Practical Ways To Lower Your Household Carbon Emissions

From reducing waste to shopping locally, households can do many things to reduce their carbon footprint. According to data shared by Citu, the average family in the UK produces 2.7 tons of carbon from heating their homes every year. Everyday activities like using electrical power produced from coal or gas, heating homes, and driving emit greenhouse gases. The products you purchase also contribute to carbon emissions because they require fossil fuels during manufacturing, packaging, and transportation.

Fortunately, households can reduce their carbon footprint by being eco-friendly. While going green sounds intimidating, you can achieve the best outcomes by following simple steps. Replacing incandescent bulbs with LEDs and upgrading your heating controls, for example, are easy and effective ways to reduce energy waste in your home. Keep reading to learn other practical ways to lower your household carbon emissions.

Conduct A Home Energy Audit

The first step to making your home greener is conducting an energy audit. A home energy assessment helps you understand energy usage in your home and the steps you can take to reduce energy consumption. Some energy-saving opportunities you’ll discover during an audit include replacing your old dial thermostat with a programmable one and cleaning your air ducts. You might also want to change your shower heads with those that use less water or upgrade your kitchen appliances with energy-efficient models. Insulating your home and fitting dual-panel windows are other excellent tactics home energy auditors recommend to reduce your home’s carbon emissions. 

Take Advantage of Renewable Energy

A large percentage of the electricity you use in your home is produced in coal-powered plants. These plants pollute the environment with toxic fumes, contributing to climate change. Fortunately, the average family can reduce their environmental impact by switching to renewable energies. Electricity generated from solar, geothermal, and wind can significantly help your household minimise carbon emissions because there are no greenhouse gases emitted when producing power. 

Aside from making your home greener, wind, solar, and geothermal energy help you save money on electricity bills. Many energy companies offer greener tariffs at low rates. You could also install solar panels in your home and enjoy zero monthly energy bills. When you choose solar panels, you only need to pay for the equipment and installation.

Make Recycling and Repurposing a Priority

Throwing trash in landfills doesn’t seem harmful, but it is. Note that landfills are a leading source of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. To lower your family’s carbon footprint, you need to encourage recycling. Teach your children how to recycle household items like glass, plastics, steel, aluminum cans, magazines, and newspapers. Apart from recycling waste, your family can minimize the consumption of resources and carbon emissions by repurposing furniture, toys, clothes, and packaging materials. For example, instead of purchasing new furniture, you can reupholster, repaint, and refinish old furnishing. Also, turn old packaging materials into décor elements, repair tires before replacing them, and donate toys and clothes.

Use Reusable Diapers

Disposable diapers have many environmental impacts because the production process requires gallons of water and produces tons of waste that must be treated on-site. When dumped in landfills, diapers take approximately 250 years to decompose. Here they emit toxic gases like methane, a leading cause of global warming. Although disposable diapers are necessary at times, using reusable nappies once in a while can help lower your family’s overall carbon footprint.

Reusable or cloth nappies require 98% less raw materials for production compared to disposable diapers. Moreover, manufacturers use ethical methods to make reusable diapers. Typically, the waste produced during production is recycled and used to make stuffed toys. Other benefits of using cloth nappies include cost savings, reusable packaging, and supporting local businesses selling reusable diapers. 

Be Mindful of What Your Eat

The food you and your family consume every day has a significant impact on the climate. Worldwide, food production accounts for a quarter of greenhouse emissions, with dairy and meat producing the most carbon emission. To ensure your household decreases its carbon footprint, consider consuming less red meat. This means eating vegetables, fruits, and grains more often. If you must consume a diet with meat, cut down meat from cows and sheep because they produce methane in large quantities.

In addition to cutting meat consumption in your home, buy locally produced foods produced. That’s because transporting food from other regions by ship, rail, or plane requires the use of fossil fuels for gasoline and cooling perishable foods while on transit. As a result, the rate of carbon emissions increases. Other practical ways to ensure your household eats sustainably include growing your food, buying in season, minimizing your food waste, composting, and avoiding eating highly processed meals.

Household carbon emission accounts for a large percentage of the total carbon footprint in the UK and worldwide. Fortunately, there are many ways the average family can reduce their environmental impact. This includes recycling, reusing, and repurposing household items, investing in energy-efficient appliances, eating sustainably, using cloth nappies, and switching to renewable energy.