What can we do?

While we wait to see if the Congressional lifting of the oil export ban will survive (what planet are they living on?), what can we do right here, right now to practice good climate consciousness? Keep in mind that many scientists say we are way beyond the point where individual actions will have any impact on the overall problem - that solutions must be developed at the state and national levels.

But, if we just can't wait for Senator Mitch McConnell to come up with his plan to reduce carbon emissions, then let's start locally. As Jagoda Munic, chair of Friends of the Earth International, says, "The Paris agreement will not stop the climate catastrophe, but people power can."

Many companies have environmental or sustainability committees. Even if changing policies and habits doesn't change the world's climate outlook, at least they will probably help companies save money.

For example, this article notes that soda machines use quite a bit of energy. Even one well known local university has (or at least used to have) a bank of machines humming merrily away in its LEED certified sustainable classroom building! If every business and office in our region were to turn these things off, we could probably save at least a few unnecessary tons of emissions. I believe the Gundersen Health System push to conserve included turning down their vending machines.

And, by the way, often these machines are stocked with bottled water. If you haven't gotten on the Just Say NO to Bottled Water bandwagon, you might want to consider it. This little video is a great place to start thinking about it. Some of the climate effects of bottled water are listed here by the Water Project.

Since fossil fuel generation of electricity is one of the largest sectors of CO2 emissions, doing a greenhouse gas inventory of everything in the office (by estimating electricity use), might be a good way to highlight areas of relatively easy savings (if you don't already have a sustainability officer or consultant's report).

The other major fossil fuel user is transportation. This EPA site describes the 2015 Federal Green Challenge and could be used by any business or organization. Every single or low occupant vehicle that can be replaced by a high occupant vehicle or better a transit rider or even a tele-commuter is a step. One project might be to try to convince every large employer in the city to push public transit and car-pooling for its employees. Some already do, offering low cost transit passes, for example, but others are not yet on the bus (LHI? Mayo?) Perhaps those who do, like Western TC, could reach out to those who don't.

What other ideas are your business, office, employer, or organization using to reduce emissions. Please share!