During lockdown, many people have become more aware of the environment and have been looking for ways to be kinder to the planet. This is an honourable thing to do but often it can be difficult to make major changes to your lifestyle, even if they are beneficial to the climate. Not everybody can go completely vegan straight away or install solar panels on their roof. So, in this article I hope to provide a couple of achievable goals and tips that will help to reduce your carbon footprint and gently ease you into a more environmentally friendly life. 

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1. Turn off the lights when you leave the room.  Although electricity production has taken a better, more renewable turn in recent years, it is still an industry dominated by harmful fossil fuels that poison the atmosphere. So, by being mindful of your energy consumption and reducing the amount of electricity that you use, you will be contributing less to the fossil fuel industry. An easy and simple way of doing this is turning off lights when you leave rooms or whenever you don’t need them. Additionally, you could try turning appliances such as TVs, radios, lamps and computers off at the wall/plug overnight 

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2. Reduce your meat and dairy consumption. Meat and dairy production can often be very bad for the environment - animals such as cows produce the harmful greenhouse gas methane whenever they “pass wind”. Going vegan or vegetarian is one way of helping the climate but for many people this is quite a hard change to make. If you would like to make a change but feel that completely changing your diet would be unrealistic then you could try maybe having one meat free meal a week, or swapping your glass of milk for some cool water. 

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3. Walk and cycle more. Cars give off a lot of harmful emissions so walking or cycling places instead of driving is a really effective way of reducing your carbon footprint. If your school or workplace is within walking distance of your home, try getting there on foot or on your bike a couple of times a week. Or if you are popping down to the shops to get some supplies, walk there instead of taking the car. It may feel like a bit of a waste of time but in the long run it’s better for both the climate and your fitness! 

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4. Spend less time in the shower. Keeping clean is important but a lot of energy goes into heating, transporting and pumping water. Try reducing your time spent in the shower by a couple of minutes. Stay in long enough to properly clean yourself but try not to spend unnecessary time standing under the water, as nice as it is, it’s not too great for the planet. 

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5. Buy palm oil free products. Our rainforests are one of the greatest gifts in the world- not only are they beautiful, they absorb the carbon dioxide that we produce which would otherwise go into the atmosphere. However, they are being destroyed to make space for palm oil farming. This isn’t good as we are losing the trees that help to keep our climate in check. Additionally, all of the carbon that the trees have been storing gets released into the atmosphere as they are burned to make space for the new farms. Palm oil is found in the vast majority of household goods and as demand increases for these goods, so too does the demand for palm oil to produce them. This means that more rainforest is destroyed to make more room for more palm oil plants, meaning that more carbon is released into the air. This is a huge issue and a lot of people know that, but it’s so huge that not really many people believe that they can make change. However, by buying palm oil free products whenever possible you are reducing the demand for palm oil meaning that less rainforest is destroyed. It may not seem like it, but you and your jar of palm oil free peanut butter are making a massive difference.