By Jon M. Heatherly
Co-Editor-in-chief
So I have been riding my bike practically everywhere as transportation recently, and it really had me thinking. People are often talking about how you can offset your carbon footprint because, let’s face it, our environment is not in the best of shape.
So, I took a trip to the carbon footprint calculator, and I realized my new habit of bike-riding would offset my footprint by somewhere in the ballpark of 1 ton of CO2. If making this small change could have such a vast impact, I was confident that I could find other small things. What else could I do to make a difference?
“These are only seven small things you can do. There are nearly a limitless number of ways to impact our environment less.”
Most people only advertise offsetting your footprint by purchasing expensive solar panels, reseeding a vast meadow, or other radical and sometimes impractical means. In all honesty, there are several simple things you can do as an individual or a small group that could make a big difference.
- Buy food, particularly produce, that is in season and locally grown as often as possible. Doing as such cuts back on a big portion of the emissions to deliver the goods from point A to point B.
- You can buy fluorescent light-bulbs to save energy, but the downfall is they have mercury in them. There are too few mercury-ready waste-treatment centers in the nation, but they hope to have a plan to fix it.
- Push everyone to consume recycled paper and to continue with any other recycling endeavors. As a fellow TWC student, I know for a fact how much paper, alone, we consume.
- Take your financial business online. By cutting out any unnecessary letters and whatnot, you save a lot of paper. Every bit really does count.
- For goodness sake, use reusable containers. I can go through 40 water bottles in a week, but I only really need filtered water and something in which to hold it, like a Nalgene bottle.
- Try alternative forms of transportation, like commuting or riding a bike. You can make some great friends by working out a commuting regiment and spending time together, and you save the planet – so easy.
- Keep your tires well-inflated. You can save up to 3.3% on gas mileage, and that adds up to several lost dollars per year.
These are only seven small things you can do. There are nearly a limitless number of ways to impact our environment less; feel free to post “green ideas” in the comment box. Happy greening.
