2025 Eco Challenge: Tips to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
As we jump into 2025, the urgency to fight climate change has never been more important. The impacts of our every day actions are being felt all around the world and it’s become clear that every small step toward sustainability matters. That’s why this year, we’re launching the 2025 Eco Challenge.
WHY?
USA and Canada have the highest CO2 emission per person in the world. If everyone on the planet lived like this, we would need 5 planet Earths to sustain our current consumption! This (way too high) statistic highlights the urgency of rethinking our lifestyles and consumption habits. The good news is that we can all take steps to reduce our carbon footprint. Small changes, multiplied across millions of people, can make a big impact in ensuring we live within our planet’s limits.
This challenge is about empowering you as individuals and your families to take steps toward reducing your carbon footprint. Whether you're new to sustainability or looking to increase your efforts, this guide will walk you through impactful changes to help safeguard our planet for future generations.
Wishing you a wonderful new year! We want to invite you to take an Eco-Challenge for 2025 by choosing a few areas to focus on to reduce your carbon footprint.
Here are some things our family has implemented in the past few years, steps by steps are:
- Eating a vegetarian diet
- Switching to 1 electric car only and 2 electric bikes
- Switching bank to a greener, local one.
- Moving investments to green and ethic funds.
- Reduce our waste by buying less, avoid single use plastics and buying bulk.
- Making our home toxins free, room by room.
You don't have to do it all at once! Pick 1 or more things to implement this year, step by step. Let me know how it goes! I am here to help!
Together, let's make 2025 the year to REDUCE!
xoxo, Maîa
“1000 people doing small changes has way more impact than 1 person doing it all perfectly”
MOST IMPACTFUL THINGS YOU CAN DO AS AN INDIVIDUAL:
1 - Live car free as much as you can.
2 - Avoid air travel when possible
3 - Switch to a bank that doesn’t invest in fossil fuels. Put your money to work for the climate and the clean economy. This has a HUGE impact for such a tiny change!
4 - Eat a plant based diet. Did you know: red meat has the biggest CO2 impact? Start small with a once a week plant based day and build yourself up!
5 - Reduce your consumption. Change your habits and buy less stuff. Focus on plastic free products and avoid buying disposable products.
Examples:
Take a “no buy” challenge for a year. Don’t buy any new clothes, makeup, etc unless you’ve used up your current stock.
Bring your own cup to get coffee. Carry a water bottle everywhere.
Focus on supporting small businesses in your communities over large polluting companies.
Buy products that last.
6 - Reuse! Buy second hand, repair your clothes, discover new thrift stores in your area, look for buy nothing groups in your communities, host clothing swaps with your friends. There are TONS of other alternatives to buying new.
7 - Recycle and compost. Though reducing has the bigger impact, it’s still important to recycle what you can.
8 - Make your home greener. Change energy providers to a green one (when possible), limit your heat and AC usage, limit your waste, hang-dry your clothes… Little changes can make a huge impact!
9 - Educate yourself and your families. Watch documentaries, read books, and listen to podcasts about climate change and the solutions.
10 - Advocate for political change. Be the change you want to see. Set a good example for the next generation. Joins a local eco-conscious group in your town, at work, or at school (or create one!). Encourage your friends and family to fight for a better world.
The most impactful things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.
AREAS YOU CAN WORK ON (pick one, or a few to focus on in 2025:)
TRANSPORTATION:
Avoid taking planes, especially when there are other alternatives If you can’t avoid it, think about compensating your CO2 emissions from the trip and donate to plant trees or other green organizations.
Bike, walk, take public transit. When you can’t? Carpool with others.
Switch to an electric car (second hand car is best).
Carshare!
HOME:
Switch to a green electricity provider.
Invest in solar panels, if you can.
Greenify your home. Start small, with one room at a time. Start with the bathroom, making that room green by using eco cleaning products, no disposable products, and getting rid of plastics. Then move onto another room with the same steps.
Treat energy like it’s precious, because it is. Water, electricity, gas… Even if you think it’s free or abundant, it’s precious and we can’t waste it. Take more showers than baths, avoid overheating or over coolin, avoid gas, in your home and outside (BBQ)
Create your own compost.
Lower your waste – try reducing your plastics for example, as those are the worst culprits.
FOOD:
Eat a plant-based diet.
Eat and buy local. Avoid food that travels by plane.
Eat what is in season. Also a great way to save some money!
Buy in bulk and choose paper containers over plastic. Metal and glass are recycled but cost a lot of CO2 to make.
Avoid food waste.
Delivery has a huge CO2 cost, try greener alternatives with green transportations.
Try making your own foods, like granola or yogurt instead of buying.
SHOPPPING:
Questions to ask yourself before your buy a new item:
“Do I really need it”
“Is it going to bring me joy for a long time?” (Think Mary Kondo ☺)
“Can I buy it second hand or borrow it?”
“Where is it made? What materials is it made of? Where did it travel from?”
“Are there more eco-friendly alternatives?”
“Can I use it over and over again?” (Think cheap polyester clothing that rips after 1-2 wears vs sturdy cotton fabrics that will last years)
“What are the brand’s values, are they eco-friendly?”
Support small local stores.
Enter a “no new clothes” challenge and discover thrift stores.
Avoid brands like Temu, SHEIN, H&M, Amazon, ZARA, and other fast fashion brands.
Repair your clothes and objects before replacing.
Buy less, but buy better quality products that last longer.
Donate to your friends. Try hosting a clothing swap!
Recycle old products by bringing them to the correct place.
Delivery has a huge CO2 cost, think twice before you click that button.
WORK / SCHOOL:
The “Cloud” is a huge physical data centre full of computers that are powered mostly by coal plants.
Delete emails, photos, anything that takes room in the “cloud”. Instead, store hard copies on an external device.
Make space on your devices, don’t buy the extra cloud space.
ChatGPT and other AI systems consume a lot of energy and water. ChatGPT uses one full bottle of water per 100 words.
Create an eco-conscious committee at work or at school.
Some of these actions won’t necessarily make your life easier, and will take some effort. Think of it like eating healthier, meditating, or exercising. The rewards are about living a life free of over consumption, saving money, being more mindful of your choices, and saving our planet so our children can enjoy the same world (or better) that we did.
BOOKS AND PODCASTS TO LEARN MORE:
“How to save a planet” podcast
“The Climate Question” podcast
“Climate Confident” podcast
“Outrage + Optimism” podcast
How to change everything – Naomi Klein
The Climate Book – Greta Thunberg
The future we choose – Christina Figueres
Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don't Know You Have – Tatiana Shlossberg