Looking for practical ways to reduce your carbon footprint from home? Or maybe you’re
wondering what a carbon footprint even is? Don’t worry. I got you.
Hey y’all hey it’s Ashley Renne and welcome to my sustainable lifestyle and tech channel.
I regularly post videos about my smart home, electric car, and other topics related to
sustainability so if you’re into that kind of thing, subscribe and hit the notification
bell so you never miss a new video.
Now today’s video is all about reducing your carbon footprint while you’re in the
comfort of your home. So what is a carbon footprint anyway? Basically it’s the total
amount of greenhouse gas emissions (like carbon dioxide and methane) that are generated by
our every day actions. These growing levels of carbon dioxide, methane, and other pollutants
have a huge impact on people and the environment in many ways so here are 15 ways you can reduce
your carbon footprint at home!
CARBON OFFSETS
Tip #1 is to Support Businesses that Offset Your Carbon Emissions. Anytime you buy a product
you increase your carbon footprint because of the carbon emissions that were generated
to create that product and deliver it to you. However, sustainable companies like Peet’s
Coffee, can help you make up for that carbon footprint by offsetting it. Peet’s Coffee
has a curated subscription that sponsors carbon-absorbing mangrove trees for each delivery that is sent
to you. This is huge. A big part of fighting climate change is finding ways to remove carbon
from the atmosphere, and studies show Mangrove trees are storing 3-5x more carbon dioxide
than rainforests.! So if you’re a coffee drinker, which many of you are, you can help
fight climate change just by switching to another brand of coffee. Peet’s Coffee is
the first coffee subscription that offsets carbon emissions. For each monthly subscription
delivery, they’ll sponsor three mangrove trees to offset your carbon dioxide emissions
for that month. They even send you the exact coordinates of the mangrove trees you helped
sponsor. You can watch them grow with Google Maps and know that they’ll be absorbing
carbon dioxide for years to come. I think that’s so dope! Companies need to do their
part to create sustainable products for us to consume and the more we support the companies
who are doing that, the more pressure we put on other companies to hop on board. So that’s
why my very first tip in this video is to support brands that are accountable for their
actions to the environment and really making that effort to become more sustainable. And
in this case, you get to support great hand roasted coffee, a great organization, and
be socially responsible at the same time.
Now let’s talk about energy consumption at home.
My 2nd tip is to install solar panels on your house. I know it sounds like a big change
to make, but I promise you this is where things are headed. Solar power is more affordable,
accessible, and prevalent in the United States than ever before. You should get it because
solar energy creates clean, renewable power from the sun. It’s an eco-friendly alternative
to fossil fuels that reduces your carbon footprint at home and lowers greenhouse gases around
the world.
Tip 3 is to use energy-efficient insulation in your home that reduces the exchange of
heat, so that less cool air escapes your house in the summer, and less warm air escapes during
the winter. The Environmental Production Agency estimates that homeowners can save about 15
percent on heating and cooling costs by air sealing their homes and adding insulation
in attics and floors over crawl spaces and basements.
Tip 4 in the energy category is to use energy-efficient smart tech. I give plenty of ideas in my Ultimate
Smart Home Tour video, like smart blinds that help you maximize natural light usage, smart
fans that help regulate the temperature of your house, smart plugs that prevent your
appliances from leeching energy when they aren’t in use, and a ton of other examples.
So make sure to peep that video to see some ways we use smart technology to reduce our
carbon footprint.
The next category I want to explore is water usage.
Which brings me to Tip #5 – get a rain barrel. Rain barrels capture water from your roof
and store it for later use such as to water your lawn, gardens or indoor plants. Rain
barrels not only help reduce runoff pollution that contaminate our waterways, but also help
reduce the amount of water entering the overloaded storm sewers in your area.
Tip 6 is a pretty straightforward one. Take shorter showers. Taking a long shower every
day uses a lot more water than you think. According to Home Water Works, the average
American shower uses 15.8 gallons of water and lasts for about 7.8 minutes on average.
Tip 7 is to use your dishwasher. Contrary to popular belief, a dishwasher is more sustainable
than handwashing because usually dishwashers use less water. To be the most water-efficient,
make sure you only run your dishwasher with a full load, run it on the shortest cycle
setting, and don’t run the pre-rinse.
Ok let’s move into a new home category. The food in your kitchen.
Tip 8 is to cook plant-based meals. I’ve been vegan since 2016 and could talk for hours
about all the benefits, but for this video, I want to point out the giant carbon footprint
of meat and dairy, which is responsible for roughly 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions
and that’s a conservative estimate. Eating a vegan diet can significantly lower your
environmental impact. Meat and dairy products require a lot of land, water and energy to
produce. They also create a lot of methane, which is a greenhouse gas. Animal agriculture
is extremely water-intensive. Beef is typically regarded as the most water-intensive food
item, requiring an average of nearly 1,800 gallons of water for 1 pound of beef.
Tip 9 in the kitchen category is to compost. When you throw away food, it enters landfills
where it rots and generates methane emissions. Composting is an eco-friendly way to prevent
this kind of polluting food waste. Plus composting is free, doesn’t use energy to produce,
and provides nutrients for your outdoor garden.
Tip 10 is to grow your own food. As I said earlier, anytime you buy a product, carbon
is emitted during its production and transport. The more food you grow, the less new food
you buy, and the lower your carbon footprint. I even regrow store bought food from scraps.
Check out my video on regrowing scallions to see an example of an easy one to try.
The next home category is laundry. A lot of resources go into doing laundry. It releases
not just dirt into the water and environment, but also detergent chemicals and synthetic
fragrances, genetically modified enzymes, carbon dioxide and microplastics.
So Tip 11 is to use plant-based detergents or make your own. Look for labels that indicate
a product is biodegradable and phosphate-free, and is plant-based instead of petroleum-based,
which means it’s healthier for the planet, from production all the way to the rinse cycle.
Tip 12 – stop using fabric softener and dryer sheets. Not only is it an unnecessary
added expense to your laundry routine, those scented softeners and sheets contain hazardous
chemicals and the production of these chemicals increases your carbon footprint.
Tip 13 is use cold water when doing laundry. A good chunk of the energy needed to do a
load of laundry goes into heating the water. Using cold water saves energy and will save
on your electric bill too.
Lastly let’s take a look at the carbon footprint of our closets.
Tip 14 is to stop buying fast fashion, consume less fashion in general, and avoid impulse
purchases. According to the UN, the fashion industry accounts for about 10% of global
carbon emissions and 20% of wastewater.
Finally Tip 15 is to shop second-hand, buy vintage, and/or rent clothing. This helps
extend the use of clothing items and cuts down on new purchases.
That’s all I got for today, but I think it was plenty to get you started. If you liked
this video make sure you give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more sustainable lifestyle
videos just like this. I’ll catch ya next week in a new video and until then, stay green
y’all.