Almost everything in our daily lives affect our carbon footprint, sometimes in a good way and sometimes in a not so good way. Some might say that our carbon footprint doesn’t matter but if we all have that mindset then it does matter because we are all affecting our environment and its climate. So some simple ways to lower your carbon footprint are as follows; start using a bike to travel shorter distances, eat less meat or eat pasture-based meat, or even changing the light bulbs in your house into LED’s.

I'm writing this to ask a question. My carbon footprint isn't exactly huge, but some things have made me doubt whether my own choices are even accurate.

For example, how could I reduce my light consumption if it's dark when the sun goes down? Would using candles help? If I use candles, my expenses would increase, wouldn't they?

Besides needing some recycling tips, I'm running out of ideas on how to recycle things without throwing them away.

Hello! I have some recycling tips for you. If you have old clothes you want to get rid of you can donate them. Also another thing I love to do is cut up parts of the clothes such as turning jeans into shorts, its a great way to make a pair of something you already have into something new!

To reduce your light consumption if it's dark you can use energy-efficient light bulbs they use less energy and cost less. Yes candles can work but they can also get messy and many more. You can recycle any thing plastic that you use and clothes that you may not wear or can't fit anymore.

I think that using a candle would be smart from time to time when the sun goes down and a tip for a recycling that involves candles would be to use Glass jars and bottles to make candle holders, vases, or for storing dry goods. You can also turn them into reed diffusers.

If you are worried about your carbon footprint growing from your lights, a great way to lower it is L.E.D. lights. L.E.D. light bulbs use up to 75% less energy than incandescent light bulbs. On top of that they could help you save up to $300 a year on electricity.

Source: https://www.arcadia.com/blog/led-vs-reg … difference

Sorry, I just noticed you're from Spain so I'm not exactly sure how much you would actually save on electricity. Though it is still more efficient than other light bulbs types, so take it as you will.

Personally as a 14 year old high school student that lives in California the average carbon Footprint in my region is around 10.5 metric tons. This is a high number compared to the world average of  a mere 5 tons. This gap between California and the rest of the world could be closed if high schools start encouraging shared transportation. Schools in high schools could also start relying partially or fully on renewable energy sources. Another inexpensive way to reduce carbon footprint is to start unplugging electronic devices when not in use.  This simple task could reduce carbon emissions by a huge amount. These simple factors is what separates the rest of the world from California in terms of carbon emissions. According to ec.europa.eu  school in Romania turned completely green, ”It used to face problems related to heat and sound insulation and poor indoor air quality. It underwent a deep energy renovation, and the high school now provides a much healthier and comfortable indoor environment suitable for learning.” This shows how European schools managed to turn completely green reducing the average carbon emission released per person. These small things that these schools and students have done show big impacts. So using these previous ideas that are proven to work we should implement them within California.

Do you by chance like parmasean cheese?

One of the main reasons my carbon footprint is so high is transportation. Even tho I personally don't drive in a car often and go everywhere by foot, my family uses their cars on a daily basis(work, shopping, running errands...). I honestly think it is unnecessary to use cars to go somewhere that is within walking distance. Im also in shock when I'm going to or from school and see a bunch of cars but every car has one person in it. If you know someone or have friends that are going to the same destination, wouldn't it make sense to drive with them? Instead of driving, I recommend going places by bike, by foot or use public transportation.

I agree! I take public transit to school every day, but because of how much my family has to use cars to get to work/ my younger sibling's school that category was very high for me. My city has things like carpool lanes on the highways/freeways but we are severely lacking in a good public transit system. I always try to walk or carpool to get to where I need to go, but because of where I live it's very difficult. I wish more cities had good public transit systems, and I think that would help with the problem of everyone individually driving everywhere.

I completely agree with both of these responses. As a student athlete I am not only driving or taking public transport to school, but driving to my out of school sports. My mornings consist of either driving to the bus stop or having my mom drive about 10 miles each way to get to school. Along with that, the traffic in the bay area is consistently bad with a usual of one person in each car, clogging the lanes up even more. Due to the amount of poverty in the Bay Area not as many people use public transport that can be utilized for limited traffic and less cares on the road. I think if we can utilize our relationships for carpool or our public transportation resources, we can help get cars off the street and limit our gas usage.

