Three easy ways to shrink your carbon footprint in 2020
“If we all pull together, we can hopefully prevent a future global crisis.”
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,” said regional director and CEO of RE/MAX of Southern Africa, Adrian Goslett.
“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.
“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 provided the following tips:
• Continue to work from home
During the early stages of lockdown, many companies were forced into seeing that it is possible for their staff to work remotely and for business to continue as per normal.
If your company allows you the option, then choose to continue to work from home.
According to research, if your commute used to be a 20km round trip for five days a week, you would save 1344kg 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.
Read: Buying property on a single income
• Create a compost heap
Anything you can do to put less food waste into the garbage will lower the amount of CO2 emissions at the various landfill sites.
The best way to reduce your food waste is to create a compost heap in your garden.
If done correctly, these compost heaps will not give off any foul odours and will provide great nutrition for your soil.
To take this a step further, plant your own vegetable and herb garden so that you can reduce the amount of packaging waste created by purchasing groceries at the store.
• Take shorter showers
Not only will taking shorter showers 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, you can save up to 350kg of CO2 a year simply by cutting your daily shower from eight minutes to four minutes.
“These are just a few small things we can do to help live more environmentally sustainable lifestyles,” said Goslett concludes.
“If we all pull together, we can hopefully prevent a future global crisis.”
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