Weekly Assignment 4 (2%) Carbon
1) What are the four main (according to the literature) actions that can substantially reduce an
individual’s carbon footprint?
1. The first way to make a difference in lowering one’s carbon footprint is by changing how we
choose to travel. Limiting how often individual modes of transport are used like cars and opting
for carpooling, buses, biking, or walking is the best way to help limit your carbon footprint in
terms of transportation. It may be easier to access ride sharing modes of transportation in larger
populated areas like Toronto where more businesses are within walking distance and options like
train and streetcar are present. If needing to buy a car, considering buying a small fuel efficient
low polluting one rather than a truck or large SUV unless there is a fundamental need. Planning
our days so travel can be done with the least kilometres driven will also significantly lower
carbon footprints.
2. The second way to make a difference in lowering one’s carbon footprint is by lowering home
energy and electricity usage. Choosing energy efficient appliances such as new refrigerators,
dishwashers, and laundry machines can help reduce energy usages as they are more efficient.
3. A third way to make a difference in lowering one’s carbon footprint is by switching the source of
energy from fossil fuels to renewable sources like wind, solar, hydroelectric, or even geothermal.
Although a lot of the time this is out of our control, another way to assist in this is by choosing to
wat foods grown locally or through sustainable processes rather than fast food or quick service
options and even those made with wasteful packaging like plastics.
4. The fourth way to make a difference in lowering one’s carbon footprint is to choose products that
contain sustainable materials and not those reliant on industrial-intensive processes. This can
range from the previously mentioned examples in purchasing food not made with wasteful and
unrecyclable packaging. Food and Product waste remains some of the largest ways consumers in
the waste lead to waste by throwing out products that are perfectly good for using needs but no
longer personally usable. Landfills for example are filled with plastic waster bottles meanwhile
consumers could prevent this by using reusable water bottles.
2) Last week you provided some ideas on how you could reduce your carbon footprint. Do any of your
recommendations align with the top four actions / strategies from the literature? If yes, which
ones?
Yes, several of my ideas provided to reduce my carbon footprint in the previous assignment align
with the top four actions. The first thing I stated was to stop/limit the usage of single use
products like water bottles, pop bottles, and plastic containers like Starbucks drinks and quick
service food like Wendy’s. This aligns with the fourth of the top four strategies which is about
using products with sustainable materials. Using products with limited packaging with
recyclable/compostable materials is crucially important to reducing one’s carbon footprint. My
second point of planning driving routes so I can hit multiple places at once and limit my total
distance aligns with the first strategy of changing how we travel to lower emissions and travel
more sustainably.
Organizational Sustainability 2023
3) From The climate mitigation gap: education and government recommendations miss the most
effective individual actions; the authors rank, in figure 2 – recommendations from high impact to
low impact. You will see conserve water falls towards the middle. Most people understand
conserving water is a good practice, but how does it reduce greenhouse gas emissions specifically.
Please explain.
Conserving Water Reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions because of reducing the energy output of
economic activities and technologies that utilize water during their operations. For example, if
people were purchasing fewer plastic water bottles, less CO2 would be emitted from trucks
transporting them to stores and from cars travelling to buy them. Another way conserving water
reduces greenhouse gas emissions because it would require less energy to be inputted into water
treatment and desalination services. Finally, another way conserving water can limit greenhouse
gas emissions by limiting the amount of time farming equipment needs to be used to water and
maintain crops for growth and food.
Organizational Sustainability 2023