Reduce Carbon Footprint by Buying Local

A large contributor to an individual’s Carbon Footprint comes from the things we consume. An interesting pie chart gives us a breakdown and shows what carbon emissions the average person releases in the post ‘Carbon Footprint – What is a Carbon Footprint?’.

As this pie chart shows, the majority of an individual’s carbon footprint comes from secondary carbon emissions from the products and groceries we consume, with a large proportion of this coming from food and drink. Buying locally to reduce your carbon footprint and not buying flown in goods are two great things that can be done that are largely hassle free, and may improve our quality of life and health, as well as helping to reduce our carbon footprint and impact on the environment and climate change.

Buying Local and Buying in-Season

Buying locally sourced products, food and drink is a great way to make a huge difference in reducing your carbon footprint. Buying local cuts down on many contributors to emitting carbon that occur during a products supply chain. Think for example the life of a kiwi fruit; it is grown in New Zealand, picked when un-ripe, sprayed with

preservatives, packaged using materials like plastic that are made with oil amongst other things and emit CO2 during their production. This it has to be flown all the way round the world to get to the UK (using more than its weight in aviation fuel to get here) because it cannot be exported on a cargo ship because it will spoil. Once in the UK it has to be transported to supermarkets in trucks emitting more CO2, then we buy it and take it home. This is a huge journey emitting massive amounts of carbon dioxide, they might taste great, but Kiwi fruits and other goods imported from great distances aren’t so great for the environment.

Buying locally produced and in-season groceries can therefore cut out a lot of the carbon emissions from transportation and reduce your carbon footprint that way. As well as environmental benefits, this kind of produce is likely to be better for you, and better tasting. If things like fruit and veg are bought locally they will be picked when ripe, tasting better, and won’t need preservatives to keep them from going off, also making them taste better and making them more healthy. Good’s that are in season always taste better as well, think of British strawberries and asparagus, they taste much better than the imported goods we get.

Trying not to buy flown in goods

A lot of supermarkets now display on their packaging letting consumers know that a product has been flown in. This is important and should be taken notice of if someone is seriously committed to reducing their carbon footprint. Planes emit a huge amount of carbon, around 90kg per mile for a Boeing 747. So where possible, it is best to avoid all groceries that have been flown into your country, or at least try and cut down how often you buy them.

Tags: buying locally, reduce carbon emissions, reduce carbon footprint