Earth Week Day 2: Calculate Your Carbon Footprint & Reduce It

It’s Earth Week! Each day this week SLCgreen will post different tips and activities to challenge you to reduce your impact on the Earth. Today, we are challenging you to calculate and reduce your climate footprint!

Calculate & Reduce

The EPA calculator estimates your footprint in three areas: home energy, transportation, and waste. Everyone’s carbon footprint is different depending on their location, habits, and personal choices. https://www3.epa.gov/carbon-footprint-calculator/

Maybe you are very efficient with the energy usage in your home, but live far away from work so have to drive more. The calculator will give you a snapshot of your footprint and the “best bang for your buck” in how to reduce it.

Eat Low Carbon

The EPA calculator is focused on direct greenhouse gas emissions.

Another important way to shrink your footprint is by cutting indirect emissions by choosing “low carbon” foods. The food we eat accounts for 25% of our overall carbon footprint– that’s huge!

Therefore, understanding the food system will allow us to make dietary decisions that have a direct impact on climate change, as well as our local environment and economy.

A low carbon diet minimizes the emissions released from the production, packaging, processing, transport, preparation and waste of food.

Major tenets of a low carbon diet include:

• Eating less industrial meat and dairy
• Consuming less industrially produced food in general
• Choosing food grown locally and seasonally
• Eating less processed and packaged foods
• Reducing waste from food by proper portion size, recycling or composting.

Click here to take the Eat Low Carbon quiz.

Then, learn how to Dine With Discretion by making food choices that reduce your impact on the earth.