Six sustainable ways to save money and the planet

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It doesn’t take an Olympic-sized effort to reduce our carbon footprint 

Considering how “winter-centric” Canadians are with their sports (e.g. with many of our top athletes playing hockey all year round), we’ve done  exceedingly well at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

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Outside of the Olympics, we’re also one of the top countries in the world, but for the wrong reason. Canadians have one of the highest carbon footprints in the world, producing 15.22 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per person per year, about three times the global average.

If you find that discouraging, take heart because there are several small yet simple steps on the home front that can add up to hundreds if not thousands of dollars saved each year while reducing our carbon footprint.

Here are just six of many actions to consider:

1. Don’t use (or at least) re-use your plastic bags and baggies. Despite the objections of some conservative political leaders that will go unnamed, the movement to reduce our use of plastic bags is well underway. But we’re still buying baggies and reaching for bags for our produce which ultimately end up in our landfill sites, our rivers and lakes. While not the perfect solution, we can help to reduce plastic waste through a combination of using reusable bags (both for produce and to haul food home), buying fewer products wrapped in plastic and re-using versus dumping the plastic bags and baggies you already have.
2. Resolve to reduce your garbage and green bins. A worthwhile exercise is to track just how much you’re throwing out each week by weight, volume or both and then set a goal to try to reduce it. A more appropriate way of describing our garbage container is they’re “waste bins” because when we don’t properly recycle what we throw out, or we throw out perfectly usable clothes and other items.. It really is a waste that affects both the environment and our bottom line. It’s estimated that the average Canadian family throws out the equivalent of over $1,700 worth of food alone each year.
3. Buy less and keep it longer. Instead of throwing clothes and household items out before their time or trying to sell them for a fraction of their original cost, there’s a lot to be said about buying quality goods that are more timeless and made to last. The average North American throws out over 80 pounds of clothing per year. Imagine how much time (spent shopping) and money (between the purchase and the gas used to go to the store) that could be saved if we even just cut that figure in half.
4. Use a sun block for your home. At this time of year in particular, the sun beating through our windows is increasing room temperatures by several degrees. So whether you have air conditioning or are using a fan to cool things down, it adds up to increased electricity costs. But you can significantly reduce those costs while improving the comfort of your home, through such measures as: getting strategic about blocking the sun with window blinds, setting up patio shades or sails and planting shade trees.
5. Opt for cooler versus cold. Ever notice how cold stores and other indoor spaces are this time of year to the point where you are well advised to carry a sweater with you? Many of us fall into the same trap of keeping our homes so cold that you have to add extra layers just to stay comfortable. Why not just raise the thermostat a few degrees and save on your energy bill in the process?
6. Electrify your yard. The Washington Post just ran a telling story about the future of lawn mowers and the overarching message is this: electric mowers require much less maintenance; they don’t pollute the air (running an older gas mower for an hour produces as much air pollution as driving a car 500 kilometres) and cost much less to run (the cost of charging a battery at home vs. using the gas in your car to go buy gas for your mower). The same money-saving principles holds true for other yard tools, including trimmers and blowers, with the added bonus that they’re also a lot quieter.

If there is a takeaway from these six examples it’s this –  it doesn’t take an Olympic effort to reduce our carbon footprint. Through simple steps, we can collectively reduce our footprint while saving hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year. And if we can do that, we all deserve medals.  

Mark Wessel lives in Ridgeway, Ont. and is a passionate advocate for living more sustainably at home and in the greater community. Visit www.markdouglaswessel.com