As I stated in my column last month, there are seven broad areas we need to focus on to get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. This month I’m going to focus on the first of those areas, using less.
First, a few pieces of data. About 60% of greenhouse gas emissions come from household demand. A family in the United States generates three times the carbon emissions of a family in France. And that family in France generates about 10 times the emissions of a family in a country in the global south. In almost every product category, most American families buy more stuff during a year than families in any other nation, and about $5,000 consists of multiple impulse buys. This is true even though we often have access to perfectly acceptable used items. Why is data like this important? Well, in almost every case, we emit less carbon by buying nothing than by purchasing a new item, and most of us don’t have a good understanding of our carbon footprint, the amount of carbon dioxide we’re directly or indirectly responsible for adding to the atmosphere. We all need to better understand how our footprint increases based on our purchases and how we use them.
So, what can a family do in Harvard to reduce its carbon footprint? Here are some of my favorite items.
-1-
Use smart plugs and LED lights throughout your home. They’re easy to use and inexpensive, and you can save up to 25% on your National Grid electric bill by doing so. Popular brands include Kasa and Amysen.
-2-
Insulate. Insulate. Insulate. While I’m a big fan of heat pumps and electric cars and will talk more about them in future articles, families can also save money and reduce their carbon footprints by insulating their homes as much as possible. A family will spend some money upfront, but it will more than pay for itself in the long run. To see how MassSave may be able to help with the cost, go to https://www.masssave.com/en/residential/rebates-and-incentives/home-insulation.
-3-
Buy clothes less often, and make some of your purchases at a vintage shop when you buy them. Clothing manufacturers produce a hundred billion new pieces of clothing annually, and some are used only a few times or not at all. Also, give away any clothes you no longer use to the charity of your choice or sell them to your favorite vintage shop. Finally, there is a growing movement focused on the creative mending of clothes. Check it out if interested.
-4-
Borrow items you don’t often use from a neighbor instead of buying a new item. For example, I love power tools but rarely use them and could just as easily borrow them from a friend. In the future, I’ll do so. And I’ll lend the tools I own to anyone who wants to borrow them.
-5-
Eat less meat, especially beef. You don’t have to make a giant effort and go vegan (unless you are so inclined), but cutting back on meat for a day or two a week makes a huge difference in your carbon footprint. That’s because producing beef generates nearly twice the emissions of other meats (see graph below). And most physicians believe eating less meat is good for you, too.
-6-
Buy local, organic, and in season whenever possible. The carbon cost of transporting food from California or Chile is astronomical, and it’s often grown with fertilizer that isn’t good for the planet. For many of us, this may be hard to do in the winter, but there’s little reason not to buy locally in the summer.
-7-
Learn to pause before a purchase, even if only for an hour. As mentioned above, impulse buys are an issue and cost the average family $5,000 annually. Few families will get this number to zero (including mine), but cutting it in half is probably doable for most of us.
-8-
Whenever you can, repair something. Repair items when it is cost effective to do so. From a carbon footprint perspective, it’s almost always better than buying a new item. Plus, it’s almost always cheaper. Don’t get me wrong. Nearly all items need to be replaced at some point, but we often discard them prematurely. Check out the site https://www.repaircafe.org/en/.
-9-
Look for ways to conserve water in the summer. Droughts in Harvard will continue, and we must do everything we can to preserve our water supply in the summer months. Use rain barrels. Reduce the use of automated irrigation systems. Use drip hoses rather than sprinklers. Plant drought-resistant plants.
-10-
Subscribe to ethicalconsumer.org. It’s cheap and will help you assess how things are made and how they affect the environment.
Almost everywhere we look, our natural resources are at risk. We sometimes act as if they’re never-ending resources, but the truth is we’re running out of arable land, fresh water, and a host of other natural resources. We’re cutting down forests at an alarming rate, and in only 200 years, we’ve burnt an enormous amount of fossil fuels, all of which took millions of years to form naturally. Using less is part of how we break the cycle and help the planet heal.
Next month I’ll talk about switching to clean electric energy at home.
Rich Marcello is a novelist and a member of the Climate Initiative Committee. In writing his latest novel, he spent several years researching the climate crisis.