I totally agree, the amount of pollution that gets spread just by cars is unbelievable. When I was in 6th and 7th grade, my parents would drive me and my friend to school every day because of scheduling complications. Not only did it turn out to be a really fun experience, but it also reduced my friend's carbon admission in the process. It was a both fun and more eco-friendly way to travel. This video really dives deep into what we can do to reduce the amount of carbon we produce.

Yeah that makes sense. Transportation is a rough thing when it comes to carbon. It definitely raises the footprint. It's really great that you're recognizing it and making an effort to change it. I will take your advice for sure when it comes to the biking and the waking because biking and walking to the places you need to go is truthfully the most carbon neutral way to handle things like this. Very smart. I appreciate your input.

I totally agree! I think that using cars is a great way to travel long distances, but not so much when you can walk. It is much more efficient when you can share transportation with other people, like in a carpool. Having six or seven people in a car significantly reduces the amount of carbon emissions that would otherwise be necessary.

While I agree that public transportation, biking, and walking are much more environmentally friendly alternatives to driving a car, it can be difficult to do these things in some cities. Unfortunately, a lot of cities lack the public infrastructure like sidewalks and easily accessible paths between places that is needed to make a city walkable. The public transportation systems in many places are also largely flawed, there often isn’t enough funding, poor accessibility, poor scheduling, and many other problems. This issues could be solved to make cities more navigable without relying on cars, but governments often don’t prioritize this.

Transportation is nice especially when it is accessible in the driveway of your home. However the gasses it gives off is not good for our climate. Not only that but the maintenance can be a headache in itself. The other issue that comes with the maintenance is the disposal of parts. Instead of having to go through this trouble why not find alternatives that can be much easier to maintain and not have to deal with as many junk parts. Biking is a great alternative that can also improve your physicality as well. If accessible another alternative the tram or sky rail which does not give off any gasses to travel on.

We don't need cars; wherever we go, we can get there by other means. Cars are good for long-distance travel, like going from Florida to New York. That's like a 13-hour drive. Walking is better for short distances, great for exercise, and the most environmentally friendly option. Bicycling: Good for medium distances, faster than walking, and still provides a workout.Bicycling: Good for medium distances, faster than walking, and still provides a workout.

You are absolutely right: transportation significantly contributes to the carbon footprint, and your suggested alternatives walking, biking, public transit, and carpooling are among the most effective ways to reduce it. I genuinely believe we can make a meaningful reduction in our environmental impact and save money by making a few small changes. For short trips under 2 miles, I highly recommend trying to walk or bike. It's not only zero-emissions but also a great way to fit exercise into your day. For longer commutes to work or school, I often find it shocking to see single-occupancy cars, especially during rush hour. If we know someone, such as a colleague, classmate, or neighbor, who is also going to the same place, would it make sense to seriously consider carpooling with them? Sharing one trip among two or more people is much better than everyone driving alone. For errands, if the destination is near a bus or train line, taking public transportation is an excellent way to save on gas and reduce the stress of driving and parking.

I agree, we shouldn’t rely on cars so much and should only drive them when necessary like transporting something or when places are over 25-30 minute walking distance. I also believe that bikes would be a much better option if the walk is too far/long. Decreasing how much we drive our cars could have a much more positive affect than we think; less gas being emitted into the atmosphere; save money; free way of exercise; overall eco-friendly.

Yeah I get what you mean Leda, and you make really good points about transportation. Even if you walk most places, your family's daily use of a car can still raise your overall carbon footprint. It's true that a lot of people drive even when the place they are going is close enough to even walk, and that adds up over time. I also agree that using bikes, walking, or taking public transportation can help cut down on pollution. Which those small choices can actually have a big impact if more people actually start to decide to do it.

Hi! My name is Ava and I live In Jacksonville, Florida.
I drive about 30 minutes to work from my house 5 days a week, not only this but I drive 10 minutes from work to my college 3 days a week. Along with that I drive from my house or work to my boyfriend’s house almost everyday. Being more conscious of how much I’m driving during the week could definitely help. I’m currently learning how to skateboard, so maybe skateboarding to my boyfriend’s house from my house would help lower this. I could also carpool with someone to work or take the bus in order to limit my carbon emissions. Below is an article which lists other ways one could lower their transportation emissions!

https://ourworldindata.org/travel-carbon-footprint

Hi! My name is Ava and I live in Jacksonville, Florida.

