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Carbon Neutral Strategies for the Home
Becoming ‘carbon neutral’ means that you have neutralized the effect of your personal greenhouse gas emissions, so that your personal and household activities no longer contribute to the dangers of global warming.
On average, 25% of US and Canadian emissions come from our personal activities. The rest comes from industry, commerce, agriculture, oilfields, trucking, defense, and so on. So far, no-one has developed a way to measure the carbon emissions of all the things we buy (cars, houses, food, stuff), which require energy to manufacture, ship, and package, so those emissions are not included in that 25%.
Global climate change is an enormous problem, that needs our urgent attention.
In addition to striving to reduce your personal emissions, becoming carbon neutral at the household level is one way to exercise this responsibility.
Run dishwasher full
Only run your dishwasher when there’s a full load and use the energy-saving setting.
You can save 100 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.
Turn off electronics you’re not using
Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo, and computer when you’re not using them will save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
Use less hot water
It takes a lot of energy to heat water. You can use less hot water by installing a low flow showerhead (350 pounds of carbon dioxide saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year) instead of hot.
Change Filters
Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner.
Cleaning a dirty air filter can save 350 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
Change Thermostat
Move your thermostat down 2° in winter and up 2° in summer.
Almost half of the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and cooling. You could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple adjustment.
Becoming ‘carbon neutral’ means that you have neutralized the effect of your personal greenhouse gas emissions, so that your personal and household activities no longer contribute to the dangers of global warming.
On average, 25% of US and Canadian emissions come from our personal activities. The rest comes from industry, commerce, agriculture, oilfields, trucking, defense, and so on. So far, no-one has developed a way to measure the carbon emissions of all the things we buy (cars, houses, food, stuff), which require energy to manufacture, ship, and package, so those emissions are not included in that 25%.
Global climate change is an enormous problem, that needs our urgent attention.
In addition to striving to reduce your personal emissions, becoming carbon neutral at the household level is one way to exercise this responsibility.
Run dishwasher full
Only run your dishwasher when there’s a full load and use the energy-saving setting.
You can save 100 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.
Turn off electronics you’re not using
Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo, and computer when you’re not using them will save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
Use less hot water
It takes a lot of energy to heat water. You can use less hot water by installing a low flow showerhead (350 pounds of carbon dioxide saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year) instead of hot.
Change Filters
Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner.
Cleaning a dirty air filter can save 350 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
Change Thermostat
Move your thermostat down 2° in winter and up 2° in summer.
Almost half of the energy we use in our homes goes to heating and cooling. You could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple adjustment.
