How can I reduce my carbon footprint?
Now that you know your carbon footprint, here’s things you can do to reduce it
To reduce a carbon footprint within your home and your community, focus on sustainable transportation, energy efficiency in the home, reduce the amount of waste you produce, support local food systems, and look at making sustainable food choices. Do more walking, cycling, and use public transport more. Embrace the principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Have a look at the great examples of personal and community sustainability actions on climate connected.
What you can do yourself
We didn’t really need that second car
The benefits are both immediate, sustainable and you send a clear signal of sustainability, environmental consideration and an active lifestyle to your kids. They will then, hopefully, be more likely and more comfortable making these types of decisions into the future...
Cíara and Keep Cup Campaigns
The impact of my action has been a reduction in my carbon footprint and control on the amount of single-use waste that I produce. For example, if I go out to work 5 days a week for 48 weeks of the year, buy a takeaway coffee, a plastic bottle of water and dispose of...
Dara, installed PV at his home.
In October 2013 we installed 2 kW of Photovoltaic panels (8 panels) ground-mounted at our home. At that time, we also installed a 5kW heat-pump. In September of 2023, we installed a further 2 kW of Photovoltaic panels, making it 4kW in total. The total electricity...
What you can do with your community
Aran Islands’ Energy Co-operative
We are a community owned energy cooperative representing the 3 Aran Islands. Lifetime membership is open to everyone who lives on the Islands for a fee of just €100. The cooperative is non-profit with all of the benefits going back into the community. The co-op shows...
Use Your Mug Galway City
This was a campaign that lasted for 3 months in Galway City. During this time 9 cafes in the city did not sell coffee in paper cups. Instead you had to bring your own keep cup. The campaign was talked about all over the city and it helped get people into the habit of...
Creative Climate Action: Art and Sustainability in Westside
Westside Resource Centre’s community-led projects bring creativity and climate action together to engage residents in meaningful ways. Projects like "Painting the Planet" and "The Air We Share" use art and science to make sustainability understandable, start...
See all our resources which have been made by our community partners to help you START and then GROW your community sustainability work
Build a Community Structure
Getting an effective team together is a vital step in the community journey to sustainability. We have broken down the actions and resources needed to do this into five key areas where you can build your capacities and skills.
SEE SUCCESS STORIES FROM PEOPLE AND THEIR COMMUNITIES
Some communities and individuals, just like yours have already made great progress on the journey to sustainability, you can see these stories here. Keep in touch and soon you or your community could have it’s own decarbonisation story to tell
Discover Your Carbon Footprint
Our Carbon Footprint tool is currently in development by Energy Co-operatives Ireland Ltd and Galway University. Please join our mailing list and we will let you know when it is ready to use. In the meantime find out about the sustainability impact of your behaviour choices
Make Valuable Connections
Get more people from your community involved in sustainability. Our dialog tool shows you how to get more people talking to eachother and how you can increase how local people become active in making sustainability happen.
