Steps to Make Your Home More Sustainable
There are many ways for us all to reduce emissions. Even small changes to our lifestyles and our homes can combine to make a significant impact across our communities. Here are four simple steps you can take to make your home more sustainable:
Reduce food waste
Each year, the equivalent of 130 billion meals of food is wasted each year in the U.S.[1] But you can avoid contributing to that by using as many of your groceries as possible. Some effective ways to do this include creating meal plans, using food while it’s fresh, and keeping leftovers to eat later. Composting any food you don’t use is also a great option as well, with food scraps making up 20-30% of what a household might throw away.[2]
Save water with low-flow shower heads
You can’t beat a good, hot shower. That said, showers do account for nearly 17% of the average family’s water consumption.[3] That’s nearly 40 gallons a day – adding up to a total of 1.2 trillion gallons of shower water used by Americans across the entire country each year (enough to supply New York and New Jersey).[3]
You can cut the amount of water you use in the shower each year by around 2,700 gallons with a low-flow shower head.[4] As well as producing less water per minute than standard shower heads, low-flow versions help you to use less electricity because not as much water needs heating.[4]
Laundry tips to save water and power
Did you know that drying one load of laundry pulls as much power as doing one wash load?[5]
Wherever you can, it’s worth hanging your clothes up to dry (whether inside or outside). An added benefit of this is you can also help your clothes last longer. If you can’t air dry your laundry, lower the temperature on your dryer while reducing the drying time. Together, these actions can contribute to reducing CO2 emissions by roughly 16 million tons each year.[6]
Switch to a renewable electricity plan
Reducing your electricity consumption isn’t just about keeping the bills in check (even though that is handy).
But you can do more than switching devices off at the outlet and keeping a watchful eye on the thermostat. You can switch to a renewable electricity plan to ensure that the electricity that you do use is backed by Renewable Energy Credits (RECs). These are issued when one megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity is generated and delivered to the grid from a renewable energy resource.
Small steps to start the journey to more sustainable living
You don’t have to make huge changes to start living more sustainably (while likely helping to cut your electricity costs as well). Implementing even one or two of the tips listed above may help you have a more sustainable home.
At Shell Energy, we can help you take one important step towards a more sustainable household by helping you power your home with a 100% Renewable Electricity plan. Find out more at https://www.shellenergy.com/Renewable
TX PUCT #10174
Sources
[1] Feeding America. “How We Fight Food Waste in the US.” N.D.
[2] USDA. “Composting.” N.D.
[3] EPA. “Showerheads.” N.D.
[4] Attainable Home. “WaterSense Low-Flow Showerheads: How Much Do You Save?” 2022.
[5] Discover. “Washing and Drying Machines are Polluting the Air.” 2022.
[6] CNN. “How to dry laundry sustainably, according to experts.” 2022.
[7] EPA. “Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.” 2022.
[8] University of Michigan Center for Sustainable Systems. “Carbon Footprint Factsheet.” 2022.