Working from home cuts CO² footprint dramatically
The Covid-19 pandemic has awakened the world to how quickly we can change our behaviours when confronted with a crisis that threatens our very existence.
Yet, once we overcome the current crisis, we face another: global warming and climate change.
If we as a society can change our ways as quickly as we have in response to this pandemic, then we can hopefully avoid falling into yet another state of disaster later in history. We all have a responsibility to do “our best to live more eco-friendly lifestyles. Markets will change in response to consumer demand. If we all start searching for greener “options, we will soon see how the market will change to meet our demands,” said regional director and CEO of RE/MAX of Southern Africa, Adrian Goslett.
In fact, we are already noticing this “in the property market.
With many young buyers preferring “homes with eco-friendly installations, new developments are arising to cater to this growing demand.”
To help homeowners shrink their own carbon footprints, RE/MAX of Southern Africa provides these tips:
Continue to work from home. During the early stages of lockdown, many companies were forced to make it possible for their staff to work remotely.
According to research, if one s
’ commute is a 20km round trip, five days a week, you would save 1,344kg of CO² per year simply by working from home.
To take this a step further, if possible, choose to walk rather than drive to your local grocery store.
● Create a compost heap - anything one does to put less food waste into the garbage will lower the amount of CO² emissions at landfill sites.
The best way to reduce food waste is to create a compost heap in your garden.
If done correctly, compost heaps will not give off any foul odours and will provide great nutrition for your soil.
Then, plant your own vegetable and herb garden to reduce the amount of packaging waste created by purchasing groceries at the store.
● Take shorter showers - not only will this save water, which is vital in a drought-prone country as our own, but it will also lower the amount of electricity required to heat the water, thereby lowering CO² emissions.
According to research, people can save up to 350kg of CO² a year simply by cutting one s daily shower from eight
’ to four minutes.
These are just a few small things we “can do to help live more environmentally sustainable lifestyles. If we all pull together, we can
“hopefully prevent a future global crisis,” Goslett said.