It’s true that aggressive policies and laws are crucial to save the planet. But carbon-cutting actions by individuals can also make a dent (especially when corporations and elected officials take note!). Here are some easy, concrete ways you can make a difference.
“Change only happens when individuals take action,” Aliya Haq, NRDC’s Climate and Energy special projects director, says. “There’s no other way, if it doesn’t start with people.”
Here are things that you can do to make a difference:
- Use only LED bulbs. LEDs use as little as 10 percent of the energy of incandescent bulbs. And because the average American home has around 40 to 50 lightbulbs, this is a simple swap that will reap huge rewards. If every household in the United States replaced just one incandescent with an Energy Star–labeled LED, we would prevent seven billion pounds of carbon pollution per year. That’s equivalent to the emissions of about 648,000 cars.
- Invest in energy efficient appliances. Since the Energy Star program’s inception in 1992, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates it has reduced climate-altering pollution by more than 2.7 billion metric tons—equivalent to the annual emissions of 700 coal-fired power plants—while saving consumers $430 billion in energy costs. A 15-year-old refrigerator, for example, uses twice as much energy as a new, Energy Star‒certified model. Replacing that old fridge could prevent 5,000 pounds of carbon pollution and cut your utility bill by as much as $260 over five years. (The EPA offers a refrigerator retirement calculator to estimate the savings.)
- Recycle old appliances. Recycling an old refrigerator through the EPA’s Responsible Appliance Disposal Program can prevent an additional 10,000 pounds of carbon pollution because the global-warming pollutants in the refrigerants and foam would be properly captured rather than vented to the air.
- Keep your electronics from drawing “excess energy.” Unplug rarely used devices, such as televisions in guest rooms. Plug others into power strips or “smart” outlets so they draw power only when needed. Use timers for items you might forget to turn on and off, like coffeemakers. Set your computer to go to sleep after 30 minutes or less of inactivity, and turn it off when you’re finished using it.
- Insulate. Up to one-third of home heat escapes through windows and doors, so if you’re feeling a draft, weather-strip your windows and use caulk to plug leaks, then hang heavier drapes. Properly insulating your walls and attic will also help preserve heat, energy, and money—in fact, all these improvements could cut your heating bill by 25 percent.
- Replace drafty old windows with double-paned, Energy Star–rated windows. This upgrade could cut carbon pollution by 2.4 tons per year for homes with gas heat, 3.9 tons with oil heat, and 9.8 tons with electric heat. A less expensive option is storm windows, which are temporary, install easily over existing windows, and can reduce heat loss by 25 percent to 50 percent. (If you’re renting or can’t replace your windows this year, you can apply low-emissive—also called low-E—film over them to reduce heat loss.)
- Make sure your fridge and freezer doors seal tightly when closed. Try the dollar-bill test. If a bill shut in the door is easy to pull out, it’s time to replace the gaskets.
- Cut down on snail mail. Sign up for e-billing. Paper bills generate about two million tons of carbon pollution a year. Stop junk mail and free yourself from unwanted catalogs.
- Stop throwing away food. Each Filipino wasted an average of 3.29kg/year, according to the Food and Nurtrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (FNRI-DOST). . And that means that all the energy, water, land, fertilizer, and other resources that go into growing, storing, transporting, and preparing that food is also wasted. Once food reaches landfills, it gradually converts to methane, a powerful climate pollutant. The most important thing to do is shop wisely—buy no more than what you expect to use.
- Compost. Organic materials, such as food scraps and yard waste, can be broken down and added to soil to help plants grow instead of sent to the landfill where they release methane.
- Go on a climate friendly-diet. Some food produces more carbon in its production and transportation than others. For example, if cattle were their own nation, they would be the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitters, behind China and the United States. Livestock like cows, sheep, and goats emit methane. Climate-altering pollution also is generated from the energy needed to grow feed for those animals.
Beef production creates five times more greenhouse gases than pork or chicken and eleven times more than staples like potatoes, wheat, and rice. If Americans cut just a quarter pound of beef a week from their diets, it would be like taking 10 million cars off the road for one year.
In addition to cutting down on beef and other carbon-intensive foods like cheese, yogurt, and butter, eat locally produced food. You’ll keep food from traveling long distances by planes, trains, trucks, and ships. - Buy less bottled water. Bottled water requires a lot of fossil fuels to manufacture and ship. Invest in a reusable water bottle you can refill when you’re thirsty. If you’re nervous about the quality of your local tap water, look for a bottle with a built-in filter.
When you have no choice but to buy a bottle of water, be sure to recycle it. (Only about 31 percent of plastic bottles were recycled in 2015.) Each recycled bottle is one fewer piece of plastic trash that could wind up in our oceans and harm marine life. - Plant a tree. One tree will absorb more than a ton of carbon dioxide during its lifetime.
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