It is true that every action we take makes a difference to climate change. But there are some actions which make a much bigger difference than others and it is important to put our efforts in the right place to cut our carbon footprint properly. The task to get to Net Zero is big, but we don’t need to re-examine every action we take to reduce our emissions. The best route to reducing our carbon emissions to do the big things first, and not worry about the things that only reduce our emissions by a fraction. There are actions we do every day that have such low carbon emissions that it is not worth thinking about how much we are polluting the earth by doing them. Below are some examples of such activities.

Switching off lights

Remembering to switch off the lights once we leave a room saves some energy and money. However, it will not be a huge amount of energy you be wasting. What would be a more impactful action is switching to a renewable energy supplier, or buying renewable technology such as buying rooftop or plugin solar panels makes a really big difference. This will save the average household 1.5 tonnes of carbon emissions. Also only using LED lights will save another 0.1 ton of carbon emissions.

Carrying a reusable shopping bag: carrying a reusable shopping bag is a good thing to do and reduces plastic pollution. It will save you some money as shops in many countries are charging to use a shopping bag. But if you forget to bring a reusable shopping bag once in a while, it does not matter that much. What you put into the shopping bag matters more. If you fill a reusable shopping bag with lots of meat and dairy, then this cancels out the impact of using the bag. Cutting beef and lamb from your diet and substituting some of your milk intake for plant-based milk will make a much bigger difference.

A Google search

Google searches contribute only 0.0001% to the world’s carbon footprint despite there are 3.5 billion searches every day. Emissions come from the energy you use for your smartphone or laptop, wearing out your phone/laptop and using a network or WiFi. So feel free to surf the internet in your spare time without feeling guilty. Even if AI is involved in Google searches, the carbon emissions are so low that asking AI a hundred quick questions is the equivalent to using the microwave for two minutes.

What is better than using the Google search engine is using the Ecosia app as a search engine instead. Ecosia is a search engine like Google and makes revenue from advertisements. Most of its profits go on tree-planting and the rest goes on renewable energy, regenerative agriculture and grassroots activism. So far, Ecosia has planted 250 million trees around the world.

A loaf of bread

Bread is a low carbon food. It does not matter what type of bread it is and how far it has been transported does make enough of a difference, they all have similarly low emissions. What matters is how much we waste of bread. The more we waste, the more carbon emissions we create from food waste. So, to keep carbon emissions down throw as little away as possible.

A text message

The world sends 9.5 trillion text messages a year, which is an incredibly huge number. However, one text only produces 0.8g of CO₂ emissions. This comes from writing and reading the text, wearing out the phone and transmitting through a network. It only contributes 0.01% to the world’s emissions, so text as much as you want!

A Zoom call

A Zoom call for an hour has very low emissions. While estimates of carbon emissions from a single Zoom call varies depending on the machine you are using; they range from 2-50 grams of emissions. These figures are so low that it does not matter how many Zoom calls you do. Also, if it prevents you from flying to a country abroad for a meeting, then net carbon emissions are negative.

Watching TV

Watching TV has relatively low carbon emissions despite the energy used to power the TV. Surprisingly, it doesn’t really matter how big the screen is either or if it is plasma, CRT or flat screen TV as technology has become more efficient and the energy system is based on more renewable energy in the UK. What does make a difference is if set-top boxes and WiFi routers are designed to consume minimal power in standby mode, especially if they are kept on overnight.

Source:

‘How bad are bananas?’ (2020) by Professor Mike Berners-Lee

‘Clearing the Air’ (2026) by Dr Hannah Ritchie