Reducing your environmental footprint is about lowering your usage of resources and pollutants in your daily life. Even though we think of huge changes as the best way to lower our footprint, it is really the accumulation of small, everyday choices such as how you eat, get around, consume energy and shop and manage your waste. The point isn’t to be perfect; it is to lower your footprint by making those higher-impact behaviors more reasonable to accomplish. By creating habits that can be repeated consistently and simply, you will have lower carbon emissions, less waste in landfills, and a healthy ecosystem for generations to come.
1. Lower Your Footprint at Home by Lowering Energy Use Through Daily Choices
Energy used at home is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions for many of us. However, there are several easy to adopt habits that you can start today to help save energy at home without lowering your comfort level.
The easiest habits to implement are usually the ones that are quickest and least expensive. These will typically focus on heating, cooling and standby power (i.e., appliances plugged in but turned off).
Some of the most effective home choices to make include:
- Shutting down lights and electronics completely rather than placing them on “standby”
- Using LED light bulbs and smart power strips
- Washing your clothes in cool water whenever possible
- Air drying some of your laundry to cut back on dryer usage
2. Lower Your Environmental Impact by Making Lower-Impact Transportation Choices
Your transportation choices make a significant contribution to your overall footprint each and every day. In addition to providing improved health benefits, walking, cycling and using public transportation frequently can significantly lower your emissions.
When you do need to drive a car, reducing the number of times you go out and being more efficient with your driving can also contribute to a lower environmental impact. A good way to plan your trips efficiently is to combine errands into one trip, use public transportation for busy routes, walk or bike for shorter trips, and carpool for trips to school, sports events or work.
3. Reduce Food Waste and Eat Smarter to Lower Your Footprint
Your food footprint encompasses all aspects of your food from growing and harvesting through to packaging, transportation and waste. One of the simplest high-impact changes you can make is to lower your food waste.
In addition to changing what you eat, choosing meal options that feature plant-based ingredients can provide additional opportunities to lower your footprint.
To lower your food footprint, try the following:
- Plan your meals before you shop
- Properly store your leftovers and use them first
- Choose seasonal foods whenever possible
- Build your meals around beans, lentils and vegetables
4. Shop Smarter to Lower Your Resource Use and Waste
Your purchasing behavior affects the amount of resources and waste that you produce. Shopping smarter by buying fewer products and using them for longer will decrease your demand for materials and energy.
In addition to saving money, repairing and reusing can be environmentally beneficial and reduce the amount of waste you generate and the clutter you accumulate.
Shop smarter and reduce your waste by:
- Fixing your clothing instead of replacing small parts of it
- Purchasing durable products that replace cheap, disposable alternatives
- Switch to reusable containers and refillable bottles
- Borrow products or purchase second-hand items whenever possible
Conclusion
Making choices that lower your environmental footprint on an everyday basis has the potential to dramatically reduce your footprint when you identify the biggest contributors to your footprint: home energy use, transportation, food, and consumption. Making choices that cut your standby energy, reduce the number of trips you take in your vehicle, prevent food waste, and buy less can all add up quickly. Ultimately, the best approach to living sustainably is to develop consistent, thought-out habits that fit your lifestyle, rather than attempting to make large-scale changes. When you are consistently mindful of your choices and follow similar habits repeatedly, they will become ingrained habits and ultimately lead to larger environmental impact—reduced carbon emissions, reduced landfill waste, and an ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability.