small steps, smaller footprints

 

It is time for a heart-to-heart. If you have committed to some, most, or all of the Actions up to this point, you should feel a sense of pride and accomplishment, but there is never an end to what we can do to help fight the climate battle. CarbonCurb is about helping you develop a killer instinct for how to improve your lifestyle from a climate perspective. Now is the time to eradicate trends and norms that are detrimental to the sustainability of our planet. The heart of the climate battle is in each of your individual decisions and impulses. Your weapon in this battle is yourself, and you may currently be fighting for both sides. In the United States, we have developed a subculture of consumerism and waste that has spread across the planet. It is time to slow down and be realistic.

 

Action 18 is to be frugal and only buy quality products you need. What this really means is you must be frugal, and when you do make a purchase, be prudent in your decision. By that, we mean to minimize what you buy, and when you do buy something, ensure it is a product of quality and longevity. There are an infinite number of products on the market that have been designed specifically to minimize production costs, convey false value to consumers, and inevitably result in product failure that forces a secondary purchase of a similar or identical product. Do not fall for it. Only buy quality products that you know will last. The initial investment for quality products is greater, but you can afford that if you are frugal, and in the long-term, quality is cheaper if you end up avoiding a second, and possibly third, purchase as a result of something breaking.

 

Action 18 is reducing your non-essential purchases. Quantifying the carbon reductions for something like this is highly complex and uncertain. In America, the average per capita industrial and commercial GHG emissions are a combined 8 MT CO2e, or half of your annual emissions. The point is, carbon is hidden in nearly everything you buy. These "embedded emissions" permeate the products and resources throughout society. The supermarket aisles are indeed shelves of carbon. If you can become more frugal and reduce your non-essential product purchases, there are extreme climate benefits. Sustaining the amount of energy and resources required to support a global consumerist society is simply not feasible. Non-essential is a broad term and the emissions reductions estimates associated with eliminating non-essential purchases are inexact. Regardless, you can rest assured that even a marginal decrease in personal consumer expenditures is healthy for you and the planet. Always ask yourself if you really need something and if your desire for that inanimate something is worth it.  Action 18 is the most impactful CarbonCurb Action. If you truly alter your purchasing decisions by reducing non-essential consumption and optimizing your essential purchases, you can reasonably expect the impact of this Action to be:

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