people, each one permanently consuming and requiring natural resources to function on a daily basis.
Each one of us, through our habits and purchases, endorses these industries. Therefore, there’s a lot we can do to tip the balance in favor of the planet.
Here, we present you 10 easy out-of-the-box ideas to lower your carbon footprint.
Digitalization is a major consumer of energy
1.- Be aware of your digital footprint
Did you know you can save tons of CO2 by simply cutting down your streaming and web surfing?
Although digitalization has saved millions of trees in books and printed material, it still poses a heavy toll on energy consumption, and this rate increases every year as we become more dependent of our technological gadgets, and normalize cloud storing, streaming, and video conferences.
While is true that many data storage and web crawler companies have taken steps to become ‘greener’, these efforts still do not compensate for the huge carbon footprint they generate through our increased use.
Before you sit in front of the computer or phone, have a list of the tasks you want to accomplish (check and reply emails, research a specific topic, watch a particular video, etc.). Organizing your surfing will reduce your connection time, and in addition to helping reduce your carbon footprint, it will save your eyes from harmful blue light radiation, and your back.
Other steps to reduce your digital carbon footprint are: extend the life of your technical equipment, skip the cloud and rely on external drives to save large files, avoid heavy attachments on emails, and reduce your video streaming.
For more information about the cost of our digital footprint, and more ideas on how to reduce it, visit this page.
2.-Keep a garden
Keeping a garden is one of the best ways to contribute against climate change. Gardens, of course, increase the carbon capture from the environment, but they also help reducing the heat in cities, and replenish the soil, propitiating wildlife diversity and the propagation of the ever-important pollinators.
If, in addition, you water your garden with ‘gray’ water (for instance, water previously used in the shower), you’ll be reducing even further your carbon footprint.
If your area allows it, try creating a community garden. In addition to cultivating your own fruits and vegetables, you can also have a spot to compost the organic residues of the community and use it as fertilizer.
Community gardens are great places to strengthen community bonds and establish social connections, and they’re also fantastic for children to take their first steps in eco-consciousness and sustainability.
Gardening is a pleasant activity that helps us de-stress and tones our muscles through exercise. There’s really no downside to gardening!
There’s no downside to gardening!
3.-Avoid sugar and unethical produce
Popular crops such as sugar cane, cocoa, avocados, quinoa, cotton, and palms (used for palm oil), require extensive use of water, deplete the soil, and are major cause of deforestation in developing countries due to unethical and irregular farming procedures.
In addition, these crops require long-haul transportation in order to reach their markets, adding further cost to their hefty carbon footprint.
If you consume these products but are not sure of their provenance, simply don’t buy them. Prefer local and sustainable alternatives, hopefully fair trade. In the case of palm oil, avoid buying
products that contain it.
4.-Buy local - and not just produce
You probably buy at your local farmer’s market, but - where are your jeans from? Your shoes? Buying local should also extend to all the items in your everyday life.
Of course, not every item we need is produced locally; in such cases, try to extend the life of the imported items you buy so as to reduce their carbon footprint due to their use over time.
Favor locally-made products over those imported, even if they are cheaper. By endorsing your local companies you will be helping to boost the economy and productivity of your area, which in turn has positive implication for employment and quality of life.
It’s a win-win equation, even for the planet!
You bike to work? Good for you! But where do your clothes and shoes come from?
5.-Prefer buildings with history
The construction sector is among the most pollutant on the planet, releasing millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year.
On a global level, the industry has taken few steps towards more sustainable procedures and according to this
report by the United Nations, instead of improving, the gap between the climate performance of the sector and the 2050 decarbonization goal is widening.
While it’s impossible to stop the construction of new buildings, roads, and structures, we can make a better, more ethical use of the buildings already constructed. By refurbishing an already-existing building (as opposed to razing it to erect a new one), we are saving the planet millions of tons of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and saving natural resources.
If, in addition, we use alternative and eco-friendly materials, and design buildings to be more energy efficient and sustainable, we will be helping towards greener cities all around.
6.-Favor analog
We can’t deny that digital technologies are convenient, but as we saw before, their environmental cost is also a factor to consider. Thus, try to take breaks from the digital and prefer old fashioned analog products.
For instance, use paper books instead of eReaders, consult printed dictionaries and reference books, use paper maps and your own memory over GPS, favor pen and paper over taking notes on your phone, etc.
All of these actions will not only help reduce your carbon footprint but also activate your brain and actually make you smarter!
