If you live in the USA, what steps do you plan to take to reduce your carbon footprint?

I’m vegan. That alone is a huge step.

I’d like to reduce my consumer waste. I eat out, a lot. But that means I have to cook. And if we cook more I’d like to compost.

I commute by bus & train or by bicycle. I could drive. I have a car. But it sucks compared to riding my bike or reading time on the train.

That’s been my mode since the 1980s when I moved to the city. The transportation options were a draw.

I compost my fruit & vegetable waste. Nothing complicated, I make a mound of leaves & natural detritus in my garden and I rake the kitchen waste into the pile.

The maples dropped incredible amounts of little helicopters in May. I used a snow shovel to gather them. In the fall the pile will be mostly reduced to dirt and I’ll spread it around the garden.

We have solar panels for our power. We have solar powered hot water.

I work from home a lot. My husband works ten minutes from home.

We recycle our waste. We compost. We take goods we don’t need anymore to the goodwill store. We try to plant native plants that are adapted to our climate.

We rarely eat takeaway food and we try to cook to minimise waste.

I drive a small, fuel efficient vehicle and try to limit driving to only needed trips.
Climate change is a fact and will continue to be such, so I can’t worry about it too much. The best way I can think of to limit climate change, and to do it quickly and efficiently, would be to limit the population of people. Not possible, I know, hence the conundrum.

I never left a big carbon footprint in the first place. But if I decide to get more introspective about it, I’ll use India and China as my role models.

I will be 40 in September. I have driven about ten times. I have never had a drivers license.

I recycle hard. I bring my own canvas bags to Safeway when I buy food. No paper or plastic please.

Here is my Electric Bill. That includes heat and hot water heater and fridge.

I have lived this way my entire life. Not really sure how I could reduce my footprint more. I suppose I could turn off my computers and fishtank. But the computers pay my bills and the fishtank soothes my soul. Surely I must be able to enjoy a few things without guilt.

I recycle more at home than I used to in years past, but now my husband drinks bottled water, which we didn’t previously, so that might be a wash.

I almost always run errands while already out doing other activities.

I really want to use solar and wind in some capacity if I build a new house. I saw Tesla is bringing a solar roof to market. I called them about it, and I have my doubts it will be ready in time for me. Plus, even if it is I’m nervous about being a guinea pig.

We switched out the lightbulbs in the main living areas of our house. We shut off lights when we leave the room.

We don’t set the AC very cold. We keep the blinds closed most of the time. I’m in a hot climate.

I keep things forever. I’m watching a huge, big, square, 17 year old TV.

I’m thinking about bringing my own container to restaurants for leftovers. The styrofoam take away containers are just awful.

My workshed is solar, eventually my house will be.

I forgot to add that the last car I bought I really cared about the mpg. I’ve been looking for a new car, and I don’t think the new one will be as good from the options I’m looking at. I’m turn about it.

I no longer coat the soles of my shoes with charcoal… ;)

In all seriousness, not a whole lot. I drive a hybrid now, though, (not a Prius) and I frequently bike to work. And every light in my place is LED. So that’s something.

I did composting for a while but just couldn’t be bothered with it anymore. I’m sure there are other things I could do.

I don’t drive.

Each month, I pay a company to produce an amount of electricity equal to what my apartment consumed, using green energy means (wind and solar), and put back into the grid. So it’s not so much that the energy I use comes from green sources, but it gets replaced in a green way. It costs about an additional $10 a month.

Not have kids!

Having children (if you’re in the first world) is the most environmentally destructive thing you can do.

The second most important thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint is not eat meat, but I eat meat.

@tinyfaery both does not have kids and does not eat meat, so she’s doing a better job than all of us at being kind to the environment.

I wear a size five; no worries.

Woo hoo for me!

this is for you, tiny: you earned it.

Aww…Thanks!

What if I just moved to Canada…??