Personal Action

Reducing emissions from your daily activities

VTACC focuses on mobilising the public to call for governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, we recognise that we all need to take responsibility in our own lives to reduce emissions as well. We've listed below some links to organisations providing information on key changes you can make in your own life, and in your community.

Taking personal responsibility for emission reductions

If you want to dive in head first, here are the two most important things you can do to reduce emissions in your own life:
Don't eat meat.      Don't drive a car.

Not for the faint of heart! Fortunately, there are smaller steps you can take first.

Reducing emissions from your diet

The less meat the better.

If you are not ready to go cold turkey on meat, cutting out beef produced on industrial farms will make a big difference in your personal carbon budget. Next down the list, consider cutting out other digastric animals (those with more than one stomach) such as lamb and goat. All digastric ruminants, including cattle, produce methane when they digest, and methane is a greenhouse gas with 21 times the heat trapping potential of carbon dioxide. To learn more about the global warming implications of meat eating and industrial meat production, go here:

http://climateforchange.ca/?q=Resources/Livestock

All else being equal, the closer to home the better.

What's better for the planet if you live in Vancouver: an organic apple from New Zealand, or a conventional one from the Okanagan? There are pros and cons to both, but from a global warming perspective, with all else equal the shorter distance things have to travel the less impact they produce. Fortunately there are companies which can help you sort out these issues. Here is one based in Vancouver:

Small Potatoes Urban Delivery

SPUD is a food delivery service that brings organic, healthy produce and prepared foods to homes in Victoria, the Lower Mainland, Whistler, Calgary and beyond. SPUD is committed to supporting local suppliers, they strive to purchase from local farmers in season, and by delivering groceries in their big purple vans they help reduce automobile trips to and from the store. Plus, SPUD is deeply concerned about building sustainable communities and helps support a variety of local causes. Recently, SPUD went "carbon neutral" in their operations. Worth checking out.

https://www.spud.ca/index.cfm

100 mile diet

Check out this site to find out about an intrepid pair who spent a year eating only food grown and produced within 100 miles of their home. Learn how you can do the same, and how it can help reduce your own personal emissions.

http://www.100milediet.org

Your Farmers Market Society

If you live in Greater Vancouver, check out this site to find out about local farmers markets.

http://www.eatlocal.org/

Grow Your Own

Interested in taking charge of your own food production? Check out this site for tips on how to grow your own food.

http://www.cityfarmer.info/

Reducing emissions from transportation

Do you really need to own a car?

Let's face it – if you have a car, you are more likely to drive it. To the store. To pick up the kids. To get a video on a rainy night. If you don't need one everyday to get to work, to carry heavy tools and so on, why not remove yourself from temptation? In Southwestern BC there are organisations that can help you wean yourself off of the automobile:

Cooperative Automobile Network (CAN)

CAN is BC's own innovative, not for profit, car sharing network. If you only need a car once in a while, CAN may be the solution for you. They have vehicles for every need – two seaters, sedans, station wagons, mini vans and pickup trucks. Join CAN and cut yourself free from your personal, carbon emitting ball and chain!

http://www.cooperativeauto.net/

Jack Bell Rideshare

In some cases, even if we want to live without a car, the transit system (or cycling) just isn't up to getting us where we need to go. Anyone who has taken transit to work Monday to Friday knows how full buses passing by without stopping or multiple transfers between buses can take the wind out of your sails and make you dream of the convenience of a car. Ridesharing may be the compromise you are looking for.

http://online.ride-share.com/en/my/

Better Environmentally Sound Transportation

BEST has been continually working to encourage people to walk, cycle, take transit and carpool for over 15 years. It advocates for better services for transit riders, cyclists and pedestrians, and delivers programs to the workplace aimed at reducing trips and promoting ride sharing, and to schools aimed at promoting active transportation. A key group providing on the ground solutions to personal emission reductions.

http://www.best.bc.ca/#

Renting a Car on Vacation

Need a car when you are out of town? Check out these organisations to see if you can rent a hybrid, biodiesel or electric powered car at your destination.

http://www.bio-beetle.com/
http://www.evrental.com/

Reducing emissions while building community

You never have to reduce emissions alone! We think that this sort of work is more enjoyable, more powerful and more sustainable if you can do it as part of a group -- with your friends, your neighbours, your book club, your co-workers or your bowling team.

Be the Change Earth Alliance

Be the Change is focused on motivating personal action around climate change. It provides a structured program of community engagement, starting with annual symposia and leading to the development of community based action circles where members pursue personal and political action on climate change.

http://www.bethechangeearthalliance.org/

Community Climate Change Global Warming Café

"Conversations that lead to tangible action." Overwhelmed by the whole idea of global warming? Want to take action personally and politically, but not sure where to start? You should come to a global warming café. They happen on a regular basis in Greater Vancouver, and will provide you with the opportunity to connect with community members who share your concerns.

http://www.communityclimatechange.ca/

Climate Cafes

"Modeled on the enormously popular philosopher's café format, we intend to bring together small groups in the community for peer-to-peer problem solving to significantly reduce our environmental footprint." Climate cafes provide a focused, issue based discussion forum – going car free, conducting home energy audits, green building methods, and so on. The group also offers an online forum for ongoing discussion.

http://climatecafes.ca/index.html

Carbon Rationing Action Groups (CRAGS)

This concept started in the UK and is now flourishing in numerous communities – including Vancouver. From the web site: "A CRAG is a group of people who have decided to act together to reduce their individual and collective carbon footprints. They do this in annual cycles. First they set themselves an annual emissions target or "carbon ration". Then they keep track of their emissions over the year by keeping a record of their household energy use and private car and plane travel. Finally, at the end of the year, they take responsibility for any "carbon debt" (i.e. emissions over and above their ration) that they have built up. All carbon debts are paid into the group's "carbon fund" at an agreed rate per kilo of CO2 debt. The fund is then distributed as agreed by the members of the group." Check them out and get involved:

http://vancouvercrags.com/

OneDayBowen

This site was set up by some folks on Bowen Island, just off shore from Vancouver. As they say themselves: "OneDayBowen is all about sharing practical solutions to global warming at the neighbourhood, household, and individual level. The driving force behind the site is a belief that the solutions to climate change won’t just come down from government or industry – they’ll also come up from people like us." The site provides a forum where people can exchange ideas about how to reduce emissions in their homes and communities. Why not start one in your community?

http://www.onedaybowen.ca/about/

Reducing emissions in your home and other aspects of your life

Lighthouse Sustainable Building Centre

Located on Granville Island in Vancouver, Lighthouse offers online links to all sorts of useful information and organizations that can help you to improve the energy efficiency of your home. Wondering how hand washing dishes compares to a dishwasher in terms of energy efficiency?
Here's where to find out.

http://www.sustainablebuildingcentre.com/

Pembina Institute

Pembina's One Less Tonne Challenge lets you calculate your current household emissions and estimate the emissions reductions you can achieve by undertaking various actions.

http://www.onelesstonne.ca/

Union of Concerned Scientists

UCS offers a list of ten personal solutions focused on personal transportation and home energy use.

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/

David Suzuki Foundation

The DSF web site provides information on what you can do at home and at work. They also offer extensive information on groups involved in the carbon offset industry. The Nature Challenge program offers ten simple activities that can help you reduce your household emissions.

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/What_You_Can_Do/