The 35 Easiest Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

In the confront of the recent  National Climate Assessment report on the threats of climate change, the Trump administration continues to try to roll dorsum ecology policies. Individuals, however, tin can brand a difference by reducing their personal greenhouse gas emissions. While there are many ways to do this and save energy—such as insulating your home, putting upwardly solar panels, and planting trees—the following are the simplest and easiest changes you tin make. They crave footling effort or financial investment.

First summate your carbon footprint

Your carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases—including carbon dioxide, marsh gas, nitrous oxide, fluorinated gases and others—that you produce as you live your life. The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project determined that in order to concur the global temperature ascent to 2˚C or less, everyone on earth will need to average an annual carbon footprint of 1.87 tons past 2050. Currently, the average U.South. per capita carbon footprint is 18.3 tons. Past comparison, Communist china's per capita carbon emissions are 8.2 tons. We all have a means to go to get to 1.87 tons.

Calculate your carbon footprint at carbonfootprint.com to find out how you lot're doing. The EPA's carbon footprint calculator can show how much carbon and coin you volition salvage by taking some of these steps.

Hither are some of the easiest ways you lot can start to shrink your carbon footprint.

Food

i. Consume depression on the food chain. This means eating mostly fruits, veggies, grains, and beans. Livestock—meat and dairy—is responsible for 14.5 percent of manmade global greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from feed product and processing and the methane (25 times more stiff than CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere over 100 years) that beef and sheep belch out. Every day that y'all forgo meat and dairy, you can reduce your carbon footprint by 8 pounds—that's ii,920 pounds a year. You tin showtime past joining Meatless Mondays.

ii. Choose organic and local foods that are in flavour. Transporting nutrient from far away, whether by truck, ship, rails or airplane, uses fossil fuels for fuel and for cooling to continue foods in transit from spoiling.

iii. Buy foodstuffs in bulk when possible using your ain reusable container.

4. Reduce your food waste by planning meals ahead of fourth dimension, freezing the excess and reusing leftovers.

v. Compost your food waste product if possible. (If y'all alive in New York City, you can find a compost driblet-off site here.

Clothing

6. Don't buy fast mode. Trendy, cheap items that get out of way quickly get dumped in landfills where they produce marsh gas as they decompose. Currently, the average American discards about 80 pounds of article of clothing each year, 85 percent of which ends upwardly in landfills. In addition, well-nigh fast fashion comes from Mainland china and Bangladesh, so shipping it to the U.S. requires the employ of fossil fuels. Instead, buy quality clothing that will last.

seven. Even better, purchase vintage or recycled clothing at consignment shops.

8. Wash your clothing in cold water. The enzymes in cold water detergent are designed to clean amend in common cold water. Doing two loads of laundry weekly in cold water instead of hot or warm h2o can save up to 500 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.

Shopping

ix. Buy less stuff! And buy used or recycled items whenever possible.

x. Bring your ain reusable bag when you shop.

11. Try to avoid items with excess packaging.

12. If you're in the market for a new computer, opt for a laptop instead of a desktop. Laptops require less energy to charge and operate than desktops.

13. If shopping for appliances, lighting, office equipment or electronics, look for Energy Star products, which are certified to exist more free energy efficient.

14. Support and purchase from companies that are environmentally responsible and sustainable.

Home

15. Do an energy audit of your home. This will testify how you use or waste energy and assistance place ways to be more energy efficient.

16. Change incandescent calorie-free bulbs (which waste 90 percent of their energy as estrus) to light emitting diodes (LEDs). Though LEDs cost more, they use a quarter of the energy and last up to 25 times longer. They are besides preferable to compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) bulbs, which emit fourscore percent of their energy equally oestrus and contain mercury.

17. Switch lights off when you leave the room and unplug your electronic devices when they are not in use.

eighteen. Plough your water heater down to 120˚F. This tin can save nigh 550 pounds of CO2 a year.

nineteen. Installing a low-flow showerhead to reduce hot h2o utilize tin can save 350 pounds of CO2. Taking shorter showers helps, also.

twenty. Lower your thermostat in winter and raise it in summer. Apply less ac in the summer; instead opt for fans, which require less electricity. And check out these other ways to beat the heat without air-conditioning.

