TUGI Ambassadors January Monthly Prompt

By: Julia Nguyen, Amaan Rather & Shraddha Subash

​What are some individual actions we can take in our everyday lives to mitigate our carbon footprints?

Julia: There are individual actions we can take in our everyday lives to mitigate our carbon footprints, including carpooling, taking the bus, or even biking instead of driving everyday to school. We can also purchase less from fast fashion stores like Urban Outfitters, Forever 21, Zara etc, recycling our used garments, and going to the local thrift store. There are also many ways to recycle, or even use our own, metal and wooden tupperware to avoid bringing waste into our environment. Small steps like these contribute to safer and healthier ecosystems, which leaves our environment clean for future generations.

Amaan: A “carbon footprint” is a measure of all the carbon products that are emitted into the atmosphere as a result of the activities that a person takes part in. Whether you realize it or not, nearly everything we do in our lives has some impact on Earth; therefore, people have the responsibility to take part in eco-friendly actions to try and mitigate the damage done to the environment. Fortunately, there are a plethora of options that people have to try and reduce their carbon footprint. Firstly, we should try and shift our diets away from meat and dairy—they are responsible for nearly 15 percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions that come from feed production and burping by livestock. Additionally, we can try to shop less in general as it takes a lot of fossil fuels to make commercial products (most are from China and Bangladesh where there are fewer environmental restrictions/laws) and many unused products end up being dumped in landfills. We can also make more energy-conscious decisions such as driving less, limiting the use of heating/air conditioning, and switching from incandescent light bulbs (that waste 90 percent of their energy as heat) to LED bulbs to reduce the emissions that arise from using non-renewable energy sources. Finally, we should try and limit our use of water by using low-flow shower heads, fixing leaky taps, and not letting the water run while we go do other tasks. All of these actions help to protect the environment and help to reduce our carbon footprint. This is essential for the protection of our environment and to ensure that people have a healthy Earth for generations to come.

Shraddha​: It is paramount that we take initiative to conserve energy to mitigate our carbon footprints. It all starts with recognizing where your energy is directed towards most: Do you leave your lights on often? Do you use hot water when you shower for a long period of time? Is your heater on at temperatures higher than needed? By asking yourself questions on where your energy consumption seems highest is a great place to start. Once you have identified where to start, begin reducing that particular action little by little over time. This reduction will eventually lead to habit, which in turn, will conserve energy for that particular attribute of energy consumption. Once you have incorporated the minimized usage of a particular energy, continue on to reducing the energy consumption of other energy related activities. It all starts with habit and consistency.