My carbon footprint is extremely high within my home, because I live with my family of 5. I brought up how concerning the carbon footprint was to my family members and we have all taken steps to try to fix it. First step we have taken is eating less meat, bor only this but we have replaced the remaining non LED light bulbs in our house hold to LED’s. This has help tremendously as we have over 1,000 light bulbs if you include our string lights outside the house. The article below speaks on other ways to limit your carbon footprint within your home!

https://sloclimatecoalition.org/househo … emissions/

There are  profound ways in which students can adopt the following to help to reduce their carbon footprint. One of the ways of converting it is through the transformation of physical resources to digital resources for academic work. For instance: Instead of re-printing out numerous drafts of a potential dissertation students can use online platforms and services. Instructors who require assistance to complete their work can easily look for services and get quality services while remaining environmentally friendly. Students also save trees when they use computers as they replaced the drain of energy and cutting down trees during the writing process.

I greatly agree with this statement. replacing physical resources to digital resources really could make a difference with reducing our carbon footprint by not using certain physical sources, like papers and such. Considering paper is more cheap than digital devices, do you think money could be a roadblock to this carbon footprint solution, considering some countries may not have the money to provide these digital resources? as stated in many sources, some countries do not provide money for education, like Comoros, where education spending is around 2.4% of the total GDP. In addition, At my old school, we could not afford enough computers for every class, resulting to most of our work being done on paper. Your idea displayed can definitely help many schools and students around the world reduce their carbon footprints, but I do think money could be a big factor between whether certain schools and students can or cannot switch to this decision.

source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/25-count … otal%20GDP.

I agree, I notice that a majority of paper in classrooms comes from the mandate of notebooks, rather than online documents. I wonder how much of a difference using technology would make? I understand that it can be difficult to implement this in classrooms, because technology comes with distraction. I am curious as to how this might be solved. Technology can have a negative impact itself, and as stated above is quite costly. Is there a way to make technology more accessible, and more carbon and hydrogen efficient?

Hi marywalker! I think that that is a good idea, however using electronics also negatively impacts as devices like computers are commonly left on or plugged in for hours/days. Not only this but it’s challenging for some students to have access to computers outside of the classroom. However, reducing the use of paper would definitely help with cleaner air as it would save several trees.

Hi, my name is Ainara aand I'm from Dénia, Spain.

My home carbon footprint is way above average. What can I do to lower it?? I think it's because I'm always with the lights on during the day and I keep the fan on during summer all day and night long. I also keep my phone charging all night and sometimes I forget to unplug it. Talking about digital devices, I believe the main problem is that I keep my PC on during at least 12 ours even if I'm not using it out of laziness to turn it back on. Maybe I can also take less time showers to save water too.
I think that's basically the reason my home carbon footprint is that high and that I need to take more care about my actions with my digital devices

hey ainara! i totally get it, my carbon footprint was high too. honestly those things you mentioned add up so much. like keeping the PC on for 12 hours is probably the biggest thing - maybe try shutting it down when you're not using it? i know it's annoying to turn it back on but it really makes a difference. also unplugging your phone charger in the morning helps, and turning off lights during the day when there's sunlight. for showers maybe try keeping them under 10 minutes? i forget sometimes too lol. the fan thing is tough in summer but maybe use it only when you're actually in the room? good luck lowering it

Hello Ainara! I really get you with the fan I live in Florida which is a very hot state and I constantly have my fan on during the summer. Which I mean isn't good for your footprint but I don't want to melt from the heat. What you could do though to lower your carbon footprint is turn off your lights during the day and unplug your chargers when not using it. Especially your PC I think you should power that off when your not using it. Good luck on lowering your carbon footprint!

Hey Ainara! I hope you are doing well! I get you on your carbon footprint being higher than average since mine is as well. It does make sense though since everything you do is a lot. You could turn off your lights when you aren't using them, also you could switch to energy efficient LEDs which would help a lot in the long run. For your phone, you could charge it for a good while when you aren't using it during the day and than unplug it before you sleep. Your PC is definitely a huge reason though, you should definitely turn it off when you aren't using it. I get the laziness part but you can turn it on again before using so you won't have to wait long.

