5 Changes You Can Make Today to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
The UN Climate Conference was held in Paris last month, where 200 countries agreed to take action to reduce greenhouse gases by the second half of the century. This is the first time such an agreement has been reached, and its significance is paramount. The agreement will come into effect in 2020, but as individuals, there’s lots of changes we can be making in our daily lives to help curb our own greenhouse gas emissions.
You can use WWF’s carbon footprint calculator to get an idea of what yours currently looks like, then get started on reducing it by making some of these changes.
- Reuse and Recycle
Recycling is something most people do to some extent; drinks cans, cardboard packaging and plastic bottles are all easy and hassle-free to recycle. However, are you and your family guilty of not bothering to wash out that soup can so it can be recycled? How often do you throw things like yoghurt pots that require washing into the regular rubbish bin out of laziness? Simply spending an extra 10 seconds washing out your food packaging could increase the amount of recycling you do by a significant amount.
- Replace Lightbulbs with LEDs
Something as simple as switching your current lightbulbs for energy efficient LED bulbs can significantly reduce your household’s carbon footprint. LED bulbs use only 15% of the energy a standard halogen bulb would require, cost next to nothing to purchase, and come in a range of different colour temperatures.
- Use Less Hot Water
One easy way to reduce the amount of hot water you use is to start washing your clothes on a cold cycle. Many detergent brands now make specific cold wash products, so you don’t even need to compromise the cleanliness of your clothes to make this simple change.
- Change Your Diet
Buying locally sourced food (such as produce from your local farm) means that the food you eat has travelled less miles to reach you, and that in itself is a step towards reducing your own carbon footprint. There is also evidence to suggest that eating less meat can reduce your carbon footprint, as the livestock sector alone produces around 15% of the entire planet’s greenhouse gases.
- Turn Off Electricals
Are you guilty of leaving all your electricals on stand-by when not in use? If so, now is the time to quit this habit and get serious about reducing your carbon footprint. It only takes two seconds, and goes a long way towards reducing your personal negative impact on our planet.
What do you do to help reduce your carbon footprint?
*This is collaborative post.
*Recycling symbol can photo from Shutterstock.
We’ve made more of an effort to recycle, which is going well. The local foodbank are using happy to take old furniure etc to pass on to local families. The one thing we struggle is using less hot water.
I upcycle as much as I can, repairing and remodeling clothes before throwing them away, I also attend restart parties to learn how to repair my electrical and technology items. I also grow as much of my own food as I can (though in a town this can be hard, but I have had some success with tomatoes, strawberries and potatoes using growbags and hanging baskets) and I make my own gifts when I get the time, scented candles from reused wax ends, and fancy decorated biscuits and sweets etc. I have learnt that doing your bit for the planet often also helps your own purse AND can be a good way of making lovely new friends and learning new skills … I love it!
i have always tryed to recycle wish i could come up with some more ways to reuse that are both useful and fun
I do a lot of things mentioned but I could do better.
i try to reduce everything i use and try to recycle eveything i can and reuse what i can like if my son dosnt drink his water at school i feed the plants with the waste
i love the link to the calculator. i got 8.3 tones which is much smaller than i though it would be. going to work on getting this smaller
Great post – I am actually trying to do all these, when you look at some of the ‘fresh’ food in supermarkets it is shocking where it comes from! Kaz x
Great tips not only for reducing your carbon footprint but for saving money as well.
Some great tips. I definitely want to start doing some of these!
I would never in a million years have thought about washing my clothes in cold water,however,detergents are now so good that I suppose it’s perfectly feasible.Thank you for that tip and I’ll definitely give it a go x
Some great tips here, if only LED bulbs were as good as normal ones I would change them all x
I recently started a new job and my workplace is bad on recycling, so I’m hoping to encourage them to improve 🙂
Thanks for sharing these tips! I’ve recently started using the cold wash cycle on our washing machine and feel all the better for it 🙂
Very useful tips there. 🙂
I do recycle as much as I possibly can and try my best to walk everywhere I can too.
Fantastic ideas! I would add walk where you can instead of drive to the list.
I absolutely love this tips and I bet my mom would also agree on this, She hates wasting anything even the small bottles in our house.
Thanks for sharing these useful tips and raise awareness! I try to reuse and use less hot water
I try and shop local as much as I possibly can. Besides the food being fresher and tasting better it means that the crofters actually get paid for their work, which means a lot to me. If I can, I buy direct from them! Great post with some great tips in it.
These are great tips. I am glad we are already doing these things.
I hate to waste anything. I save power in and with everything I can. I reuse a lot of things. One of my favorite things is to take broken pieces and scraps of jewelry and make new treasures.
I always try to buy locally sourced food where possible and eat in season fruit and veg to reduce air miles. We use energy efficient light bulbs too. Small things like this can make a difference.
I turn off electricals when not in use. Hate wasting electricity.
Great tips here! Reusing and recycling is one of my biggest things, I am trying to make much more of an effort in 2016
I’ve started to make more of an effort to recycle and we don’t really take baths anymore just showers, you can imagine the amount of water we used for baths with 6 of us in the house. Ohh and we are BIG fans of reusing bits, especially for crafts with the kiddlets! 🙂