7.-Prefer natural fabrics and materials
Synthetic leather (used in shoes and accessories), acrylic wools, polyester, lycra, elastane, etc. are cheap fabrics of widespread use, but they contribute to spread microplastics into the environment.
Whenever possible, prefer natural fibres such as wool and linen. But unless their provenance is sustainable and ethical, stay away from cotton.
Although this fibre is a favorite for delicate skins and in the household, its production requires massive amounts of water, its cultivation is not always ethical, and it requires massive global transportation in its manufacturing and commercialization processes.
As for the items of synthetic clothing you already own, extend their lifespan as much as possible, trying to extend their washes, and avoiding using tumble dryers (which not only are one of the top energy consumers, but also break the fibre, releasing even more microplastics into the atmosphere).
The overproduction of clothes ends up in illegal dumpsters
8.-Avoid Fast Fashion
Two of the worst carbon emission offenders on the planet are the fast-fashion and ultra-fast-fashion industries.
The fashion industry alone contributes to 10% of the global CO2 emissions, but the exacerbated overconsumption of clothes means that every second of the day the equivalent of a garbage truck full of textiles is burned or added to a landfill (usually in underdeveloped countries), where they pose a serious hazard to both people and nature when the dyes and synthetic fabrics decompose and permeate the soil.
In addition, the fashion industry uses about 93 billion cubic meters of water every year ( around 4% of all global freshwater withdrawal), with textile dyeing as the second largest global water polluter.
All these without mentioning that the fast fashion and ultra-fast fashion industries base their operations on sweatshops, and their products require extensive global transportation throughout its processes.
An estimated 50 billion new garments were made in 2000, and within 20 years and this figure doubled to 100 billion. It is estimated that the average person today buys 60% more clothes than they did at the turn of the century, but keep them for half as long.
Don’t be a fashion victim! No one needs a new clothing item every week. Buy responsibly only what you need, and of a quality that may last for several seasons.
You can also support initiatives that recycle used fabrics for insulation or industrial threads.
Where does your bouquet come from?
9.- Prefer local flowers
Who doesn’t love to receive a flower bouquet? From Mother’s Day to Saint Valentine’s, flowers are one of the most popular presents to express love and appreciation.
But the international flower market is a
business that often includes unethical working conditions, and the use of dangerous pesticides banned in most developed countries.
Most of the cut flowers sold in supermarkets are grown in huge greenhouses under artificial conditions that push their growth. These greenhouses require immense amounts of electricity, water, and other resources to operate, and the flowers produced require extensive transportation -often through continents- in order to arrive to their destination markets.
Each one of such bouquets can have a staggering carbon footprint of 32Kg/ CO2, compared to 1,71 Kg/CO2 of a
locally-grown and bought bouquet.
In addition, since cut flowers are not edible, they do not follow the same strict controls as crops, leaving legal cracks for the use of harmful pesticides and its residues on plants, soil, and water.
Once again, buy local from providers you know.
10.-Have a Green Holiday
We don’t want to be spoilsports, but Christmas and the New Year are probably two of the celebrations with the highest carbon footprint.
Shipping of presents, building illuminations, cutting millions of trees for ‘adornment’, roaring fireplaces, disposable party favors, overconsumption, fireworks...
Despite their attempts to be sustainable, the
Christmas tree industry is one of the least eco-friendly and one with the highest carbon footprint during the Holidays. Sadly, the plastic version is not much eco-friendly either, but when used for years, its carbon footprint is
smaller in the long run.
Try to be green when celebrating by reducing waste as much as possible. Get creative! Instead of buying a cut tree, build a Christmas tree with books, pillows, bottles, or decorate a living tree.
Handcraft and bake presents or buy from your local artisans. Skip the fireworks in favor of lanterns or crackers.
Help the celebrations be also merry for the planet and for future generations.
Try greener Holiday alternatives
Cutting down your carbon footprint starts by taking conscience of your habits and from where your products come. Once you develop this sensitivity, and you realize their environmental cost, you never go back to your old consumption habits.
Never forget that we are billions. However small, every change that we, as consumers, may do in favor of greener practices will have a positive impact on the global scheme of things.
Because, from the foods that we eat to the houses we inhabit, everything we do has a direct or indirect impact on the environment.
To Learn More...
*For more energy saving tips, check out this useful link, which also includes great ideas and initiatives for ecological preservation:
www.churtzero.org/save-energy
*To learn more about the ecological impact of the flower business, watch this interesting documentary (45:05) in English with subtitles:
https://youtu.be/B-E6oOGeq0A
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Sources: Youth Europa EU, EIB.org, Georgetown University, Columbia University, WMO.
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