It is best to align a strategy of reducing your carbon footprint with your personal goals.  Do you want to improve your finances? Are you concerned about your health? Do you have little time to think about how to reduce your carbon footprint? Is it a priority but not your main priority or are you super-keen to minimise your impact? Below are a few strategies you can adopt depending on your circumstance.

I want to save money without spending thousands

If you are looking for ways to reduce your spending and manage your finances better, you can make changes to food shopping and household management which could make a big difference to your bills:

• Plant-based diet – save £500 per person per year
• Do not tumble dry clothes – save £50 a year
• Invest in cooking utensils – air fryers cut cost of cooking by 40%
• Invest in products which will make you use less water – water hippo, aerated shower heads and low flow taps – can save at least £100 per person per year
• Buy non-perishable goods in bulk – shampoos and conditioners, laundry detergent, washing up liquid, soap and cleaning products.
• Use alternative modes of transport to private car – consider changing a quarter of your car journeys to a lower carbon mode of transport. This is estimated to save around £379 in fuel costs per year.
• Do not overspend – research suggests we throw away 22% of the food we buy and wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time. When you are in the shops, think whether you really need to buy something and don’t fall for ‘buy one get one free’ offers.
• Four-minute shower – save £60 a year
• Use LED lights – save £40-50 a year
• Turn down thermostat by 1 degree – save £90 a year
• Thermostatic radiator vales – save £35 a year
• Use a reuseable bottle – save £245 per person a year.

From following the above, at least a £1000 can be saved per person straight away. For a family of four, the savings could be huge without investing thousands of pounds on electric cars, heat pumps and solar panels.

I want to be healthier and lose weight

A plant-based diet is the best diet you can adopt to improve your health and reduce your carbon footprint. A plant-based diet is a diet where meat makes up to one third of what you eat, and plant make up at least two-thirds of your diet. Plants do not mean only fruit and vegetables, it includes nuts, legumes such as beans, lentils and chickpeas and whole grains such as bread, rice and pasta.  A huge range of diets fit into this category: flexitarian, pescatarian, vegetarian, and vegan diets. A plant-based diet reduces your chances of developing cancer, diabetes, strokes, chronic diseases by up to 34%. A plant-based diet can also help to reduce weight as meat usually has more calories than plants.

Another way to combine reducing carbon footprint with weight loss is to walk and cycle more rather than use your car. You can invest in an e-bike to make your journeys faster and easier by cycling. E-bikes help you go faster and make it easier to go up hills. Also substituting short car journeys with walking will increase the number of steps you do a day. Research suggests walking 10,000 steps a day can: reduce the risk of dementia by 50%; reduce knee and joint pain for those with arthritis; reduces the chance of getting cardiovascular disease, thirteen types of cancers, stroke and heart failure and improves mental health and creativity.

I want to put in minimum effort because I have little time

Many of us are time poor and lot of things to prioritise in our life before reducing our carbon footprint. The easiest actions to make which require little effort are:

• Switch to a renewable energy supplier as this automatically reduces your carbon footprint by 1.5 tonnes.
• Changing your bulbs to LED lights saves energy and money.
• Drop beef from your diet as beef produces the most carbon emissions out of all types of meat and can reduce the emissions of your diet by 21% by making this one change.
• Recycle properly means you simply put the right items in the right bin. Make sure you do not contaminate recyclable material with soiled waste.
• Plant trees for free using apps such as Ecosia and Treeapp. Tree planting is very important in combating climate change and protecting biodiversity across the planet. You can plant trees for free by simply browsing your phone and watching short adverts.

Switching to a renewable energy supplier, not eating beef, changing bulbs to LED lights and recycling properly will take 2 tonnes of your carbon footprint. By using apps such as Ecosia and Treeapp to plant a tree every day, you can offset all your carbon emissions for a year.

Medium effort

If you are willing to put in more effort, but it is not your top priority, there are some more ideas you can adopt. It is important to put effort in the right areas that have the biggest impact on carbon footprint, rather than focus on actions that make minimal difference.

• Drop red meat from your diet and choose some dairy free substitutes. Become vegetarian once a week.
• Choose a renewable energy supplier, use LED lights or consider buying solar panels. This has the added bonus of saving you money.
• Invest in household products to reduce energy. These would include aerated shower heads, air fryers, low flow taps.
• Recycle properly and invest in a composter
• Plant trees for free using Ecosia and Treeapp
• Avoid fast fashion and only buy what you need.
• Reduce the amount of car journeys you do by substituting to more car-pooling, walking, cycling and public transport.

High effort

If you really want to put in as much effort as possible to bring down your carbon footprint, take as many actions as you can in the areas of diet, energy consumption travel and shopping.

• Household: invest in reducing your energy consumption. This would include turning down the thermostat by a degree, using LED lights, not using the tumble dryer, washing on a cooler setting and investing in an air fryer.  
• Buy household products with a lower carbon footprint.  
• Think about your actions in the house: do not tumble dry, switch of lights when out of a room, put washing machines and dishwashers on cooler settings.
• Use alternative modes of transport to a private car as much as possible or do not have a car at all. Cut down air travel as much as possible with trains or choose to holiday within 6 hours of your home country.
• Choose a plant-based diet: a vegan diet has the lowest carbon footprint. Also do not buy too much food that you end up throwing away and compost all food waste.
• Avoid fast fashion, only buy what you need and grow your own food.
• Reuse where possible: there are growing number of clothes hire outlets, vintage shops and second-hand shops.
• Depending on your budget, consider insulating your house and buying solar panels, heat pump and an electric car. In the long term this will save you money and significantly reduce your carbon footprint.
• Plant trees for free using Ecosia and Treeapp.

I have a limitless budget to invest in reducing my carbon footprint

You have a big budget for reducing your carbon footprint, the best thing you can do it invest in a clean tech house which reduces your energy consumption.

• Insulation in roof, walls and floors.
• Solar panels
• Heat pumps
• Electric car
• Double-glazed or triple glazed windows

You can also consider turning your property into a Passivhaus. These buildings are very well constructed, insulated and ventilated that they require little additional heating and cooling. This reduces the carbon footprint of a typical house by 90% and in the long term, you will save money and increase the value of your house.