This Matters To Me

One of the biggest ways that an individual can reduce their carbon footprint, is consuming less meat and dairy. Jackson and I have made significant changes in our diet over the past two weeks. In the past two weeks, the only meat I have purchased is 1.5 lbs of chicken breast. This is in stark contrast to my previous grocery shopping which usually consists of several packages of chicken breast and ground turkey, in addition to deli meat or chicken sausages. While we have not completely cut meat out of our diets, we have been making many more conscious choices at the grocery store and also while eating out. Bonus: we are also feeling healthier. I am feeling less bloated and Jackson is down 5 lbs after kicking his pretty serious McDouble addiction. I Can Do More Right now, I feel like I am taking baby steps. I have not cut out dairy or eggs, which are other high greenhouse gas emitters, however, I feel like I may have a better chance of creating more sustainable personal changes by ta...

The goal of this series is to implement conscious small changes to chip away at my personal carbon footprint. I fully acknowledge that some weeks will probably make a bigger impact than other weeks, however, I truly believe that every little bit helps. Little changes are also easier to implement and my hope is that I might inspire others to make little changes as well. Cloth Kitchen Towels This week I am making a change that is on the smaller side. I recently noticed that I use way too many paper towels in the kitchen. From wiping down the counters every night to cleaning Hunter's sticky face and fingers, and all the spills that happen in between. We seem to run out of them constantly meaning we must buy more way too frequently. My goal for this week is to replace those paper towels with cloth kitchen towels. I picked up a pack of 6 for $4 at Target. If this switch saves me 4 rolls of paper towels that will be a money saver in addition to helping the planet just a teensy bit.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a chilling report on Monday that warns we need to make drastic, wide-reaching changes before 2030 in order to curtail the impacts of climate change. You can read more about the report here . Hunter will only be 13 by 2030. This fact has put things more in perspective to me than any other piece of information about climate change. I have to do better. We have to do better. I'm hoping that this blog will encourage me to explore ways I can personal reduce my carbon footprint (especially since I cannot count on our current administration to make any substantial changes). All the best, Jen