Top 5 ways to reduce your carbon footprint in summer | Pawprint- Your Eco Companion

2020 has been quite a year so far. Reminding people that the climate crisis still needs urgent attention feels a bit like asking a mum with triplets to prioritise herself-’snort… with what time?’

Fair enough, and that’s exactly why instead of focusing on the bad and the difficult, this blog looks at the ‘bite-sized good’.

Small, sustained lifestyle changes from everyone will make a massive difference to carbon emissions. Below we outline 5 ways you can do your bit, even during one of the weirdest periods of your life.

1. Drink local beer
   Summer conjures images of long sunny afternoons in beer gardens with mates (read: socially distanced garden or park pints, for the time being… Sigh). And while we will never dissuade this behaviour (we love a Paw-pint- see what we did there?) we would like to offer some solutions to make it more eco friendly. By choosing to drink beer from a local brewery, you’ll be choosing not to attach unnecessary sea and road miles to your pint. Which means a lower carbon footprint. Get this-swapping one imported beer for a local brew per week would save 1kg CO2e per year. Imagine if 10,000 people committed to that; that’s 10 tonnes CO2e every year… from 1 beer each! That’s equivalent to driving over 18,000 miles in terms of emissions. Other tips include buying tinnies over glass bottles (as they’re lighter to transport) and being militant about recycling your can. Let’s bring a new meaning to the term ‘drink responsibly’.
2. Staycation
   In a glass half full kind of way, Coronavirus is doing a solid for the planet by forcing us all to look closer to home for getaways this summer. (Please note: we’re not advocating getaways until the lockdown rules permit). While the thought of exploring the British Isles might seem a little less exciting, and it’s disappointing that ‘un cerveza por favor’ is useless this year, there are actually loads of amazing places right here in the UK that are worth exploring. Visit Portmeirion Village and you could be in Italy. Langamull Beach and you could be in the Caribbean. Explore Sgwd Yr Eiraand suddenly it’s not so bad that you aren’t backpacking around South America. If 2 people chose to drive together to the Lake District from Edinburgh, instead of flying to Barcelona, they’d save around 560kg CO2e each. The same as driving over 1000 miles in terms of emissions. Read ‘ What is the carbon footprint of your holiday?’ for more on this topic.
3. Consume responsibly
   What you choose to spend money on outside of food, home and travel accounts for a third of your carbon footprint-around 4.3 tonnes CO2e per year. As consumers, we often forget or don’t realise the power we have when it comes to creating widespread change. By choosing to spend your money on products or services that are doing their bit for the planet, you’re sending a strong message to organisations and governments that change is wanted.
4. Switch to renewable energy
   To have the greatest impact on your carbon footprint, switch to a supplier that generates their own electricity or sources it directly from renewable energy generators. Good Energy and Ecotricity are two UK providers that do this with 100% of their energy. If you cannot afford these suppliers, choosing one of the other renewable energy providers (whose energy isn’t actually 100% renewable — look out for the new release of Mike Berners Lee’s ‘ How Bad Are Bananas’ for more on this) will still send a signal to suppliers that there is demand for greener energy. Remember your power!
5. Eat local food
   Since spending money on food is one of the only outlets we have at the moment, it’s a good time to mix up what you buy. Do you have a local market or farm shop you could frequent? Or could you order a subscription box that comes to you straight from a nearby farm? Buying local produce reduces your carbon footprint because the food hasn’t racked up the road, sea and air miles that imported food has. You can read our recent blog ‘ Does eating local food lower your carbon footprint? ‘ to learn more.

Much like the mum, whose triplets will be much better off in the long run if she finds some time to take care of herself, so too will the planet be better equipped to take care of us if we can give it the chance it needs.

Leading climate scientists have warned that we only have a decade or so to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or the risk of natural disasters will significantly worsen.

Let’s make 2020 an exception, not a trend. It starts with all of us doing our bit!

Originally published at https://www.pawprint.eco on June 22, 2020.