How You Can Live Eco-Consciously
Do you know how large your carbon footprint is? Actually, scratch that. Do you even know what a carbon footprint is? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a free calculator in order to evaluate this “carbon footprint”, AKA your annual carbon dioxide emissions, in order to raise awareness of how much waste your actions put back into our environment. By taking this quiz, the EPA can explain not only your waste-count, but also some ideas on what you can do to make your footprint smaller. The annual United States household carbon footprint (for one person) is around a staggering 19,702 lbs. of CO2 emissions (I measured mine and it isn’t much better at whopping 18,633 lbs.). In layman’s terms, this is 1.5x as heavy as a T-Rex was estimated to weigh; you are emitting at least T-Rex and a half of one of the greenhouse gases a year. However, we have accomplished the first step to fixing this problem: ever heard of the age-old saying that “to solve a problem you have to be aware that you are part of the issue”? Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to reduce your carbon dioxide emissions. Whether you want to start living more eco-friendly because of the state of the environment or it makes you feel better about yourself, there are several things you can do to accomplish this. From actions as complicated as building eco-friendly homes to actions as simple as recycling your waste products, there is something that everybody can do in order to live more eco-consciously.
Let’s start with the simple ways. According to an article by Christopher Jones, he divides our carbon footprint into different categories that produce the largest household impact on our climate. He asserts that, “emissions associated with household consumption have been estimated to account for over 80% of total U.S. emissions.” (Jones, et al. 2011) This means that collectively, our household CO2 emissions are larger than manufacturing or any other industry in the United States. So how do we minimize this? The largest category of emissions by far is energy used by travel. However, this is an easy fix if you are willing to follow through with a plan. By either changing your primary mode of transportation to public transit, carpooling to work or school with friends, or by bicycling, you can lower your household footprint substantially. However, I realize that some of these options may not be practical for you, maybe you live too far to commute by bike or it’s too hot or there is a poor public transit system where you live. But there are things you can do in your private transportation, such as breaking gradually instead of slamming on the breaks and changing your air filters and tires regularly, to help with lowering emissions.
The next largest category, energy use within homes, should be the next item you address. Simple, no-cost (or low-cost) behavioral changes, such as the 17 changes indicated in an article by Thomas Dietz, can help shrink your footprint. He argues that methods like, “weather-proofing your home, upgrading HVAC equipment, installing low-flow showerheads, resetting the temperature on your water heater, maintaining efficient appliances, and changing air filters regularly” can lower emissions by as much as 68.9 metric tons in the most inefficient households (Dietz, et al. 2009). If you don’t know what weatherproofing means, just think of it as trying to make your space as airtight as possible. For example, you can lay an insulating foam strip in the crack between your outside doors and the doorways. A couple of other ideas would be to add insulation to your attic or basement and to purchase a water heater insulating blanket.
Lastly, the final of the simple ways to lower your CO2 emissions stems from the way that you shop. For instance, did you realize that the types of food that you buy contribute to your carbon footprint? For example, according to this chart that takes into account emissions from what you eat, your waste, and supply chain losses, beef and lamb have the highest emissions of all food items. In contrast to this, snacks, sugar, grains, and oils/spreads, have the lowest. Additionally, beef and lamb exert 9.5 more g CO2 /kcal than the next highest category (fruit). So, in order to help lower your food carbon footprint, a practical, health-conscious solution (this not being to switch your diet to all snacks and breads) would include being more selective on your choice of meats that you purchase. Consuming less beef and lamb but instead switching to a more poultry, fish, and pork diet can lower your emissions substantially. Also consuming fewer drinks with CO2 in them can also help with your grocery emission output. This, in combination with changing your behavioral habits relating to transportation and household HVAC, can help your household impact the climate less than the average U.S. household.
So for our environmentally conscious high-achievers, what are the more complex ways to live greener? In recent years, there has been a large movement towards sustainable living in what people are calling “healthy housing”. The interesting thing about this “healthy housing” is that it shouldn’t only appeal to the most environmentally conscious. In this article on efficient homes, the author states that, “homeowners can lower heating and cooling costs by 50% or more.” Well, that sounds great but how expensive will it be to make my home green? Fortunately, this is not a concern as the author goes on to explain that “By creating an airtight building envelope…the average ‘green premium’ for sustainable design totals no more than $3–5 per square foot” (Schmidt, et al. 2008). Additionally, this article was written 10 years ago, indicating that design should be marginally cheaper by today’s standards. Some additional design ideas that the article recommends include rainwater collection from gutters, installing tankless water heaters, laying porous pavements, using solar panels for energy, and changing paints and flooring to those that promote insulation (i.e. carpets instead of wood). With today’s builders focusing on design that is healthier for our environment, it has become much cheaper and easier to apply concepts that were not a reality years ago. These ideas promote a healthier effect on climate that you exert and also substantially lower personal costs that go towards energy consumption.
Each article insisted that there are ways for every average person to lower his or her carbon footprint. The most important aspect for people to realize what they need to do is knowledge. Citizens need to know how much they are contributing to environmental destruction. In fact, several of the articles I viewed listed knowledge as the #1 barrier to action against climate change. I didn’t know how large a footprint I was creating until I used that EPA calculator and the idea of multiplying that amount by the 325.7 million people that reside in our country is horrifying. If we can educate our nation on what we are each personally doing to our environment, we can lower our annual footprint by billions of lbs. of CO2 emission a year. Most people are willing to help if they know what to do. This factsheet shows additional ways to help you lower your emissions other than what I already mentioned. If that’s not enough and you need a more selfish reason to lower your carbon emissions, remember that you are saving a lot of money by applying green practices to your lifestyle. Think of all the things that you could do if your heating bill was cut in half of if you didn’t have car maintenance and gas expenses to take care of. Keep in mind the larger the solution that you apply to your lifestyle, the better you are behaving towards our environment. However, I realize that these solutions must be practical for your situation as well. That being said, even the smallest green applications contribute towards helping fix the large climate problem that effects all of us (and to make your lifestyle less expensive).
Bibliography:
1. Moisander, Johanna, and Sinikka Pesonen. “Narratives of Sustainable Ways of Living: Constructing the Self and the Other as a Green Consumer.” Management Decision, vol. 40, no. 4, 2002, pp. 329–342., doi:10.1108/00251740210426321.
2. Dietz, T., et al. “Household Actions Can Provide a Behavioral Wedge to Rapidly Reduce US Carbon Emissions.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 106, no. 44, 2009, pp. 18452–18456., doi:10.1073/pnas.0908738106.
3. Schmidt, Charles W. “Bringing Green Homes within Reach: Healthier Housing for More People.” Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 116, no. 1, Jan. 2008, doi:10.1289/ehp.116-a24.
4. Jones, Christopher M., and Daniel M. Kammen. “Quantifying Carbon Footprint Reduction Opportunities for U.S. Households and Communities.” Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 45, no. 9, 2011, pp. 4088–4095., doi:10.1021/es102221h.
5. Ottelin, Juudit, et al. “New Energy Efficient Housing Has Reduced Carbon Footprints in Outer but Not in Inner Urban Areas.” Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 49, no. 16, 2015, pp. 9574–9583., doi:10.1021/acs.est.5b02140.
