Turn down the heat.
You can reduce the energy needed to heat your home up to 20% simply by turning the thermostat down 10°F - 15° when you are asleep or out of the house. The most effective and convenient way to save energy this way is to install a programmable thermostat. When used properly, programmable thermostats can save you about $150 per year.
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 Alternative Transportation
In 2005, carbon dioxide emissions from transportation in Bellingham were over 400,000 tons, nearly double the emissions from heating and powering our homes. Cutting back on driving, especially when traveling by yourself, is generally the most effective action you can take to reduce your carbon footprint. Walking and biking are daily activities you can do that produce no carbon dioxide. If you can’t walk or bike, take advantage of the numerous alternatives to driving your own vehicle. If you walked, rode your bike or took public transportation at least one day a week, you would prevent up to 900 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions from entering the air every year.
Start using your bike as your daily commuter. You’ll save hundreds of dollars and thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide - plus it’ll make you healthier.
How do I do this?
Bellingham is quite bike friendly. We have a system of bike lanes and trails that provide a safe route to almost everywhere you need to go (Bellingham Bike Maps). You can contact Ellen Barton of the Whatcom County Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee at 360-676-6974 or email ellen@wcog.org for questions or concerns about safe routes. Also check out the Whatcom Transit Authority’s resources page for safety tips, a bicycle resource guide, traffic laws, shopping tips and more.
Start by making all your short trips by bike and gradually move to trying the longer ones. The WTA bus system also provides bike racks on their buses, so if you want to skip the hill, you could always take the bus and then bike back down. Don’t forget to register your non-car commutes with Smart Trips for chances to win prizes and earn discounts.
Why should I do this?
Transportation accounts for 42% of all community greenhouse gas emissions in Bellingham. That’s more than any other sector. In our community, the single action that you can take that will have the biggest impact to reduce climate change is to drive less. If you start biking your 5 mile commute instead of driving, you’ll save over a ton of carbon dioxide a year. That’s equivalent to the total carbon dioxide an average Chinese citizen produces all year(1)!
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Use your feet to reduce your carbon footprint. Take a few minutes to reconnect with your community and get some exercise while minimizing your impact on the planet.
How do I do this?
Take advantage of what is around you and walk to your destination rather than driving across town. Spend a few minutes locating the businesses, parks and activities near where you live. Check out the Whatcom Transit Authority’s resources page for safety tips and facts, health benefits and shopping suggestions related to walking.
Why should I do this?
Walking is faster than you might think. Plus it’s great exercise and it’s free! Transportation accounts for 42% of all community greenhouse gas emissions in Bellingham. That’s more than any other sector. In our community, the single action you can take that will have the biggest impact to reduce climate change is to drive less. You can save thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide emissions by minimizing your driving. Walking is also a great way to get to know the people and businesses in your neighborhood.
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If you can’t walk or bike, take the bus. A typical full bus achieves the equivalent of over 300mpg!
How do I do this?
Check out the Whatcom Transit Authority (WTA) website for details on bus schedules, routes passes and fares. If you’ve never used the bus before here are some tips on how use the WTA bus system. Recently expanded routes provide excellent coverage in and around Bellingham, including Ferndale, Lynden, Everson, Nooksack, Sumas, Kendall, Sudden Valley, Mt. Vernon and Gooseberry Point. Click here to see the Transit Maps.
The North Sound Transit Guide is an online resource that provides a trip planner to help you find routes and connections between pretty much any two cities in the North Sound with links to timetables for each route and service provider. There is also a slick common routes page to provide you with exact times, connections and fares for the more frequently requested trips.
Why should I do this?
Transportation accounts for 42% of all community greenhouse gas emissions in Bellingham. That’s more than any other sector. In our community, the single action you can take that will have the biggest impact to reduce climate change is to drive less. A typical full bus gets the equivalent of over 300 mpg! Taking the bus is much cheaper than driving and it can be just as fast. An annual bus pass costs $200. Compare that to the average cost of around $6,000 to $11,500 a year the average American spends on their automobile(1).
