Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Every day, we all participate in rituals and activities that we don’t even realize contribute to our carbon footprint. This information can be hard to come to terms with, but as soon as we are armed with this knowledge, we can make real and tangible changes. But first, we need to understand what exactly a carbon footprint is and why it is important to acknowledge it.
What Is a Carbon Footprint?
A carbon footprint is how much carbon dioxide is emitted due to someone’s day-to-day activities. It’s also worth noting that corporations, countries, and any other institution can have a carbon footprint as well and often contribute greatly to the ever-growing amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide emissions disrupt our atmosphere and are therefore largely responsible for climate change. As a result, the size of our carbon footprint is directly related to our planet’s future well-being and liveability.
Why Should I Reduce My Carbon Footprint?
While the vast majority of us may not have control over a major corporation or world power, we all have a carbon footprint just by going about our lives. On average, a household produces 24,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. However, by making some meaningful and simple changes to our lifestyles, this amount could easily be cut in half.
How Can I Tell How Large My Carbon Footprint Is?
A variety of factors add to the size of our individual carbon footprint and our carbon footprint as a society. Since many of the biggest contributors to our carbon dioxide emissions are activities we do every day that seem to be necessities, it can be hard to gain some perspective and understand that very manageable changes can make a substantial difference.
Reducing our carbon footprint is not a compromise or an unpleasant change to our way of life, but it is a way we can live more mindfully. Being aware of what we are using and why is integral to keeping climate change in check, but it also allows us the opportunity to be more grateful for the things we have.
What Are the Biggest Causes of a Carbon Footprint?
Again, many of the biggest contributors to our carbon footprint are things and activities we don’t even think about. From what we eat, to how we get around, to products and goods we use and dispose of nearly without notice, it all adds up.
Food
Food is, of course, a necessity for daily life, but the way we create and consume it accounts for 34% of our greenhouse gas emissions. This staggering number makes sense for a few reasons: our use of animal products, the prominence of single-use plastic that ends up in landfills, and the energy used on transporting massive amounts of food all contribute to that figure.
Consumption
Whether it’s how much we eat to the energy we use every day, people are constantly consuming. It’s when we consume mindlessly and without understanding the consequences that our carbon footprint grows to astronomical proportions.
Transportation
We are constantly on the move. Air travel, cars fueled by gasoline, and other transportation methods that aren’t eco-conscious all add to our average carbon footprint.
Household Energy
It stands to reason that the place we spend so much of our time would be a large contributor to the energy we waste. Luckily, there is an abundance of simple and easy changes that can be made in and around the home to reduce our carbon footprint.
How Can I Reduce My Carbon Footprint?
Now that we’ve established what can contribute to our carbon footprint, it’s time to explore what we can do to reduce the significant emissions we create.
Eat Fewer Animal Products
Our meat consumption and consumption of other animal products are some of the largest contributors to climate change. Animal agriculture accounts for a large amount of deforestation that plant products don’t, and transporting meat wastes fuel and energy. In order to combat this, look into eating fewer animal products.
Instead of dairy, look into almond, oat, or soy milk as an alternative. There are so many non-meat alternatives nowadays; there is always a delicious chicken or beef substitute waiting to be tried.
Shop Secondhand
Shopping second-hand lets us give perfectly good items new life, rather than needlessly polluting a landfill or harming our oceans.
Fly Less Often
A Boeing 747 (an average commercial plane) uses 36,000 gallons of fuel in a ten-hour flight. Clearly, air travel wastes a huge amount of fuel and has an immense carbon footprint. We can fight this by only flying when necessary and always looking into other transportation alternatives.
Drive an Electric Car
Many of us drive every day to get where we need to go. In some instances, driving is unavoidable, but there are still options to make this method of transportation eco-friendly. By using an electric car rather than a gas or diesel vehicle, we greatly limit our emissions. Not to mention all the money we save on gas.
Turn Off Your Lights
This is a tremendous way we can save energy in the home. By turning off lights when they aren’t necessary, we save a lot of electricity. This is good for the environment and is also good for not spending unnecessary money on utility bills.
