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How Can You Reduce Your Carbon Footprint: Practical Steps for a Sustainable Lifestyle · How To Protect The Ocean

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  How do you lower your carbon footprint? That's probably one of the questions that a
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  lot of people have, but don't really look at. There's a
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  lot of calculators out there. Some works well, some don't, but
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  we always try and figure out like where our measurement is from an
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  estimation point of view. And then how can we actually lower our
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  carbon footprint? Right? Because once you know where you're at, you
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  can find ways to actually lower it through food purchases
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  or clothing purchases or travel or lack of travel
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  and so forth. And maybe the things you drive or your heating bill
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  or the way you heat your home or cool your home. There's a
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  lot of different ways, but sometimes it helps to have a bit of that guide.
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  So today, what we're going to be going over is finding ways
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  to lower your carbon footprint. Forbes
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  put out a great article on how to reduce your carbon footprint. And
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  we're going to talk about some of the things that have been added to there. That's on this
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  episode of the how to protect the ocean podcast. Let's start the show. Hey
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  everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm
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  your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean,
• 1:05
  how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean by
• 1:09
  taking action. And the first action you're taking is by
• 1:12
  tuning into this episode and this podcast, and whether
• 1:16
  you're on the YouTube channel or you're on our website speakupforblue.com or
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  sign up through your email for free and I protect your email I don't sell it
• 1:31
  and you get you know Ocean News all our latest podcasts all our latest videos
• 1:35
  you get access to three news articles every day Monday to
• 1:38
  Friday and of course, three different types of
• 1:42
  job advertisements if you want to dedicate more time to the
• 1:45
  ocean. But on today's episode, we're going to be talking something differently. I haven't done
• 1:48
  this in a little bit. We're going to be talking about lowering your carbon
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  footprint. And this is something that I always find interesting because
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  over the last number of years, Well, previously,
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  like 10, 20 years ago, there was a big focus on lowering
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  your carbon footprint. Each individual should lower the carbon footprint. Then
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  it kind of got out and being like, why do we put the onus just on
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  individual people? The governments should be helping us
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  lower the footprint by putting the regulations in terms of fossil
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  fuel cap and usage. oil and gas development, which all is
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  encompassed coal and things like that, and going more toward renewable energy, that
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  would have a bigger impact from a national and international level.
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  So international deals were created, some
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  were destroyed, and some were created again, and we've started to see that
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  evolution. We started to see more and more countries work towards that, but
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  it really depends on which party of that country is
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  in power for that government. For instance, the Trump administration that
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  just won their election last week, Is going to be coming in
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  in January and they are going to be taking apart a lot of the climate
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  change policies So they've said that has been put up by
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  the previous administration the Biden administration and so
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  and we're gonna see a lot more development of oil and gas and fossil fuels
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  than we saw previously to this this administration that the u.s. Has now
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  and the same thing in Canada, you know, the liberal government's in power right now They're trying
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  to do as much as they can and That
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  could be more of taking away policies like the
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  carbon tax, taking away other policies for climate change, and reducing
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  climate change, and putting in more policies to develop the tar sands,
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  which is very dirty gas that is
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  made from Canada. And we're going to see a lot more
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  on just degrading the environment. That's just, for some reason, that's
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  the Conservative Party at this point, in my opinion, and from historical
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  records. Regardless, people have to deal with
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  the governments that have been elected in a democracy, right? Whether we
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  agree with the government's policies or not, they're put
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  in place because people wanted them, the majority of people wanted them in
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  place. And so now it's time to really start
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  focusing on your individual footprint and how
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  you can reduce that over time. don't help
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  in the overall schemes, but it can help you feel better about yourself to
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  say, hey, you know what? I'm actually thinking more sustainably. I'm
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  thinking more about the planet and that's making me feel better
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  from a mental health perspective because I know it helps me. So
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  the first thing to do is to figure out what your carbon footprint
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  is today. Don't judge yourself too much. Try to figure it
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  out. There's a great tool for the Nature Conservancy I'll
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  link to it in the article, I'll link to the article that has it in there. I've
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  tried to use it, you know, just full disclosure, I'm having trouble
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  getting past the first part. I don't know if it's just because I'm
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  coming in from Canada and maybe it didn't like, it looked like it
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  liked my address but it didn't really. So I'd love to
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  hear if you have any trouble with it or you have success with it. Please
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  let me know, hit me up on Instagram at HowToProtectTheOcean or
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  on YouTube or comment below on the YouTube video for this episode
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  or comment in Spotify. But I'd love to hear here
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  So that's the first thing, get what you have and
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  understand where you are in your carbon footprint. The other
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  thing to look at, according to this Forbes article that talked to sustainability leaders,
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  they talked about buying vegetables instead of
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  beef. So when it comes to making more eco-friendly choices, shopping choices, experts
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  generally advise buying local or artisanal products rather
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  than mass-produced food and fast fashion. So the first thing, let's talk
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  about the food. Local farm food is usually
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  pretty good you try it want to try and stay away from any imported food
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  if you can try and stay away from any Mass-produced
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  like beef or things like that try and go to local farmers to get the beef if
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  you can I know groceries are expensive. So
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  I'm not expecting everybody to go bankrupt over doing it. Sometimes I
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  can't buy the perfect type of meat
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  or vegetable because it's just too expensive, trying to
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  find where it is, or it becomes almost impossible to get on a regular basis.
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  So do what you can in doing
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  that research. Talk to local farmers. Talk to maybe some farmers markets and
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  find out where you can get. The best is to start up for your local farmers
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  market. and see where that goes. But livestock are
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  a major source of methane emissions and a
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  powerful greenhouse gas, many times more potent than carbon dioxide.
