Kind of like the “sleep more, party less this year” resolutions we make on new year’s day, or the existential “how has another year gone by?” life reflection we do on our birthday, on Earth Day we think about the state of the planet and try to make resolutions for how to live smarter, better, and more sustainably.
There are laundry lists of ways to lower your carbon footprint (actually, while you’re sitting at your computer right now, go to catalogchoice.org and stopjunkmail.org to curb the ridiculous paper trail in your mailbox). But it can be overwhelming to think of the bigger things we really should be doing to live lighter on the planet. My car should be a hybrid. My home should be solar powered. My clothes should all be secondhand or made of sustainable materials. All the food I eat should be from local sources. And it’s all too easy to think “when I have more money I’ll make eco-friendly lifestyle changes” and put off thinking about it for another year.
Not this year.
Let’s just start smaller. Today I ask you to buy three small things (if you don’t have them already) that will lighten your planet footprint every day: 1 (or 2 or 5) reusable shopping bag(s), 1 reusable coffee mug, 1 reusable water bottle. And have these items accessible to you everyday to immediately cut down on your daily disposable waste—because it adds up. Look around. A couple disposable coffee cups on your desk? Maybe some plastic water cups from the water cooler? Picking up lunch later in a brown paper bag? Feeling kinda gross about all this stuff that will end up in the garbage?? (Yes, you can recycle these things, but the recycling process consumes energy too.)
Okay, yes, you’ll see the difference in your disposables consumption now that you’re going to be more aware of it and you have your trio of reusable goods, but how do these seemingly tiny little things add up to big changes? We did a little research (shout out here to Amy Anderson, a Sunset superstar intern!) about how the 45,000 daily Design*Sponge readers can make a positive impact—together.
1. Reusable bag (Keep it in your purse, car, pocket, wherever.)
Baggu Bags are my favorite for compactness. They fold up so tiny that one lives in my purse (and even fits in my pocket). They come in several sizes and a dozens of solid colors, and I adore their new Chevron pattern (pictured below)—so stylish, you’ll want to use it all the time.
**If every Design*Sponge reader (45,000) used one less paper bag per day, we’d save 13,500 pounds of CO2 per day.
Breakdown: A paper bag emits 0.3 pounds of CO2. This number reflects the energy used to manufacture the bag as well as the energy used to transport the bag from the factory to your supermarket. 45,000 people using one less bag would save 13,500 pounds of CO2 each day and 4,927,500 pounds each year.
2. Reusable coffee/tea mug (Bonus: it’ll keep your hot beverages hot—or cold beverages cold—longer.)
A favorite from Thermos:
**If every Design*Sponge reader (45,000) used one less paper coffee cup per day, we’d save 11,250 pounds of CO2 per day.
Breakdown: A medium-sized coffee cup emits 0.25 pounds of CO2. That includes both the CO2 released when fossil fuels are burned to create the energy needed to manufacture the paper in the coffee cup and then manufacture the coffee cup itself. It also includes the energy used to transport the cups from the factory to your local coffee shop. 45,000 people using one less cup would save 11,250 pounds of CO2 each day and 4,106,250 pounds each year.
3. Reusable water bottle (You’ve heard it before: kick the plastic water bottle habit. I know it’s hard; I really like the electrolyte enhanced water from Whole Foods.)
Two of my favorite brands:
Earthlust (love the designs):
Klean Kanteen (now available in colors!):
**If every Design*Sponge reader (45,000) used one less plastic water bottle per day we’d save 69,750 pounds of CO2 per day.
Breakdown: The average American adult drinks about a half gallon of bottled water per week. The processing, bottling, and transport of each gallon of bottled water requires 0.25 gallons of crude oil. Burning one gallon of crude oil releases 21.7 lbs of CO2 into Earth’s atmosphere. So an 8 oz. bottle of water emits 1.55 lbs. of CO2. 45,000 people using one less bottle would save 69,750 pounds of CO2 each day and 25,458,750 pounds each year.)
If we (45,000 of us) did all these things…
We’d save 94,500 pounds of CO2 per day and 34,492,500 pounds of CO2 per year, the equivalent of 2613 fewer cars on the road for 1 year!
Research source: Carbonify.
Curious about your personal carbon footprint? Check out Low Impact Living™ Environmental Impact Calculator.
Some info from Sunset on living greener:
- Earth Week coverage on homebysunset.com.
- One of my favorite eco-couples.
- Earth Day web package.
- Collection of natural home stories.
- Collection ofearth-friendly gardens”.
