Granted, the global food supply is not one of the most significant contributors to climate change and emissions of greenhouse gases. However, in the spirit of maintaining awareness and doing what we can as individuals to mitigate the impacts of climate change, becoming aware of more sustainable food choices is a relatively easy action to take. I don’t believe in randomly curbing consumer choices (I love having access to the most exotic foods from around the world!), but just knowing about the factors that impact those choices can help to shift our mindset in meaningful ways.
It seems perfectly logical to start with organic, in-season, locally grown food. This addresses the importance of reducing the transportation distance from the farm to your supermarket and minimizing or eliminating the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. However, foods grown in climates and soils that are naturally most suited for their production can have a much lower environmental impact than local products grown under artificially enhanced conditions, even if they’re shipped across great distances. There are other factors to keep in mind to ensure that you’re reducing the carbon footprint of the food you consume:
- irrigation requirements
- methods of harvesting, processing, preservation and storage
- minimal packaging, or at least reusable and recyclable packaging
- climate and growing season
- mode of transportation (air, water, rail, etc.)
- fair trade and sustainable agriculture practices
Your method of cooking can negate all the effort you put into sourcing your food, if you’re not conscious of the energy and water consumed in its preparation.
Finally, coming soon to a supermarket near you— a carbon label for your food products.
It’s hard to avoid the buzz all over the place these days about reducing your carbon footprint. Once you quantify your carbon footprint using one of the calculators available on the web, you can buy carbon offsets to “neutralize” your impact. The money gets invested in renewable energy technologies, planting trees or other initiatives designed to reduce the overall carbon emissions impact to the planet. There are good and bad (legit and questionable) ways to do this and still have a real impact. We won’t get into the challenges here.
You can have a more direct, real impact on reducing your carbon footprint by implementing simple changes to your daily life that can really add up. When we all start embracing these simple changes to our
lifestyles, the cumulative effect can be significant. Here are just a few (there are many more):
- Use those reusable bags for your groceries (usually available in a variety of funky shades of green), instead of plastic grocery bags
- Buy stuff with less packaging, and packaging that is reusable or recyclable
- Buy in bulk if possible
- Buy stuff produced locally or within short transportation distances whenever possible
- Plant a garden, trees and grow some vegetables and herbs right in your own yard
- Minimize watering and fertilizing by careful selection of plants and trees for your soil and climate type
- Try replacing your lawn with a native groundcover
- Plan your route to do your daily errands most efficiently if driving
- Be conscious of how much time you spend in the shower
- Don’t just leave the water running while you’re brushing your teeth
- Reuse towels at home at least 2-3 times, not just in hotel rooms
- Air dry your clothes outside on warm, sunny days
- Replace some of your incandescent light bulbs with CFLs or LED lights
- Think twice about how often you feel you need to replace your car, electronics and household items
- And my favourite— work from home at least one day a week!
According to Bob Elton of BC Hydro, newer TVs consume four times as much electricity as the older technology TVs. Furthermore, if you have a digital box that’s plugged in all the time, 90% of the electricity consumed by your TV occurs when it’s not even in use. Many of us have more than one TV in our homes. Many of us are watching less TV and surfing the internet more. With the release of ever-newer entertainment technologies, out plug loads are getting higher and higher. Plug loads for consumer electronics have tripled over the last couple of decades and can make up almost 10-20% of our household energy consumption, after lighting, heating and cooling loads.
Knowing this and knowing that energy prices are set to continuing soaring in the foreseeable future, would you consider unplugging your TVs and computers and appliances when they’re not being used?
