Reducing a carbon footprint year by year

This article appears in the Small Earth Stories feature series. View the full series.

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Philip Sakimoto and his dog
Philip Sakimoto and his dog, SunDog

Each year I make one major investment or lifestyle change to reduce my carbon footprint. First it was replacing my furnace, air conditioner and water heater with the highest efficiency models available.

Then it was buying the highest mpg car on the market: a very affordable used Prius C that routinely gets 50 to 60 mpg around town. But I kept my SUV for the few times I actually need that cargo capacity. Next it was getting solar panels, and sourcing the rest of my electricity from wind farms through Arcadia Power. Now it is working on an increasingly plant-based, organic diet. Next year it will be reducing natural gas usage.

The point is that by making such deliberate consumer choices, you can easily reduce your carbon footprint by more than half.

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Phil Sakimoto's license plate on his used Prius: 2cut Co2
Phil Sakimoto's license plate on his used Prius

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