Greenify your transportation
This is an important one, especially if you are someone that enjoys traveling or that commutes often to work or school. There is a lot you can do to minimize your carbon footprint in this section. Good luck.
Stop Flying
To get right to it, we all need to stop flying, period. We know that this is not what you want to hear, but there is no more time to pretend like it is okay. There is not room for a single flight in the carbon budget that we as individuals have if we want to stand a chance of achieving the Paris agreement. Sign up for a flightfree 2021 and read more about the causes of flying here. Please don’t make this fact scare you into stop trying though, every single flight that you can decrease is a big win for the environment. If you do choose to fly, there are a few things you can do to improve the impact you will have. The first and most easy one, is to climate compensate for the flight directly when buying your ticket. The other thing you can do is to invest your time well and make a good impact at the place where you go. This could mean volunteering part of your time when traveling or speaking up for sustainability at conferences and events.
There are ways to travel to other countries without flying, go by train and enjoy the trip to your destination as well. You can visit those countries close to yours or use interrail and travel around Europe during the summer. Is it to complicated to travel by train to your dream destination or home country, call on your EU parliamentarians to improve the train network in EU.
Everyday Transportation
So avoiding flights is a big YES, but there is also much value for the environment in choosing sustainable forms of transportation in your everyday life. If you don’t already have a car, don’t buy one. If you do have a car, could you switch to an electric one? or maybe sell it and start using the public transportation instead? The absolute best form of transportation is by foot or bike, so whenever this is a possibility, make sure to take it, your body will thank you too. If biking is a bit too far away, maybe an electric bike would work?
Changing to walking, biking and public transportation is a way of reducing your carbon footprint a lot and a way to clean up the air in the cities.
Product Transportation
One last thing to consider about transportation is the distance and means of transportation that the product which you buy take. The most sustainable option is to buy locally produced products, but whenever you can, try to avoid buying products outside of Europe. If you order online, choose the more environmentally friendly option rather than the fast one. The fast option often means that the transport viacle leaves before being fully loaded. Ask for an environmentally friendly transport option if this is not clearly offered.