Wanne-be layabouts listen up! You don’t have to work up a sweat to fast-track meaningful climate action. With just a few chill changes you can still have a big impact. Here’s how.
TRANSPORT
Walking and cycling instead of taking the car for short distances are great ways to cut your carbon emissions quickly. Both are also great forms of exercise so you can also skip the gym – freeing up more quality couch time! For longer distances, public transport is your friend.
Need a car? Consider ride-sharing, or an EV, which can keep up to 2 tons of pollution out of the atmosphere over one year. And keep tyres pumped up: flat tyres cause friction, increasing fuel consumption. The biggest and easiest win? Cut down air travel – one of the most carbon-intensive activities we can do. Using a train instead of a domestic flight reduces emissions by around 86%. Or take one less long-haul return flight and shrink your carbon emissions by up to almost 2 tons of CO2!
FOOD
What could be better than fighting climate change with a delicious dinner? It’s easy: just cut down on meat – the biggest single thing you can do for the planet. You don’t necessarily have to give it up completely, even just cutting down makes a big impact. Meat production is a top contributor to deforestation and harmful emissions, generating nearly 1/5 of man-made greenhouse gas emissions worldwide – more than the entire transportation sector!*
Going from 3.5oz (100g) or more of meat a day to 1.75oz (50g) 50g or less for a year, halves the climate impact of your diet – a bigger difference than giving up your car. Or try meatless Mondays, another easy intervention. Also, if big beef eaters switch beef with chicken or fish, it reduces CO2 emissions by 90%, data scientist Hannah Ritchie notes in her book Not the End of the World. This simple swap has more impact than a poultry eater going vegetarian. Want to amp up your impact? Vegan diets result in 75% less climate-heating emissions, water pollution and land use than meat-rich diets of 3.5 oz (100g) a day.
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HOME
The cleanest energy is the energy you don’t use. Instant impact in your home can be achieved by simply lifting a finger – and turning down the thermostat. A 2˚F (1˚C) decrease will already save around 7% of the energy you use for heating. If everyone in the UK did the same, it would save 3.5m tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year. With energy use accounting for almost 75% of global greenhouse-gas emissions**, this is a no-brainer, as is supporting renewables by switching to a green energy provider.
Also easy to arrange is the installation of a heat pump, which slashes emissions by at 50% compared to gas boilers. The average UK gas boiler emits more CO2-equivalent emissions in a year than taking seven transatlantic flights, according to analysis from social change charity Nesta, so halving these emissions is a big deal. The best thing? The heat pump does all the work.
FASHION
What if you could live more sustainably by just… taking things slow? So put your feet up and revel in the knowledge that extending the life of your clothing by nine months already reduces their carbon, water and waste footprint by 20-30%, according to research by waste charity Wrap. But it gets even better: official advice is also to do less laundry! Skipping one in every three washes drastically reduces the carbon footprint of your clothes (and boosts longevity).
Need something new? Swapping with friends means you can socialize at the same time. All in all, an effortlessly cool antidote to fast fashion’s furious trend cycle which has us throwing out 17 million tons of clothing and textiles each year.
CONVERSATION
The ultimate low-effort climate action is one people tend to forget: the mere act of opening your mouth and starting a conversation. With friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, basically… anyone you encounter. Why? Speaking up signals that the topic is important, empowering others to break the silence and do something too.
With a 2024 global survey across 125 countries indicating that 89% want stronger action to fight the climate crisis, chances are we’re all more eager to talk about it than you think. So don’t feel bad about talking the talk before you walk the walk. In fact, you could even argue it’s a vital first step.
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