In addition to turning off our lights, we should also be aware of the kind of light we’re using. Instead of utilizing energy-inefficient incandescent light bulbs, LED light bulbs provide a much more energy-efficient alternative.
Use Sustainable Energy in the Home
Using solar panels provides a household with all the energy it could need and more and utilizes the sun’s natural energy without creating unnecessary emissions. Installing solar panels is one of the best ways to significantly reduce a household’s carbon footprint.
Stop Buying Single-Use Plastics
Single-use plastics take up ludicrous amounts of space in landfills and our oceans. Since they don’t break down naturally, these materials will stay there and pollute the earth and harm wildlife.
Instead, consider buying products packaged sustainably with materials that will break down over time. In addition, look into packaging that can be reused for new purposes. Utilize reusable bags rather than plastic bags, and try reusable water bottles rather than ones with single-use plastic.
Shop Sustainably
Shopping at stores that are committed to sustainability efforts not only means that your products won’t contribute negatively to the environment, but also sends a message to other companies. Sustainability is the way of the future, so if they want to stay competitive, they need to start prioritizing the planet.
How Is Bite Sustainable?
Just like you, we here at Bite are also deeply committed to reducing our carbon footprint. Every step of our process — from production to shipping — is done with sustainability in mind. We go about leaving the planet a better place than we found it in a variety of ways.
Sustainable Packaging
Many plastic and non-biodegradable materials are used on packaging alone, but we strive to be different. Instead of other toothpaste brands’ typical plastic tubes that end up overflowing landfills, Bite’s Toothpaste Bits come straight to your door in glass bottles.
Not only will these bottles eventually fully break down into sand, but their strikingly minimalist aesthetic makes for a lovely addition to any bathroom or shelf.
As for what these glass bottles are shipped in, both our envelopes and boxes are also completely plastic-free. Bite is a proud zero-waste company, meaning that we never contribute any waste to the environment, and all of our products will break down naturally. We saw the usual plastic poly-mailers and knew we could do better.
Our envelopes are fully recyclable and compostable, and our boxes are 100% recyclable. Then, to finish it all off, we seal your order with paper tape.
Shipping
We know that waste and pollution aren’t only composed of trash in our landfills and oceans, but it is the excess use of greenhouse gas-emitting fuel. The cost of two-day shipping goes farther than just extra fees, however. The toll that seemingly immediate delivery has on our environment is immense and disastrous.
To combat this issue, Bite ships more mindfully. To care about both the customer and the planet, we use existing shipping routes. This means that your Bite products are shipped directly to your door without having to alter routes and contribute to more gas emissions and wasted fuel.
Using shipping routes that already exist is one of the most prominent ways to reduce our carbon footprint while still ensuring that we deliver your order right on time.
Vegan Ingredients
Bite is also proud to be entirely vegan and cruelty-free. We want the Earth to be better for all that inhabit it, animals included. Animals represent a crucial and irreplaceable part of our ecosystem, so not using animal products and not testing animals perfectly aligns with our values.
A Direct-to-Consumer Business Model
Having a direct-to-consumer business model allows us to not only provide unparalleled convenience for our customers by shipping products right to your door, but it’s better for the environment too. When companies go through retail, significantly more resources are used in the transportation process.
In addition, customers having to schlep to the store and back is an unnecessary waste of fuel, energy, and time. Being direct-to-consumer is better for us, the consumer, and the planet.
Our Carbon Neutral Pledge
Clearly, reducing our carbon footprint is important to us. That’s why we’ve specifically chosen our practices and materials so that they make a positive difference. That said, it was time to take our commitment to the next level and make it official. Bite has gone completely carbon neutral, and we’re pretty proud of it.
Conclusion
Learning about our carbon footprint can feel overwhelming, but by being mindful, we can make simple changes that positively impact our beautiful planet’s future by using it.
Sources:
Can Consumer Choices Ward Off the Worst Effects of Climate Change? An Expert Explains | Vox
How Much Does Our Food Contribute to Global Warming? New Research Reveals All | Forbes
How Much Fuel Does an International Plane Use for a Trip? | How Stuff Works
