Conservation Tips
There are ways that each of us can do our part to positively impact the climate.
Choose what you eat.
Shifting diets away from meat could slash in half per capita greenhouse gas emissions related to eating habits worldwide and ward off additional deforestation — a major contributor to climate change, according to scientific findings.
Carpool.
Sharing rides means that participants drive less, which has a major environmental benefit. Cars produce carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping gasses that cause global warming. Closer to the ground, cars produce smog that contributes to asthma and other public health problems. For trips where walking, biking, or public transportation aren’t an option, ride-sharing is a powerful way to cut down on car miles driven.
Recycle.
Recycling helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions by skipping several steps in the production process. Just think: When you recycle, new materials don’t need to be extracted and transported, saving a lot of energy. For example, recycling aluminum reduces the energy needed to manufacture aluminum from raw material by 95 percent. If the U.S. could get its recycling rate up to 75 percent, the emissions reductions would be equal to taking 50 million cars off the road.
Be a conscious consumer.
At first glance, becoming a more conscious consumer might seem pretty easy, but it requires a lot of homework. Making purchasing decisions on auto-pilot is a lot easier than examining the impact of every single product. For the truly committed, spend time researching the brands you buy, their sustainability practices, and the environmental impacts of their business. What does the company do to minimize their impact? Does the company contribute to any practices that contribute to climate change, such as deforestation?