A Guide on How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Warren Evans

Climate change may be a complex issue with several variables, but switching to The Clean Energy Life is about simplicity and savings.

Now that you understand your carbon footprint and have used a carbon footprint calculator to measure your carbon emissions, it’s time to work on steps to reduce your carbon footprint.

Naturally, a major obstacle to switching to a Clean Energy Life is the inertia and skepticism accompanying any change. However, as we’ll demonstrate throughout this guide, transitioning to a greener and cleaner lifestyle is not only beneficial to the planet but also easy, affordable, and accessible.

Reduce, Electrify and Replace

To ease the transition into a Clean Energy Lifestyle, we’ve devised a simple formula of the steps individuals must take to make the change.

Reduce: Implement energy efficiency strategies to reduce your energy consumption. We recommend starting with an energy audit and then uncovering new ways to implement energy-efficient appliances in your home. By some estimates, energy efficiency upgrades can deliver a 3x return on your investment and make your home more comfortable.
Electrify: Supplement those areas in your life where consumption cannot be reduced with electric appliances that are cleaner and more efficient. If an EV is out of your reach, switching to battery-powered appliances, lawn equipment, and EnergyStar equipment can result in massive energy savings.
Replace: Replace gas-powered appliances and fossil fuels from your life for good by switching to renewables via an electric car or sourcing your energy from a renewable supplier.

Another acronym we’ve adopted to help reduce your carbon footprint is the C.A.R.E.S model:

Concern: Learn the facts about carbon emissions and their effects on the planet and your health.
Assess: Evaluate areas of your life where you have opportunities to make an impact on reducing your carbon footprint.
Reduce: Implement energy-efficiency solutions to limit your consumption of carbon-based products.
Electrify: Replace gas-powered appliances with energy-efficient electric ones.
Sustain: Cut out fossil fuels and implement renewable energy solutions to live a sustainable life.

Apply these values to the following sections to discover areas where you can reduce carbon emissions and live a cleaner energy life.

Reducing Carbon Footprint In Travel

Travel is the largest anthropogenic sector of carbon emissions in the United States. Luckily, there are several strategies to reduce our reliance on gas-guzzling passenger cars and to take advantage of existing technology to reduce our emissions.

Cars

Passenger cars are the largest source of pollution and emissions in the travel sector. Here are some ways to reduce emissions while traveling in a car:

Drive Less: Walk, bike, hike, or carpool to destinations instead of driving your car.
Go Electric: Upgrade your vehicle to an EV or hybrid to reduce your travel emissions.
Public Transportation: Taking advantage of public trains, subways, and buses to navigate around your local area will reduce emissions.
Service Your Vehicle: Cars become less efficient over time, so checking things like fuel injectors, fuel filters, gas pumps, spark plugs, and even changing your oil will make your car cleaner.
Reduce Clutter: Heavier cars are worse on gas so take out anything weighing down your car.
Leverage Cruise Control: Cruise control can cut gas consumption by 7-14%.

Electric Vehicles: EVs

In terms of electrifying, there is no better option than an EV. However, are electric vehicles practical or affordable?

Lots of EVs are now available for around $20,000-$30,000 and cost significantly less to run and maintain than comparably-priced gas-powered sedans. Furthermore, many EVs can operate for as much as 400-600 miles, which is on par with a top-end gas-powered sedan. It’s never been easier or more practical to switch to an EV than ever before. Plus, according to studies by energy.gov, you will save up to half the money over the life of an EV on powering it than you would on purchasing gas for an equivalent vehicle.

Flying

Unfortunately, planes like the Eviation Alice all-electric plane are still a few years out. In the meantime, to try to cut your carbon footprint through flying, be sure to note the following:

Fly Less: Taking fewer flights will reduce emissions, but there is a caveat. Flying is more efficient than driving across the country alone, so supplement long-distance road trips with flights instead. However, if you’re driving with multiple people, a short 300-400 mile trip, according to Reader’s Digest, emits fewer emissions than a flight of the same distance.
Fly Coach: Business and first-class take up more space and allow fewer people to fly. In turn, you are emitting less carbon per square foot in coach than in first-class, though you will have to balance that with comfort.
Carpool to the Airport: Instead of driving and then flying alone to the airport, consider carpooling with your travel companions or others. Taking a bus or train to the airport can be more efficient than driving.
Take a Train: More traditional forms of travel, such as trains, can emit less than 37% of the emissions as a direct flight and even less for flights with layovers.

