small steps, smaller footprints

 

Your typical store is really an international market. So much of what we buy comes from other continents. We buy blueberries from Chile, blackberries from Mexico, electrical equipment from China, fuels from Canada, manufactured products from Germany and Japan, leather and beef from Brazil, fish from all over. The list goes on. How often do you pick up something off of a shelf, see where it is from, and decide not to purchase it because of the transportation emissions associated with it? Not often? That needs to change. Start paying attention to the origin of everything you purchase and reduce the total shipping mileage of the items you come home with after shopping trips. A core component of this Action is buying local produce. If you can't find local produce or there aren't any farmer's markets for you to go check out, then buy produce that is relatively local. Even if it means choosing one product over another because it was shipped 1,000 miles rather than 2,000 miles. If you can reduce the average shipping distance and the transportation emissions associated with the products you buy by 15% the benefit will be approximately:

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