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  So shifts from meat to more plant-based proteins in
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  your diet could reduce foods by a food footprint
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  by 50 to 80% that are far greater effective in
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  simply choosing locally sourced beef. If
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  you can go more towards that vegetable-based diet, it's
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  also better for you in a lot of ways. You can still have some protein, some
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  meat, some seafood, and so forth. Just be careful where you get it from. And
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  I think that's really important. But locally raised beef are more sustainable choices
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  than factory farmed, of course. Same with chicken. With
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  your fish, obviously wild is probably better, but
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  even some aquacultured sources can be good, but
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  do your research in trying to find that. Then the
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  other one was talking about fast fashion versus, you know, sort of
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  wear wool. So wear wool instead of fast fashion with synthetic fibers. So
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  stay away from clothes with synthetics of fibers, which is very difficult because most
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  clothes are synthetic fibers and most fashion is
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  fast fashion. You know, I am a father of
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  two girls. Shopping is happening
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  in this household and a lot of the times it's frustrating because the
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  items they buy, you can tell it from fast fashion, they're very,
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  very cheap, which makes it really nice as a family for in
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  today's economy to be able to buy clothes for my
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  kids, to be able to to be able to wear
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  something that they like, but it's also, is it the best for
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  the environment? Can we lower our footprint just with where these clothes
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  are coming from? Is it better to buy less that
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  it's more expensive but it'll last longer? Staying away
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  from synthetic fibers is great. Staying away from fast
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  fashion brands, which is awesome. There's a recent article that
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  was shown Zara's, a
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  fast fashion company, has been using upsell of
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  reused denim, but it's actually new denim. And so they're trying
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  to use that upcycle and it's greenwashed, but
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  not in a good, like it's just greenwashing, which your company does not wanna be associated with.
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  Nobody wants to be associated with that. So you have to be careful when you start to
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  see these words like upcycled or recycled. Are they actually recycled?
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  Are they actually upcycled? The best thing to do that
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  is cheaper, I always tell my kids too, if they want to buy their clothes, go
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  to a thrift shop and buy thrift clothes because at least it's better
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  to reuse those clothes than it is to buy new ones in fast fashion.
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  You can get them for just as cheap, maybe cheaper than the fast fashion brands.
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  So that's always good. And the third way is to invest in sustainable
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  business practices. So in this one, it's actually
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  really interesting. So the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
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  Compass offers a practical guide for entrepreneurs and
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  executives who want to promote more environmentally friendly processes
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  at work. So they can allow... to distribute
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  to committees, environmental committees at work. And those committees
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  can actually put together the guides and say, hey,
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  how can we adapt this to our business practices? And how can
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  we become more sustainable at our workplace? It empowers your
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  staff, if you own a business, it empowers your staff
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  to be more conscious, to make them feel
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  and do better and use more sustainable practices in
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  their life. I mean, I know a lot of times people are working from home,
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  some people are working at work. So having these committees for
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  both situations, if you're a hybrid workplace or you work completely
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  remote or you work at work, to have these guides to
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  be able to shell out to employees if you're part of an HR or
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  human resource department would be great to have. for your
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  employees. Employees can lead the charge on disruptive change
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  by advocating policies to reduce environmental impact and improve corporate
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  transparency. At Scripps Health,
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  an employee-led sustainability council brought forth improvements in
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  operations across a variety of areas, including construction, energy,
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  food, grounds, recycling, supply chain,
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  transportation, and vendor partnerships.
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  So another step could be swapping older incandescent light bulbs
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  with energy starts sufficient or certified bulbs that
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  can reduce power consumption and lighting fixture of a lighting
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  fixture by 90% according to the EPA. So there are some
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  ways that could really help the business save money but all and
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  empower their employees to put these guides together for their
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  their workplace. So A quick and easy guide, three
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  quick easy steps. Stay away from, you
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  know, highly farmed or, you
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  know, factory farm type of food. Get more
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  local, you know, connect with your local farmers at your farmers markets.
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  Usually every place has them and you'll be able to, in
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  North America anyway that I know, and you'll be able to connect more with, you
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  know, people who are creating your food. You get to know the people who are creating food instead of
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  just buying it at a grocery store. So there are always farmers
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  markets around, there's always places, sometimes there's companies that create
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  these ways of getting vegetables from different farmers locally or
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  meat sources from different farmers if you're looking, it's a silly meat. And
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  then of course stay away from fast fashion brands, go more wool. Try
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  and stay away from highly processed and synthetic fibers. And
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  then of course the last one is putting these energy and sustainability practices
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  into your workplace. so that you can empower your employees as
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  well as do some really great savings with
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  your company. So that's always good for companies you save on the bottom line.
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  And you are more sustainable after that. So it's always great.
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  Stay away from greenwashing, of course, and do your best to lower your
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  carbon footprint. And of course, always start off with a
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  calculator that at least gives you an estimate of what you're doing. Start off...
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  I'll put the link in the show notes. and you can check that out. But
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  thank you again for listening. I'd love to hear if you go through this calculator,
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  what your level's at, how much do you think you can lower it by, or if you've
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  lowered it in the past and followed a similar process, I'd love
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  to hear from you. Just put a comment on the YouTube channel or Spotify, or
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  send me a DM on Instagram, at howtoprotecttheocean. I'd
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  love to hear from you. That's at howtoprotecttheocean. But thank you so much for joining
• 13:29
  me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.