21. Sign up to get your electricity from clean energy through your local utility or a certified renewable energy provider. Green-eastward.org can help y'all find certified green energy providers.

Transportation

Considering electricity increasingly comes from natural gas and renewable energy, transportation became the major source of U.S. CO2 emissions in 2017. An average car produces about 5 tons of CO2 each year (although this varies according to the type of machine, its fuel efficiency and how it's driven). Making changes in how you go effectually can significantly cut your carbon budget.

22. Bulldoze less. Walk, accept public transportation, carpool, rideshare or bike to your destination when possible. This non only reduces CO2 emissions, it besides lessens traffic congestion and the idling of engines that accompanies it.

23. If you lot must bulldoze, avoid unnecessary braking and dispatch. Some studies found that aggressive driving tin result in xl percent more fuel consumption than consequent, calm driving.

24. Have intendance of your machine. Keeping your tires properly inflated can increment your fuel efficiency past three percent; and ensuring that your car is properly maintained tin can increase it by iv percent. Remove any extra weight from the car.

25. When doing errands, endeavour to combine them to reduce your driving.

26. Use traffic apps like Waze to help avert getting stuck in traffic jams.

27. On longer trips, turn on the cruise control, which tin can save gas.

28. Utilize less air-conditioning while you bulldoze, even when the atmospheric condition is hot.

29. If you're shopping for a new car, consider purchasing a hybrid or electric vehicle. Merely exercise factor in the greenhouse gas emissions from the production of the auto too as its operation. Some electrical vehicles are initially responsible for more emissions than internal combustion engine vehicles because of manufacturing impacts; merely they make upwardly for it afterwards three years. This app rates cars based on their mileage, fuel type and emissions from both the production of the car and, if they are EVs, from generating the electricity to run them.

Air travel

xxx. If you fly for work or pleasure, air travel is probably responsible for the largest office of your carbon footprint. Avert flying if possible; on shorter trips, driving may emit fewer greenhouse gases.

32. Wing nonstop since landings and takeoffs utilise more fuel and produce more than emissions.

33. Go economic system class. Business organization form is responsible for almost three times every bit many emissions as economy because in economy, the flying'due south carbon emissions are shared among more than passengers; start class can issue in nine times more carbon emissions than economic system.

34. If y'all tin't avoid flying, offset the carbon emissions of your travel.

Carbon offsets

A carbon kickoff is an amount of money you can pay for a project that reduces greenhouse gases somewhere else. If you first 1 ton of carbon, the offset will help capture or destroy i ton of greenhouse gases that would otherwise have been released into the atmosphere. Offsets also promote sustainable development and increase the utilize of renewable energy.

This calculator estimates the carbon emissions of your flight and the amount of coin needed to offset them. For example, flying economy roundtrip from New York to Los Angeles produces ane.5 tons of CO2; information technology costs $43 to offset this carbon.

You tin can buy carbon offsets to recoup for whatever or all of your other carbon emissions as well.

The money you lot pay goes towards climate protection projects. Diverse organizations sponsor these projects. For example, Myclimate funds the purchase of free energy efficient cookstoves in Rwanda, installing solar power in the Dominican Republic, and replacing old heating systems with energy efficient heat pumps in Switzerland. Cotap sustainably plants trees in Republic of india, Malawi, Mozambique, Republic of uganda and Nicaragua to absorb CO2; yous can sign upwardly for monthly offsets here. Terrapass funds U.S. projects utilizing creature waste product from farms, installing wind power, and capturing landfill gas to generate electricity. It also offers a monthly subscription for offsets.

Go politically active

35. Finally—and perhaps nigh importantly since the most effective solutions to climate change crave governmental action—vote! Become politically active and let your representatives know you want them to take action to phase out fossil fuels use and decarbonize the country as fast as possible.