Five ways to cut your carbon footprint in just five years
Where do you want to be in five years? If you want to be living in a greener world, now’s the time to make a plan.
Around the world, countries are signing up for climate action agreements with lofty goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions and move towards more efficient, renewable energy sources by 2030 or 2050.
But that’s a long time to wait to make an impact– so it got us wondering, what can everyday people and businesses do now to support these long-term, large-scale plans on a micro level? When faced with such an urgent challenge on such a mammoth scale, where do we start?
The answer is, we start one step at a time.
Here’s an example of how one socially responsible business plans to do its bit. As one of the world’s largest fruit producers, Dole is acutely aware of the impacts of climate change, so it recently launched its own plan, called The Dole Promise – which includes several five-year goals.
The Promise includes goals such as increasing access to sustainable nutrition, while at the same time reducing processed sugar, food waste, plastics in packaging and carbon emissions. Each goal includes a specific, measurable outcome and a deadline for achieving it.
By thinking globally but acting locally, the company has achieved the following in New Zealand alone:
• Started packaging its Bobby Bananas with a single strip of tape, rather than a plastic bag, preventing 16 tonnes of plastic from going to landfill each year.
• Established a partnership with the Soft Plastics Recycling Scheme, which means Dole tapes can be turned into useful items like fence posts and garden beds.
• Partnered with the Salvation Army to provide
over 4.35 tonnes of bananas to people in need. • Partnered with Oke Charity to help build sustainable fruit and vegetable gardens in Kiwi schools. Volunteers are always welcome to help out at Oke working bees - visit www.oke.org.nz to find out more.
• Partnered with Love Soup Food Rescue offering a weekly commitment to provide bananas to their Auckland operation. • Supported the Motutapu Restoration Trust, www.motutapu.org.nz which runs a kiwi release programme and develops habitats for native bird species.
The Dole Promise draws on the spirit of the 18th century Japanese philosophy Sampo Yoshi, which encourages businesses to be beneficial not only to their owners, shareholders and staff, but also to their customers and their community.
So what can you do today and tomorrow that will make a difference for your planet and your
community in five years’ time? Here’s a little inspiration:
1. Swap takeaway coffee cups for a reusable cup – if you drink one coffee a day you will have saved close to 2,000 cups from landfill within five years.
2. Plant a native tree on Motutapu Island – every native tree planted in NZ is expected to remove 0.07 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere after 20 years.
3. Take inspiration from Oke Charity and start a community garden in your neighbourhood or at your local school. Not only will you grow produce for the community to eat but can provide composting programmes that will help the natural environment cycle.
4. Leave the car at home - switching short car tips for a more climate-friendly mode of transport can save tonnes in carbon dioxide emissions every year. If every NZ household reduced short two car trips every week, this would save the same amount of CO2 stored annually by 4,800 hectares of pine trees.
5. Shop more sustainably and mindfully supporting brands who offer sustainable and recyclable options. If everyone who bought Bobby Bananas returned their Bobby tape to Soft Plastics Recycling Scheme drop off points to be recycled, it would be enough to create over 150 garden beds.
To find out more about the Dole Promise visit or follow Dole on Facebook or Instagram.