Helping people reduce their carbon emissions is one of the major services Carbon Neutral Indiana provides. In fact, it's one of three steps on our yard signs:
Once we measure your carbon footprint we set a time to measure it again six months in the future. In the interim, we'll help you reduce your emissions. One way we do this is by connecting you into a community of others who are doing this as well. This way you can get accountability, share ideas, and grow friendships.
There are many ways you can reduce your emissions. Here are some of the best, in rough order of effectiveness:
- Reduce the amount of air that leaks into / out of your home (see these 19 common areas of leakage)
- Improve your home's insulation (and use low carbon insulation materials like hemp-based insulation)
- Buy high quality clothing (e.g. wool shirts). Fast fashion creates about 10% of global emissions.
- Fly less or not at all
- Invest in energy efficiency -- appliances, LEDs, etc.
- Use a heat pump
- Install solar energy at your home
- Work from home one or two days per week
- Switch vehicles to get higher MPG -- hybrid, hybrid plugin, electric
- Participate in "meatless Monday"
- Switch search engines from Google to Ecosia
Of course there are many other ways you can reduce your carbon footprint. Here are more resources:
- Explore Erika Reinhardt's massive article: "A Data-Driven Guide to Effective Personal Climate Action"
- Explore Project Drawdown climate solutions.
- Explore Indiana Drawdown, a local chapter of Project Drawdown. Here are 300 entities in Indiana who have implemented a Drawdown solution. Feel free to contact them and strike up a conversation. This was created by the same people who created Carbon Neutral Indiana.
- Explore the activities on the This Family Cares magnet. This also was created by the same people who created Carbon Neutral Indiana.
- Check out this academic paper, which is a meta-analysis of 6,990 other studies: "Quantifying the potential for climate change mitigation of consumption options"
Try not to get lost in all of this information. Action is more important. So contact CNI to measure your carbon footprint today.