Supporting public transportation also sends a message to our politicians and city planners that we demand affordable widespread public transit options.
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If you do need to drive, carpool whenever possible. Sharing a ride with just one other person cuts your carbon dioxide emissions in half.
How do I do this?
Talk to people at work and school and determine who lives near you or on your commute route. Ride with the person who has the most fuel efficient car and enjoy the conversation - not to mention the money you’re saving on gas and the carbon dioxide you’re preventing from entering the air. If you can’t find someone to carpool with or you are making a one-time trip, check online for people who need a ride or are already driving there. Connect with fellow carpooler at www.rideshareonline.com or http://bellingham.craigslist.org/rid/.
Why should I do this?
Every day people in the same neighborhood make the same commute in separate cars. Transportation accounts for 42% of all community greenhouse gas emissions in Bellingham. That’s more than any other sector. In our community, the single action you can take that will have the biggest impact to reduce climate change is to drive less. Carpooling automatically takes at least one car off the road and essentially cuts your carbon dioxide emissions in half. Carpooling can be a great way to meet your co-workers and neighbors. You could also save lots of time by driving in the carpool lane.
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Take the train next time you travel. Unless you have a hybrid, train travel is generally less polluting than flying or driving to your destination.
How do I do this?
Check out Amtrak Cascades for route, schedule and fare information for our area. Be sure to take advantage of discounts for children, seniors, students, AAA, frequent travelers and other groups.
Why should I do this?
You’d produce 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide if you drove from L.A. to Kansas City and flying would generate 2.2 tons. Taking the train drops that number down to 0.9 tons.
Much of the world has excellent rail access. While the United States lags behind places like Europe and Asia, we have relatively accessible train service on the West Coast. Unfortunately, our diesel trains are nowhere near as clean or efficient as the high speed electric trains found abroad. However, our trains are still generally more efficient and environmentally friendly than planes or driving by yourself. If we start riding regularly and demanding clean electric trains, we will be much more likely to get an efficient alternative to air travel and long road trips.
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Participate in a car share program or start your own car share with friends, family or neighbors. Sharing one car removes between 6 and 23 cars from the road.
How do I do this?
Car share programs work by maintaining a fleet of cars, usually hybrids, which can be “rented” by the hour or day. Become a member of a car share program and you can reserve their cars online or over the phone. Simply bike, walk or bus to their facility and you can use a car for your reserved amount of time. The cost of the car share usually includes insurance and gas.
Community Car Share of Bellingham is a local non-profit car share program, or check out Flexcar, a for-profit car share company started in Seattle with cars all around the country.
Why should I do this?
There are now more vehicles in the United States than there are drivers - over 250 million! Car sharing is one way to mediate this trend. One shared car can serve the needs of 20 or more people that would otherwise be driving their own cars. Community Car Share of Bellingham has a detailed list of the benefits of car sharing. In addition to driving less and having less cars on the road, some of these benefits include: less responsibility for maintenance, break-ins or insurance; less hassle; potentially huge money savings - especially considering that the average American spends $6,000 to $11,500 a year to own and operate a car!
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Cut down on the number of flights you take. A family of four making one transatlantic fight will produce more carbon dioxide taking that flight than they generate at home the rest of the year.
How do I do this?
There are a number of strategies to cutting back on the amount of time you spend in the air each year.
- Try vacationing close to home. Rather than flying to a beach or resort, check out the spots nearby that you haven’t taken the time to explore and enjoy. People are flying from all over the world to get here, so why jet thousands of miles for your own vacation. If your short on ideas check out:
- Plan ahead and take fewer, but more meaningful, trips. Instead of flying somewhere one or more times a year for just a week, take a long trip every couple of years and stay for a longer period of time. You can take your yearly vacations close to home and save up for your really memorable ones. Here’s some sites that can help you plan a meaningful, eco-friendly trip:
- Spend less and work less. If you weren’t saving up for that 5 day trip to Florida, maybe you could work less during the entire year and have more time to hang out with friends and family, or get involved in your community.
