Happy Earth Day everyone! Today I want to share 5 easy ways to reduce your carbon footprint today. These simple hacks and products aren’t expensive and if everyone would start employing these habits they could significantly make a difference.

Do these seem like a lot for you to try/use? That was me a few years ago. I started small but it had a ripple effect immediately.

Here is a look at my journey:

5 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Plastics

Lets’ start with plastics. According to National Geographic, plastic pollution has become one of the most pressuring environmental issues we face today. It is also the EASIEST thing to change in our home.

Are you an animal lover? Do you love visiting the ocean? Maybe this will help inspire change:

“Plastic trash is found in the guts of more than 90% of the world’s sea birds (ref), in the stomachs of more than half of the world’s sea turtles (ref), and it’s even choking the life out of whales (ref). At the rate at which plastic is accumulating in the oceans of the planet, it’s predicted that, by 2050, the mass of plastic in the world’s oceans will exceed the mass of all the fish that live there (ref).”

1.It all started when I dropped plastic water bottles. I will never look back and I am a little grossed out at how long it took me to make this change. Water out of a filter tastes just as good, if not better. These glass water bottles are perfect for on the go, guests, or to leave by your bedside.

2.Then I realized how silly it would be to put a plastic straw in a glass bottle. This silicone travel straw is so easy to carry around with you. I have one in my diaper bag and one in my car. If I go to get food anywhere I just ask that they hold the straw and I use the one I have on me.

3.When I dropped plastic water bottles and straws, I realize how silly it was for me to still be bringing home tons of plastic bags from the store. I leave these IKEA bags in the back of my car so I never forget them. They are very sturdy and big so you can fit everything you buy from the store in just a few and you will still be able to carry them yourself.

Buying Local

Buying local is great because you actually know where your food came from and you are supporting your local economy. But did you know buying locally is also great for the environment? According to gogreen.org, when you shop at the grocery store, many of the food items you buy travel over 1500 miles to reach your plate. When you buy local produce, you cut those carbon emissions significantly.

When you buy locally there is also wayyy less packaging involved, which we are already trying to cut out using the items above.

Lastly, according to greenmatters.com, when you eat out of season or out of range, you are increasing the amount of water that is needed. Example: More water is needed to say, grow strawberries in New York in the dead of winter. They’re not supposed to be growing in winter in New York because it’s not their season in that region. Hence, needing more resources to “encourage” them to grow.

4. Once I started paying more attention to plastics I realized all of our milk and eggs came in plastic containers, so we started having our milk and eggs delivered from a local farm in recyclable bottles and boxes. It gets delivered every Tuesday and we love it so much!

I searched for local farms in our area and then picked one based off of the reviews.

5. Helping local farms means a lot to me, so I started paying more attention to the vegetables I bought at the grocery store. I began buying organic, local produce which caused me to look up more meals that involved the vegetables I had grabbed that week. A lot of those recipes were vegan. This led to me eating less meat. I feel like I used to have meat in every single meal during the day. That is 27 meals! Now meat is probably in around 10 of the meals I eat. I am still working on it!

Try buying local produce during your next grocery store run.

These are just 5 EASY ways to reduce your carbon footprint. There are obviously TONS more ways we can all work together to help the environment. These 5 hacks are small, attainable steps we can all start with to help make a difference.

A few more ways to help reduce your carbon footprint (some of these are a little harder to do/remember):

• Drive less, carpool more.
• Keep things around the house unplugged when you aren’t using them.
• Have more plants in your home.
• Hang your clothes to dry.

I would love to hear what efforts you have made in your own home to help reduce your carbon footprint.

xox Amanda