Reduce Your Personal Greenhouse Gas Emissions
A questioners guide to imagining zero-carbon lifestyles for individuals.
Race to net-zero
You’re a superhero!
But what does it mean?
Amazingly awesome and fun
Happier, healthier,
So much more exciting, fulfilling
Than today
For sure
I can’t wait!
Neither can Mother Earth.
“Commit to reducing your impact on the climate by more than half of what is today by 2030 — aim for 60%” recommend Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac in “The Future We Choose”. While we all impact the environment in which we live, how much depends a lot on geography and income. Higher financial wealth is associated with higher emissions, but whatever your baseline, the path to personal net zero requires a lot of learning and solid commitment to take the necessary actions. Luckily, playing around finding creative ways to get there is so much fun, you might find yourself rowing across countries or starting your own business scratching the environmental itch that you just can’t leave alone…. like this lady who started a mobile zero-waste refill store in a van!
Carbon footprint calculators are an imperfectly good place to start. Although body weight is an incomplete measure of health, it’s simple and remains a reference point for many to help them change their daily habits. Similarly, carbonfootprint.com allows you to estimate your current carbon footprint based on your house (how many people in the household and the types of fuel you use), and transport (flights, use of car, motorbike, bus and rail). Secondary emissions are estimated using expenditures on food and drink (and whether you are a meat-eater, vegetarian, vegan), pharmaceuticals, computers and equipment, TV, furniture, hotels, restaurants, banking and finance, insurance, education, and recreational activities. While it’s easy to critique these calculators for what they don’t account for, such as your consumption choices or the life-cycle of products you buy, they are a decent enough starting point to support behaviour change.
Espoused Theory versus Theory-in-Use
Progress can be easy at first for low-hanging emissions reductions for individuals, but soon your commitment is challenged. Renewable-electricity heats my home (in combination with self-righteousness). I’m not eating any meat and may have just quit airplanes. But here, my espoused theory, “I want to lead a net/zero carbon lifestyle” diverges from my theory-in-use; I still rely on a diesel car to travel long-distances and it doesn’t make sense to go electric until the car dies. I spend money on goods whose production, delivery, and use emits greenhouse gases. The carbon footprint calculator says I’m emitting 1.493 tonnes of CO2 annually on these secondary emissions, which I can offset for £8.96-£25.80 depending on where that offset takes place (globally and through UK tree planting, respectively). I don’t know enough about how that money is used to believe that it moves me from espoused theory to theory in use.
Knowing that very few companies in the world are responsible for the bulk of global emissions and meat-consumption is rising in populations of billions, it becomes difficult to retain commitment and motivation. Intentional change is never easy, so now what? It’s time to play with imagination on what a net-zero lifestyle by 2030 looks like for me and get excited about the future we’re creating…
House
- Off-grid so I can be sure that the renewables are indeed renewable.
- Training gym in the garden so people who like cycling nowhere can provide my back-up power generation. Faster, faster!
Transport
- I don’t own a car — I own a bicycle and a PodRide fleet.
- I use clean-fuelled trains to travel longer distances unless I’m going overseas and then I use the clean-fuelled ferry.
- I’m part of an electric vehicle cooperative which functions somewhere between what 2020 people knew as car-share and Uber-pool.
Consumption
- Zero-waste — finally! Over the years, item by item, when it came round to buying something again, I looked for a zero-waste eco-friendly option. These experiments led me to find products I liked which I then invested in by bulk, sharing or selling any excess.
- Vegan cheese and dairy became worth eating around 2025 so yes I’m finally vegan.
- I only buy from companies who are already net zero or well on their way. This includes full accountability in their supply chain, modular products designed against obsolescence, and zero-emissions delivery.
- Like nutrition labels on food, now it’s easy to see water consumption, CO2 emissions, and waste created in the lifecycle of the products we buy. You can use an app to set your limits and it will recommend products to suit your eco-preferences.
Finance
- I successfully avoided paying any UK tax until the government had stopped paying fossil fuel subsidies, without going to prison.
- Those green bonds I bought back in 2021 did what they said, but great improvements were made on the green criteria since I made a stink about that.
- My strict non-fossil fuels regenerative growth all-weather portfolio has been producing kick-ass environmental, social, and financial returns since 2023, so much so, people started asking me for investment advice — no I couldn’t believe it either!
People change for two reasons — because they want to or because they have to. Once you choose to start moving towards a net-zero carbon lifestyle, gaps in eco-friendly products and services quickly appear. These are exactly the niches that creative entrepreneurs can occupy to serve others facing the same problem. As increasingly more individuals begin to bridge the gap between espoused theory and theory-in-use for net-zero living, consumer demand push businesses in the right direction. It’s been a long time coming, but step by step, person by person, a change is gonna come.
And I love it!