- When traveling shorter distances, travel by land or sea. When you are traveling within 1000 miles or so take a bus, train or boat. Generally land and sea travel generate less carbon dioxide than short haul flights and you’ll gain a knowledge and appreciation of the geography and cultures along the way.
Why should I do this?
At any given moment there are approximately 5000 planes in the air over the United States and almost 32 million flights every year. Taking one or two flights a year can easily double your total carbon dioxide emissions. Planes emit all sorts of greenhouse gases - water vapor, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen oxide - at high altitudes causing their warming effect to be 2 - 5 times greater than surface carbon dioxide emissions alone. This, coupled with the massive quantities of jet fuel needed to make air travel possible, makes planes one of the worst culprits of climate change. Cutting back on flying is one of the fastest ways to reduce your carbon footprint. When you must fly, take action to offset your carbon dioxide emissions.
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Minimize your environmental impact and your costs by teleconferencing. The average company would save 158,733 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions by conducting just 10 meetings a year via teleconferencing.
How do I do this?
Teleconferencing and videoconferencing have become affordable and extremely productive with the advancements of technology. Talk to your employer about doing business and conducting meetings over the phone, internet, or videophones to keep transportation costs down and reduce your industry’s impact on the environment. Find out more about how teleconferencing works.
Why should I do this?
Transportation is the largest greenhouse gas producing sector in our community. By most accounts, a cross-country airline flight dumps close to a ton of carbon dioxide per passenger - or about as much as a single tree absorbs over its lifetime (1).
Reducing unnecessary travel, especially by air, is one of the most effective ways to reduce your carbon dioxide emissions. Since airplanes emit greenhouse gases directly into the upper atmosphere the warming effects of flying are 2 - 5 times greater than other greenhouse gas producing activities. Short flights are less efficient than long ones since take-off requires a comparatively large amount of fuel. Using technology to hold meetings can drastically cut the time, money and energy spent conducting business.
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Consider taking action to help offset your carbon dioxide emissions, especially when you travel. You’d have to plant about a half-acre of trees to offset the average American’s yearly carbon dioxide emissions from driving.
How do I do this?
Try to hold yourself accountable for the carbon dioxide emitting actions you take. It could be pretty eye opening to realize how much work it would take to offset all your carbon. Start simple and take action to offset especially polluting activities and go from there. Plant some trees, take some CFLs to your neighbor and offer to install them, donate or volunteer at a local non-profit - or be really hard core and sell your car when you get home and start riding your bike everywhere!
You might be wondering why we don’t suggest purchasing carbon offsets. There has been substantial research into the carbon offset industry (which by the way has become a multi-million dollar industry) that suggests even the most well-intentioned groups often have a hard time achieving effective carbon capture. You’re best bet is to determine ways that you can personally and effectively reduce your impact beyond what you’re already doing. This could be as simple as committing to a few more of the other actions on this website. Or get creative and come up with your own actions or ways to reduce other peoples’ carbon dioxide emissions. Try convincing someone else to take action and offer to help. Or talk to a local business and get them to switch to green power. We’d love to hear your ideas and actions so contact us and let us know!
Why should I do this?
If everyone took responsibility for their own impact on the environment, polar bears would be thriving, Al Gore would go down in history has just another ex-vice president, and ships delivering goods between Europe and Asia would have to go the long way. Do it yourself carbon offsets are a great way to really link your actions to their true impact on the earth. By taking action to offset your emissions locally, as opposed to paying someone else to do it in another place, you can reconnect with the community and really give something back. Plus it will make you think twice the next time you are pricing plane tickets or hopping in your car to drive a few blocks.
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