There’s no denying that climate change is happening rapidly and over the past few years, it seems like most of us are waking up and facing the reality that our planet is in danger. Big changes on a global scale are needed to combat the detriment that our planet is facing, but there’s still a long list of things we can do as individuals on a daily basis to reduce our carbon footprint and become part of the solution, even if a small one.

Consider Travelling Differently

We all know that cars are one of the biggest contributing factors to the worrying climate crisis. Reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that comes from cars would have a significant positive impact on the environment and there are many ways to decrease your reliance on a car. According to a NY Times article on how to reduce your carbon footprint, if you were to go without a car for just a year, you would be stopping around 2.6 tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere. However, it might not be realistic to give up your car entirely, so you might want to look at other ways to reduce your carbon footprint without ditching your personal vehicle entirely.

Try walking, using a bicycle, or public transport for most destinations and if you happen to be looking to change your car in the near future, keep low emissions in mind and consider an electric or hybrid car. Finally, keeping your car regularly serviced, checking your tire pressure and avoiding using the air conditioning can help keep your car emissions low.

Switch to the Online World

One of the easiest ways to avoid relying on your car is to consider trying online shopping rather than driving to the store yourself. Like most people, you probably make use of your personal car to do your shopping, especially if using public transport means lugging heavy bags to the bus stop and back home.

There are two ways you can change the way you do your shopping to reduce your carbon footprint. The first is to buy in bulk, for example, going once a month rather than driving to the store every day or every week.

An even better solution, however, is to take advantage of the convenience of online shopping. This is a more energy efficient solution because it means less vehicles on the road and many of the bigger delivery companies are now investing in more carbon neutral vehicles for deliveries.

Switching a few of your typical activities to the online world is something you can consider not only for your grocery or other shopping needs, but even activities such as buying a lottery ticket, scratch card, or even visiting a casino, for example. As you may already know, visits to a land-based casino are one of the most popular activities in Canada, but what you may not know is that casinos have shockingly high energy consumption rates.

Think of all the bright lights, the slot machines in operation, the music, and all the other casino equipment that use up exorbitant amounts of energy and electricity. Instead of visiting your local casino or driving to buy a lotto card or scratch card, try visiting one of the online casinos in Ontario as a much more carbon neutral option. Online casinos have drastically lower operation costs and electricity consumption rates and just like online shopping, going digital is a much greener option.

Reduce Your Meat Consumption

If you’re trying to live a more carbon neutral lifestyle and reduce your carbon footprint, one of the ways you can do so is by looking at what’s on your plate. It’s not only your car and your appliances that cause harmful emissions in the environment; the production of certain foods like meat and dairy requires a lot of energy to produce that’s not very beneficial to the environment.

Large amounts of land and water are needed to produce these products, not to mention the fact that keeping cows for slaughter is one of the biggest contributing factors to harmful emissions. Cows are responsible for a gas known as methane, one of the most harmful gasses because it can trap heat in the atmosphere, therefore contributing to the climate change problem the world is facing.

Implement Energy Saving Tips in Your Home

Our personal homes are another major source of harmful emissions and high energy consumption. With big appliances, heating and cooling, water, and electricity used on a daily basis, there are many energy saving tips you can use to reduce the overall energy consumption in your home.

Some of the best energy saving tips you can implement in your home include switching your light bulbs to LEDS, turning off appliances as soon as they’re not in use or using the sleep function, keeping your refrigerator and freezer at the recommended temperature setting, and properly insulating your home.

Make Sustainable Shopping Choices

We mentioned above that shopping online is one of the best tips towards a more carbon neutral lifestyle but choosing more sustainable products when shopping is also very important. For example, when clothes shopping, consider buying vintage or second-hand clothes and keep an eye out for the fairtrade logo.

Clothes that are mass produced by the millions in massive warehouses are not only unethical but incredibly harmful to the environment. When upgrading your wardrobe, don’t forget to donate your old clothes to a charity shop or repurpose them as cleaning rags, for example, rather than chucking them in the garbage.

Get Rid of Single-Use Plastic

Single-use plastic has long been a target of environmental campaigns and we all know the harm that plastic causes to the environment. Many big businesses have taken steps to eliminate single-use plastic by switching to alternative materials like paper or biodegradable materials, but there’s still a lot we can do on a daily basis to eliminate the biggest enemy to our oceans!

If you’re shopping in person, take your own bags to the store or if you’re out getting your daily latte, take a reusable travel mug rather than accepting a disposable coffee cup. Avoid buying unnecessary packaged products such as fruit and vegetables and avoid plastic drinking straws, plates, and cups. If you must buy plastic items such as a plastic bottle or container on occasion, you can repurpose them for a long time before you recycle them.