Small Changes, Big Wins: Tips to Minimize Your Carbon Footprint
Science
Sulthana Dzakira
It can often seem daunting and inconsequential to attempt to minimize one’s carbon footprint. Not only are you responsible for a minute fraction of the global emission output, but it's also often expensive or inconvenient to adjust your habits in order to reduce your environmental impact. This notion is, in fact, untrue; it's usually more straightforward than people assume. Before learning how to reduce your carbon footprint, one must first understand how large their carbon footprint is. Worldwide, the average person's carbon footprint is 4 tons of CO2 per year. To calculate the emission of anything, you consider the emission factor for a given activity and multiply it by how much of that activity you do. One example is the emission factor for 1 kilometer of a fuel type used by a specific engine model. Then, multiply that by the number of kilometers driven by said vehicle. If you want to calculate your emissions for a specific motorbike type or other forms of emission you're responsible for there are a wide array of free carbon credit calculators out there to choose from. With this in mind, Fairatmos has composed a list of tips and tricks to help you consciously reduce your environmental impact.
Tip 1 Conscious Consumerism
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Buy Less or Second-Hand Shopped: When considering waste management's most integral principals, the most important tenant is prevention. Above anything else when shopping or purchasing an item consider its necessity before its value. You may deprive a lot of value from a new piece of clothing or appliance but is it truly necessary. Ways to fulfill the consumer habits without drastically lifting one's carbon footprint can be thrifting. 85% of global textile products end up in landfills within a year of their fabrication. Buying second hand and in person not only forces you to more closely evaluate how much you really need the product but it also prevents the global problem of textile turnover. Even though the fast fashion industry has taken over the world, it's vital that nations interested in reaching net zero emissions targets place incredible onus on limiting the prevalence of consumer waste perpetrated by these companies.
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Sustainable Products: After considering the essentialness of a product you can then evaluate the product fabrication and supply chain elements of said product. Choose items sourced with sustainable materials and environmentally friendly packaging that has lower carbon footprint compared to conventional materials in their production Recycled material often costs a premium and can be outside the realm of possibility for most consumers. This being said you can still shop sustainably without buying recyclable materials. Examples include purchasing less polyester or synthetic fibers. Simpler methods involve actions like owning a water bottle instead of repeatedly purchasing plastic ones.
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Consider Your Packages Journey: Online shopping has only increased the emissions produced from consumer purchasing. Around 141 million tons of plastic waste created annually stems from packaging waste, accounting for 40% of the yearly discarded plastic. Buying items shipped with recyclable packing peanuts or other recyclable packing is cheap and helps reduce emissions immensely. Shopping in person or doing bulk shipping when your order is incredibly helpful. Additionally choices like ordering less takeout or bringing your own bag when you go grocery shopping are small choices that also seriously impact climate emissions. These are small considerations around how our products reach us that have huge reverberation on the emission generated from product transportation.
Tip 2 Transportation
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Use Public Transport: While public transportation isn't as effective or as direct as personal transportation, it's wildly more environmentally friendly. According to American EPA data the average passenger vehicle emits approximately 4.6 tons of CO2 per year assuming a pace of 35.7 kilometers per gallon and 18,507.5 kilometers driven annually. Buses and trains can cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to two-thirds per passenger per kilometer compared to private cars. By choosing public transit and carpooling, you can further reduce individual emissions while still traveling efficiently. It's really important for individuals to understand the immense benefits of joining even two people's transportation emissions.
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Biking and Walking: For short distances, choose to biking or walking instead of driving—lobby politicians to build more walkable infrastructure. Everything from better bike lanes to more defined sidewalks is an incredibly effective way to ensure people reduce their transportation impact.
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Buy Energy-Efficient Vehicles: If feasible, consider driving an electric or hybrid car. While they are often more expensive, governments are introducing tax incentives across the globe to accelerate EV adoption. When it comes time to purchase your next vehicle, check if a biodiesel or electric version is feasible for you.
Tip 3 Energy Usage at Home:
While being energy efficient at home might be less glamorous than owning an EV or shopping sustainably it often has a much larger impact. According to the United Nations, simple adjustment around AC or laundry use can reduce an individual's carbon footprint around 900 kilograms to 1 ton annually. While this statistic does presumably include office buildings and manufacturing, at least half stems from residential use. Most importantly it's the half most people have at least some control over. Small steps like using energy efficient appliances, or unplugging electronics to prevent phantom energy use can be incredibly effective. Before buying a charger or appliance power cord check if it has a reasonable standard for electricity draw as to prevent excess power draw from the grid. People can also take bigger steps like reducing your AC and/or heating system at night once you've gone to bed. Or running your laundry machine less often as it's the second largest power draw for a home outside of AC. All of these while mildly less convenient are super effective ways to limit your emissions from the comfort of your home.
Simple lifestyle adjustments can have major impacts on your carbon footprint. They will also help build better habits for you and those around you, ultimately helping to shift people's conscious perception of how easy it is to reduce their carbon footprint. If you would like to learn more about how corporations are helping to reduce their environmental impact, read about our updates in the Insights tab.
Sources:
https://www.pawprint.eco/eco-blog/average-carbon-footprint-globally
https://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx
About Fairatmos
Fairatmos is a climate technology company that helps you to discover, develop and deliver high quality carbon offset projects at scale. We believe in the power of nature to heal and remove greenhouse gasses from our atmosphere with the help of technology.
Our technology leverages remote sensing and satellite images to help communities and companies to discover their forest carbon credit potential, converting them from logging the forest to preserving and rehabilitating the forest confidently.
With high precision monitoring technology, we help to track carbon project performance and integrity, ensuring the social impact and biodiversity preservation. With confidence in integrity, we connect carbon offsetting companies to quality projects.
Today we have worked with more than 200 asset owners, processing more than 18M hectares of forest carbon potential across South East Asia to deliver the promise of inclusivity.
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