It’s not just businesses and large corporations that have a carbon footprint. Every person in the world also has their own personal carbon footprint that is dependent on wealth, lifestyle and energy availability and usage.
The global carbon footprint is huge, but the fact that spending on housing, products, travel and services, pays for two thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions, shows that personal footprints could be reduced significantly.
Eat!
In wealthy countries around 100 kg of food is wasted per person, every year. This 100 kg accounts for around 20% of total food supply. By eating more of the food you buy, you’ll not only cut your carbon footprint but your bills and rubbish production too.
Eat nature
Foods like cheese and red meat have a carbon intensity more than ten times that of fruit and grains. Making an effort to eat more low carbon foods will not only help reduce your footprint but will also help improve your diet too.
Comfort
Cut your heating bills, make yourself more comfortable and lower your home’s emissions in the process, by improving insulation and air-tightness in your home. The relatively new Passive House concept uses just one tenth of the heating energy of a similar modern house.
Cool down
If you drop your heating by a mere 1⁰C you’ll reduce your usage by about 10% and by turning off the radiators in any rooms you’re not using, you’ll lessen your emissions and heating bills even further.
Be cycle-friendly
Bicycles are obviously the best form of low carbon transport and they’re a great way to get around. However, they’re not always practical, especially if you’re facing a particularly long commute. Electric public transport and even hopping onto a full bus, is another way to reduce your carbon emissions.
If the use of a car is something you rely upon heavily, then opt for an electric or hybrid as these models can reduce your driving emissions by more than 50%.
Love what’s around you
Flying is a major contributor to the size of your carbon footprint and any flight you manage to avoid will reduce it significantly. Although stopping flying altogether is pretty tough and probably not at all practical, limiting your flights is usually much easier.
Buy quality
Whether it’s second hand, made from low carbon materials or is just something that’ll last for years. Quality over quantity is the way forward if you’re looking to significantly reduce product emissions.
If protecting the environment is something you take a keen interest in then check out our online Environmental Awareness course and maybe start a new qualification with us today.
Nick Cooper
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