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Steps to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
No Excuses
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Turn It Off: turn off all of your electrical appliances and lights when not in use.
Carbon Footprint Household Energy Consumption Table (In UK Pounds)
Turn It Down: turn down your central AC and heating just a degree or two.
Unplug It: unplug your mobile phone charger when not in use.
Improve Performance: defrost your refirgerator regularly.
Replace incadescent lightbulbs with energy efficient bulbs. They will pay for themselves within months.
Eliminate Vampipre Power
The amount of standby power wasted varies among electronic equipment, but overall, the cost to consumers and businesses for all the electricity lost to vampire power in the US is estimated to be $4 billion annually. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates the global energy consumption due to standby power at between 200-400 terawatts per year.
Purchase a Smart Power Strip that turns off your electronics automatically. It will pay for itself within just a couple of months.
Recycle: Recycling is the third component of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" waste hierarchy.
Find Recycling Locations in the US with Earth911.com
Find Recycling Locations in the UK with RecycleNow.com
Reduce Your Use of Plastic Shopping Bags: a few facts about plastic shopping bags and recycling from the Sierra
Club:
Reusing a bag meant for just one use has a big impact. A sturdy, reusable
bag needs only be used 11 times to have a lower environmental impact than
using 11 disposable plastic bags. In New York City alone, one less grocery
bag per person per year would reduce waste by 109 tons and save $11,000 in
disposal costs. Plastic bags carry 80 percent of the nation’s groceries,
up from 5 percent in 1982. When one ton of plastic bags is reused or
recycled, the energy equivalent of 11 barrels of oil is saved.
Practical Efforts
Buy Organic and Local: when possible, buy organic or "fair trade." There's a better chance the food was grown in an eco-friendly way, and if it's locally grown, it didn't have to travel that far. This also goes for those double lattes — coffee often has a large carbon footprint because of the distance those beans had to travel to get here, and how they were produced. Also, try eating at restaurants that serve locally produced or seasonal foods.
Buy Green Power: innovative programs around the country now make it possible for all environmentally conscious energy consumers to support renewable energy directly by participating in the "green" power market. The willingness to pay for the benefits of increasing our renewable energy supplies can be tapped within any market structure and by any size or type of energy consumer.
Green power is the solution to a cleaner, sustainable energy system. Renewable energy—power from the sun, wind, plants, and moving water—is a sustainable way to meet our energy needs and protect the environment and public health.
Information from Union of Concerned Scientists
List of US Green Energy Providers from the US Department of Energy
Good Energy 100% Renewable Energy in the UK
Eat Less Meat: in November of 2006 the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization made public their findings that “the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport.” Henning Steinfeld, Chief of FAO’s Livestock Information and Policy Branch went on to say that ““Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”
It is not practical for many people to become vegans, but just reducing your weekly amount of meat consumed will have a major impact on your carbon footprint.
Drink Green Coffee and Tea: most of us need coffee or tea to start the day, but these commonly consumed drinks carry a big eco-footprint. Get your mornings going the green way with How to Go Green: Coffee and Tea.
Full Article PlanetGreen.Discovery.com
Certified Organic & Fair Trade Green Coffee Beans from BrewOrganic.com
Purchase Less Toxic Products: everyday, most North Americans use beauty and cleaning products which contain hazardous ingredients.
Guide to Less Toxic Products
Whole Foods Market on Sustainability and Our Future
Advanced Efforts
Insulate Your Home: by insulating your home you can cut your energy use dramatically. It follows that you’ll save yourself lots of money too.
Comprehensive
List of Ways to Improve Your Home from GetEnergyActive.org
In-House Water Filtration: bottled water has a huge carbon footprint — it's bottled at one location in small plastic bottles and shipped all over. Try buying a reusable water bottle or canteen for your water. Also, a lot of restaurants have made the move from offering fancy bottled water, usually imported from an exotic source, to using in-house filtration systems that make tap water a good choice. Many plastic water bottles are recycled, but most are not, making the footprint even bigger.
Go Solar: there are new initiatives to help build a self-sustaining photovoltaic, solar electricity market. Many states provide incentives to convert for existing residential homes and existing and new commercial, industrial and agricultural properties. PG&E's website demystifies solar and offers good information about how to apply for CSI incentives. It also offer dozens of classes on all facets of design and installation for laypersons and builders.
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