Buying Carbon Offsets & Other Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint This Summer

July 30, 2020

Reduce your carbon footprint this summer.

Emissions are put into the atmosphere with everything you do, from cooling your home to growing, manufacturing and transporting all of the products you need to fit your lifestyle. While green lifestyle choices can’t completely eliminate your carbon footprint, they can definitely reduce it. Green Mountain Energy can help you make wise choices to lessen your impact on the planet. Check out a few simple ways to offset these everyday actions.

Find pollution-free travel or purchase carbon offsets.
Biking and hiking are good ways to travel around your city without hurting the environment. And while COVID-19 is mostly keeping us local, be sure to follow the safety guidelines if you do travel. Driving and flying are some of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions, with transportation contributing to 28% of 2018 US emissions, according to the EPA. Green Mountain Offsets can guide you to an environmental-friendly trip without sacrificing the fun. Purchasing carbon offsets for air or car travel is a simple and affordable way to better balance on your impact.

Switch to LED light bulbs.
Incandescent bulbs give off over 90% of their energy in heat, while certified LEDs use a quarter of the energy and last an average of 25 times longer. By installing LEDs, you'll save money and improve the quality of the environment.
Plant trees and educate others.
Planting a tree is a small action you can personally take to offset your carbon footprint. You can also increase your reach by volunteering with an organization to help plant even more trees. If you want to make the maximum impact, become active in groups that promote conservation to reduce carbon footprints. You’ll have the opportunity to educate the public in support of conservation efforts.

Teach kids sustainable habits.

Consider how you use water.
Kids know summer means water. Many activities lead to increased water usage, including swimming pools, lawn and garden watering, vehicle washing, more frequent showering and extra loads of laundry and dishes.

Tips for conserving water:

Install a low-flow shower head.
Install a low-flow sink head or faucet aerator.
Wash clothes in cold water.
Use drip irrigation instead of sprinkler systems.
Water in early morning or evening hours.

Consider what you waste.
Everything from food to clothes can lead to more waste. Educate kids about packaging, upcycling and disposing of things in sustainable ways.
Tips for reducing your waste:

Invest in reusable household products in the kitchen and throughout the house.
Use washable cloth shopping bags.
Try to avoid excess packaging.
Compost kitchen scraps and other appropriate discarded materials.
Visit resale shops when searching for clothes and household goods. Some secondhand shops are quite upscale these days.
Donate unwanted instead of throwing them away

Offset Your unavoidable Impact by purchasing Carbon Offsets.

Even green super stars who go to great lengths to minimize their impact still leave a carbon footprint. There are just some things we can’t eliminate. Purchasing carbon offsets is a great way to reduce those unavoidable emissions. Perhaps you've purchased carbon offsets previously. Or maybe you're new to the idea. No matter how familiar you are with carbon offsets, you will want to select a provider whose offsets are real, permanent, verifiable and beyond "business as usual." Green Mountain Offsets can help you in calculate your carbon footprint and purchase carbon offsets to tackle those unavoidable emissions.

Some statistics were referenced from: 5 Things You Can Do to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint by Georgia Bay Forever Protecting Your Water