Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Lazy ways to save the planet
SURE, you could convert your house into a solar-panelled, rainwater-harvesting no-waste eco paradise. But doesn’t that all require a bit too much, well, effort? Never fear, these tips from BBC Focus magazine can help you greenify your life without breaking a sweat. footprint by another 20%. Remember, though, that dishwashers are only efficient when fully loaded.
A 2015 study at Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, found that living with someone reduces your overall carbon footprint by 23%, compared with living alone. Part of this is the obvious energy saving of heating just one house, not two.
Couples who live together also don’t tend to go out in the evening as much, which cuts down on travel emissions. staff. Staying at home obviously reduces your total car miles, but companies with lots of home workers can also manage with smaller offices, which saves on heating and air conditioning costs. Overall, working from home just three days a week reduces your carbon footprint by the equivalent of four tonnes of CO2 a year.
The UK financial sector generates 160g of CO2 for every £1 we pay them in mortgage payments, loans, etc. Even though their business mostly consists of electronic data transfers, they use energy to run branches and offices.
Banking online reduces the number of branches a bank needs. Security vans can make fewer trips to refill cashpoints if you pay with a card or phone. Plus, 10% of the financial sector’s carbon footprint goes on printing and postage, so opting out of paper statements cuts emissions too.
Worldwide, 40 billion disposable razors are binned a year. They can’t be recycled so end up in landfill, or worse, in the sea. The carbon footprint of wet shaving mostly comes from the hot water you use; switching to an electric shaver will use just 3% of the electricity. If you let your beard grow, you can also save the 0.95kg CO2 from the shaver’s manufacture.
For women, the worst option is to shave legs in the shower. Every minute you spend generates 240g CO2 from the running water.
One return flight to the Canary Islands adds almost a tonne of CO2 to your carbon footprint. That’s as much as you’ll generate in six months of driving a car. Not only does air travel affect the climate more than all the world’s cars, it is also the most exhausting part of going on holiday. Train travel can be nearly as quick if you factor in car parking and check-in.