Tips To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint For Earth Day 2019
🌎 This year Earth Day was on April 22, 2019 and we feel that it’s something we should be celebrating everyday!
Today we are going to look at one of our favourite vegan strength trainers, Mandy Gill and her advice on how we can better reduce our own personal carbon footprints 👣 and show momma earth a little love ❤️ as she really needs ALL of us to do our part. Thanks Mandy for these fabulous suggestions and insights of which many are very easy to adapt.
Simple Ways To Reduce Reliance on Plastic
When you hear that it takes 450 years for a plastic water bottle to degrade you may think again when twisting off the cap on one. Let’s celebrate Earth Day by remembering who was here first! Do you want to contribute to living in a more sustainable way? Commit to only reusable bags, opt for a bamboo toothbrush (plastic ones take 500 years to break down in our oceans), use metal or paper over plastic straws and walk whenever you can.
Reduce Meat and Diary Products From Your Diet
Addressing environmental degradation on this planet without addressing our diets is like ignoring cigarettes when addressing lung cancer. Researchers at the University of Oxford found that cutting meat and dairy products from your diet could reduce an individual’s carbon footprint from food by up to 73%.
A Vegan Diet
“A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use. It is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car. Avoiding consumption of animal products delivers far better environmental benefits than trying to purchase sustainable meat and dairy.” -Lead author, Joseph Poore
Poore’s research is the result of a five-year-long project, which initially began as an investigation into sustainable meat and dairy production. He stopped eating animal products altogether himself after the first year.
Taking care of your trash is another important component to reducing our carbon footprints. Composting all organic waste and recycling paper, cardboard, cans and bottles goes along ways towards reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with landfills.
Just Walk
It’s that easy! We need to start to train ourselves to walk to short trips and outings. It’s great for the environment and our general health and wellbeing. When possible, walk or ride your bike in order to avoid carbon emissions completely. Carpooling and public transportation drastically reduce CO2 emissions by spreading them out over many riders.
Cars and trucks are the number one transportation offenders. Transportation accounts for almost half of noxious air pollution, more than a third of greenhouse gas emissions, one quarter of common air contamination and almost one-fifth of water toxicity.
Energy Usage
Did you know that Canada is the largest consumer of energy in the world on a per capita basis, and the second largest producer of greenhouse gases (after the United States). Wasting energy hurts nature and your wallet because energy efficiency means lower bills as well as less pollution. Here are the top tips for reducing energy leaks:
- Reduce your home heating and electricity use. A more energy-efficient home will lower your utility bills and reduce the emissions that cause climate change.
- Choose energy-efficient appliances. New refrigerators, for example, use 40 per cent less energy than models made just 10 years ago.