Simple swaps to lead a more sustainable lifestyle

1. Ditch the car once a day - 500kg of CO2 a year

How we travel is a huge contributor to our personal carbon emissions, making it a key sustainable swap when it comes to reducing our footprint. In fact, our previous research found that if just a quarter of parents walked their children to school instead of driving, they would save 85,410 tonnes of CO2 every year, the equivalent of flying from London to Australia over 12,000 times!

Previous studies have found that switching your car for walking or cycling can have a substantial impact - in fact, swapping just one car trip per day can reduce your carbon footprint by around 500kg a year.

Of course, if you are able to reduce your car trips even more, then you should also notice improvemnets to your overall health - just 30 minutes of walking a day can reduce your blood pressure as well as many other wellbeing benefits.

2. Repair clothes and buy second-hand - 289kg of CO2 a year

In a world of fast fashion and throw-away culture, it can be easy to simply chuck our clothes the moment they show a bit of wear and tear. However, this attitude has led to a huge 206,456 tonnes of fashion waste every year from the UK alone.

Choosing to repair our existing wardrobes or buying second hand for any new bits can massively reduce waste. According to ThredUp’s Fashion Footprint calculator, making these changes could save the average wardrobe from up to 298kg of carbon a year.

3. Opt for solid soaps and shampoo bars - 0.77kg of CO2 a year

Rid your shower routine from single-use plastics and opt for solid soaps and shampoo bars instead. With less plastic, lighter packaging, and longer lasting, the option is friendly for both the planet and your wallet.

The average person uses 11 bottles of shampoo a year, resulting in a reported 520 million bottles of shampoo being thrown away each year. Similarly, the production of one plastic bottle uses 0.07kg of carbon dioxide, meaning that forgoing your 11 bottles a year could reduce your carbon footprint by up to 0.77kg a year.

Alternatively, swap your disposable bottles with a refill solution. Many brands are producing sustainable bottles for life with eco-friendly recyclable refill pouches that easily arrive in the mail through your letter box. This means you don’t have to sacrifice your beauty routine whilst still being more sustainable.

4. Reduce your single-use cotton - 6kg of CO2 a year

Our beauty routines are often full of single-use products, such as cotton wool pads and makeup wipes. Cotton production totals 220 million tonnes of CO2 a year, so making the simple swap to sustainable beauty products, such as reusable face cloths, could hugely reduce your carbon emissions.

Reusable makeup removers have been said to save up to 500 cotton pads, and last for around 200 washes. With the average woman using three cotton pads per day, you’d only need two reusable make up removers to last you an entire year!

With a kilogram of cotton estimated to produce 9.3kg of CO2, reducing your cotton waste could potentially cut 6.007kg off of your carbon footprint each year.

5. Lower the temperature - 881kg of CO2 a year

Opting for a cold shower is said to have plenty of health benefits, helping your immune response, circulation and skin. Alongside this, lowering the temperature of your showers not only helps you reduce water usage but also saves three times the carbon of a hot shower. If you were to lower the temperature for the last ten minutes of your daily shower, this simple switch could reduce your footprint by 1.34kg a day, totalling up to 489kg over the year.

And it’s not just our showers, up to 60% of your washing’s carbon footprint comes from heating up the water. An easy switch to leading a more sustainable lifestyle, choosing a cold wash for your laundry can reduce a household’s CO2 emissions by 392kg a year!

6. Refills and reusables - 10.3kg of CO2

Reduce waste and go reusable! When it comes to getting your morning coffee, an easy way to make this habit a more eco-friendly one is to invest in a reusable coffee cup.

A previous study by Zero Waste Scotland found that, it takes 10 to 41 uses for a reusable plastic coffee cup to have a lower equivalent carbon impact than using the same number of single-use cups. By opting for a reusable cup for your oat milk latte, you could save 10.3kg of CO2 over the lifetime of the mug. One coffee to takeaway please!

7. Switch to eco-friendly cleaning products - 1.26kg of CO2 a year

Traditional cleaning products contain chemicals such as phosphates, ammonia and nitrates that can cause water pollution when making their way into our water. Switching to eco-friendly cleaning products that are free from harsh chemicals and better for the environment can be an easy way to do your part for the planet, or even better make your own all-purpose cleaning product.

Ingredients such as white vinegar, lemon, and baking powder have also been shown as powerful, natural cleaners that won’t leave any harmful residue behind. Estimates state that household cleaning products emit approximately 0.63kg of CO2 emissions per kilogram of product. If you were to make this sustainable lifestyle switch and cut out two products a year, that would reduce your carbon footprint by 1.26kg a year.