Introduction
Throughout February, I worked to limit my carbon footprint through reducing my animal product intake by eating a plant based or vegan diet, as well as reducing my plastic consumption. While these may seem like two very small things, they allowed me to significantly reduce my carbon consumption over the month long trial period. These two actions also helped me to understand my impact on climate change, while allowing me to create habits that helped me become less wasteful.
Carbon Emissions
My Carbon Emissions Before February:
Blow are two images showing my carbon consumption Before the month of February. The first image shows that I was using 23.49 Tons of carbon yearly. The website that I used (https://www.conservation.org/carbon-footprint-calculator#/) also calculated the number of trees needed to offset my annual footprint. As seen below, 336 trees would need to be planted in order to offset my footprint.
The second Image shows a comparison of my consumption habits and the average American citizen. I stay below the average for 2/3 categories, however I surpass the average for driving significantly.
My Carbon Emissions During February:
During the month of February, there was a small dip in my carbon footprint. Rather than being a massive 23.49 Tons, I saw a slight decrease to 22.49Tons. My household consumption patterns were the only things that changed, leading to a drop in that category. The number of trees needed to offset my carbon consumption was 321, 15 less than before.
This website and the images and comparisons that it produced for me helped a lot with understanding the impacts of my actions, as well as what I need to be more conscious of. This will be further discussed in the overview of my project.
Action One: Veganism
After a month of eating vegan, I not only felt better, but also noticed that I was consuming less plastic. Due to all of the food being vegetable and fruit based, they often didn’t come in plastic packaging. This meant that I was able to compost the majority of my waste, reducing my food waste and essentially helping the climate! Composting wasn’t really something that I thought about when looking to try out veganism, but it was an added benefit for sure.
Using the Green Eater Meter I was able to track how my diet impacted the environment. There was a noticeable change in my carbon emissions. Many of the meals that I used to eat with meat in them were substantially worse for the environment than the vegan version that tasted just the same. Below is an image comparing a vegan meal with a non vegan meal.
Here is the link: https://omdfortheplanet.com/omd-green-eater-meter/
Some issues that I had with eating a vegan diet were the time it took to prepare meals, knowing what to eat, and having to eat more than before to be fully fuelled. These issues were overcome by the end of the month once I got used to what I was doing.
Action Two: Unnecessary Plastics
My second action was working to reduce unnecessary plastics. This one was more tough than originally thought. Everything is packaged in plastic. There were three things that I did to make sure my plastic consumption decreased.
First was making sure I was making my own lunches. Making my own food for the day went along with my first action, veganism, because eating out as a vegan was extremely challenging an expensive. Due to using my own containers and not eating out, my consumption of plastic takeout containers reduced significantly. Of course, I’m not perfect and forgot my lunch a few days within the month, so there were a few days where I had to get takeout and the plastic containers that come along with it.
The second thing that helped me reduce my plastic was buying gatorade powder that I had to mix myself. Instead of having a few gatorade bottles a week, I reduced it down to zero, as I was using my reusable water bottle instead of disposable plastic one.
Lastly, I made sure that I was bringing my own bags to the grocery store. I made it a goal to not use any plastic grocery bags during February. I kept to my goal, and instead of getting 4-6 plastic bags a week, I reduced it to zero. There were times where I forgot my groceries bags on small shopping trips, however instead of getting a bag, I opted to carry my groceries to my car. Although inconvenient, this small action helped me keep on track of my goal.
Some struggles I had with reducing my plastic consumption was mainly relate to how food was packaged in the grocery store. While I did try to stay away from packaged goods, there were many items that I had to buy even though they were packaged with plastic.
Reflection
Though out February, I was very conscious about the carbon footprint. Due to this, I saw my carbon consumption and footprint lowered.
My reduction of unnecessary plastics, like water bottles and plastic bags, was one of the major factors in lowering my carbon footprint. When I was consuming large amounts of plastic, I was also consuming large amounts of raw materials and increasing greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere. This action is something that anyone can do, and helps lead towards other things such as recycling! When I was conscious of my plastic consumption, I noticed how much I was using and started to think of ways to reduce my usage or get rid of the plastic waste properly. This increased my recycling and helped my carbon footprint!
Veganism helped me lower my carbon footprint farther by reducing the my animal intake. A plant based diet uses significantly less carbon, thus lowering the carbon I was consuming farther. This Action was a bit harder, as it changed my lifestyle and the way that I consumed food. I think that one thing people could do is try meatless Mondays, as it doesn’t change you whole diet around, but it does have a small impact.
Overall it would be nice to see communities trying to implement or promote these things. Grocery stores can opt out of selling plastic grocery bags and promote plat based meals, or have sale days that support vegetarian or vegan eating. I think that my action project was successful because it really made me think about my carbon footprint and the consequences of my consuming habits. One thing that it highlighted for me was that my driving habits are one of the main sources of carbon consumption. During the month of march, my goal is to continue being vegan, watch my plastic consumption, and reduce my driving.