Hello Ainara, one way I would recommend lowering your footprint at home would be to count how long you are using water. I myself have started counting and have seen my water usage time go down more and more.Another way that I can recommend to lower your carbon footprint while at home is too keep a window cracked or open during the day instead of using a fan. This can help lower the amount of energy you use from your fan since you tend to keep it on all day.These small Ideas can help your footprint go down and hopefully make you feel better about your energy and water usage.

Hi Ainara! Your post was really insightful and relatable. I often keep my PC on or TV on longer than I should. One thing you could do and that I could do as well is try to build a routine for turning off technology. In a world of technology and increasing emissions it’s a good first step to think about our devices.

Hi Ainara! I completely get using the fan all day and all night, but what has really helped me is getting cooling blankets or pillows. They are breathable, yet comfortable. This could help to limit fan usage. I would also make it a habit to turn off the PC when you aren’t using it. Along with that I would invest in some nice candles and battery powered fairy lights to lower your carbon footprint in the evening. This has not only helped me lower it, but has also helped my body adjust to a sleep/wined down schedule in order to get better sleep because of the mood lighting. Good luck!

My carbon footprint could be lowered dramatically by being more environmentally conscious and less wasteful at home. Lots of energy gets wasted through air conditioning, lights being left on, unnecessarily long showers, and many electronics running simultaneously. Carbon emissions could be reduced by replacing lights, improving insulation, and using less hot water
https://www.mass.gov/info-details/reduc … nt-at-home

My total footprint is 8,690 kgs of CO2 per year. With home being the cause of 5003 kgs. Food being 1885 kgs, purchases being 656 kgs, and transportation being 1,146 kgs. Ways to reduce my carbon footprint would be to recycle more, and reduce my AC usage. Another way would be to increase my energy efficiency as a whole at home.
https://www.green.earth/blog/10-easy-wa … -footprint

Discovering my carbon footprint was an eye-opening experience. I was shocked when I saw that the average carbon footprint for not only California but the U.S.A as a country is so high. It makes sense, seeing how rapidly and dramatically climate change is progressing, but it was still astounding to see. Few countries have a higher footprint than the US. I was honestly surprised by my own carbon footprint. I was worried it’d be higher, but I still hoped it’d be lower. Mine was 6,279kg. I’m hoping to bring that down one day. Does anyone have any advice on how to bring that footprint down, as a student? I'm thinking about trying to walk more places instead of being driven. I'm open to anything else that would make a bigger difference, all suggestions welcome!

I think that something everyone can do is cut down on spending money on unnecessary products, or they can buy locally. If you buy a lot of new things online, it can create a large carbon footprint from shipping across seas (because everything is made in China now). Also, you can eat less meat, because high protein diets require more livestock farming.

It is good that your carbon footprint is a lot lower than the U.S. average of about 9,500 kgs, but I have some ideas to lower your footprint even more. For one, you can make sure to always turn off the lights when you are not using them, since that probably is a big impact on your CO2 levels. Another thing you can do is unplugging your devices, like phones, tablets, etc, when they are fully charged, because it wastes electricity. A final thing you can do is recycling more things. Just throwing away recyclable things just wastes them, as they can be used again. Hope this helped

Hello my name is Albert and I have doubled the CO2 statistic because I have taken the plane and that goes up a lot. I have also tripled the world championship.iikjkj9bnjnl

Hello Albert, CO2 emissions from planes are pretty insane, but it's one of those things that we might have to take to travel - no other way perhaps. In the U.S, we could take a train, but that probably wouldn't be as easy or feasible since infrastructure wouldn't be there to support it or really degraded and unsafe, depending on where you live in the U.S. So taking a plane might be the best option until there are better opportunities in the U.S to travel cross-country or multiple states.

Hi Albert! My CO2 emissions also went up drastically while taking the test because of a trip that I took last year, with various long flights. While I'm not proud of it, I know I cant undo it. I find it really sad that we as people that live on this planet as of right now, don't pay attention to our environment as much as we should. I propose that we as humankind make it a societal norm to reduce the amount of transportation that produces great amounts of CO2.