Managing Your ‘Green’ Lifestyle

Did you know that every one of us impacts the earth and its resources—and we all have a role to play to help protect the planet for future generations?

Reducing and offsetting carbon emissions (or greenhouse gas emissions) is one of the most powerful ways we can make a difference.

According to the World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Report 2012, we all need to act now to reduce carbon emission that contribute to climate change and cause damage to the eco-system, rivers and oceans.

The Environmental Defense Fund, claims that “the Earth could warm another 2° to 11.5°F this century if we fail to reduce emissions from burning fossil fuels and deforestation – devastating our livelihoods and natural world.” To put this into context, at the end of the last ice age, when the northeast United States was covered by more than 3,000 feet of ice, average temperatures were only 5 to 9 degrees cooler than today.

The problem is that, given we live our lives with a variety of modern conveniences, we can’t reduce our carbon footprint significantly on our own. It’s just not possible to do without some help.

But what can one person do to make a difference? The good news is that there are lifestyle choices you can make to reduce your carbon footprint. Washing with cold water, buying energy efficient appliances, carpooling, reducing consumption, recycling, and installing energy efficient windows, doors and furnaces are just a few ways to reduce your overall environmental impact. Finally, for the carbon emissions you can’t eliminate on your own, you can purchase carbon offsets.

Carbon offsets, also known as carbon credits, support green programs that help to mitigate environmental impact. Buying a carbon offset is like subtracting from your environmental impact based on your convenient lifestyle choices and giving back to emission reduction or renewable energy project elsewhere to further their green efforts for the planet.

If each one of us reduced our carbon footprint by 500 lbs, it would have the same impact as putting up 4 solar panels or taking a car off the road for 2 weeks.

Want to offset 500lbs of carbon emissions for free?  Sign up for JustGreen Lifestyle’s newsletter and we’ll retire 500lbs of carbon offsets in your name.  It’s that easy.