Shopping Sustainably

Shopping is another area where embodied carbon, transportation, and waste all collide to impact our carbon footprint.

Use Reusable Shopping Bags: Plastic and single-use grocery bags are a major source of carbon and pollution in the oceans. Switch to reusable grocery bags once and for all.
Shop Used and Vintage Clothing: Stop our dependence on new clothing and shop for used products instead that are vintage and stylish. We also recommend purchasing cleaner materials, such as cotton, wool, or alpaca clothing.
Donate Unused Clothing and Goods: On the flip side, don’t let any used clothing end up in a landfill. Donate it to the Salvation Army or a Thrift store.
Recycle Items Properly: In addition to clothes and food waste, lots of items like electronics and chemicals require proper recycling to avoid direct pollution of the local environment.

Electrification and Energy Efficiency

Upgrading old and outdated electric appliances offer an easy way to reduce electricity costs:

Upgrade to Energy Star: EnergyStar appliances reduce electricity consumption and even come with significant tax rebates to save money.
Use Smart Power Strips: Smart power strips protect appliances from power surges and eliminate any source of vampire energy (electricity that is silently wasted when not in use).
Upgrade to LED Lights: LED lights last longer and consume 1/10th of the energy of incandescent bulbs.

Heating and Cooling

Air conditioning accounts for 3.94% of all global greenhouse gas emissions, and home heating accounts for almost 20% of all carbon emissions in the US.

Insulation: One way to reduce consumption without actually reducing it is with better insulation. Upgrading to spray foam or closed-cell foam insulation can greatly increase the R-value of your home. We highly recommend looking at this anytime you inspect a new home.
Electric Heat Pumps: Electrifying with a heat pump can cut electricity consumption by up to 50% compared to baseboards or furnaces.
Adjust the Temperature: Moving the thermostat a few degrees lower in the winter and higher in the summer can significantly reduce your electricity or fossil fuel consumption.
Use a Programmable Thermostat: Programmable thermostats help maintain a steady temperature and can help you reduce your electricity consumption. For example, altering temps by 7-8 degrees for a few hours a day with a programmable thermostat can reduce electric consumption by 10%.

Replacing Your Diet: The Low Carbon Diet

What we eat constitutes a massive part of our carbon footprints. Finding ways to reduce the embodied carbon of the food we eat can help us massively cut our carbon footprints and even make our food supply chains more sustainable.

Fortunately, switching to the low-carbon diet is the easiest diet you’ll ever try. Here are some tips.

Reduce Meat Consumption: Red meat can produce up to 100x the carbon emissions as a plant-based meal. Reducing our reliance on meat and our meat consumption will greatly reduce our carbon footprints.
Reduce Food Waste: ⅓ of the food produced globally is never eaten! Reduce food waste by storing leftovers, only purchasing what you need, and composting/recycling unused products.
Reduce Disposable Dishes: Paper and plastic silverware and dishes are major sources of waste. Eat using reusable dishes and cookware.
Shop Locally: One study found that eating all of your meals from local sources could reduce your carbon footprint by 5%. Research local farms and farmers’ markets for local produce, meats, and other items that are staples in your kitchen.
Plan Meals: Planning meals in advance enables you to utilize your ingredients and also ensures that you eat what you buy.

Using Renewables

Accessing renewable energy to help reduce your carbon footprint is much easier than you may think. However, it will require more workaround than many of these other tips.

Continuing Your Carbon Footprint Reduction Journey

As you explore these options to reduce your carbon footprint, you’ll find that the benefits outweigh any perceived costs or inconveniences.

We can’t fail to mention that there are several additional areas where people can limit their carbon consumption, from reducing their activities to becoming vegetarian.

However, transitioning to The Clean Energy Life is about upgrading your standard of living and enjoying new technology that benefits our health and our planet.

So as you move along this journey, you will find plenty of opportunities, from travel to dieting, where you will start to consciously think about the decisions you make, their impact, and the savings you can achieve by following the advice you learn on your clean energy journey.

Welcome to The Clean Energy Life, and find additional ways to make the transition on our website.