It's all about me!
A small effort at reducing one's carbon footprint - the first in a series
You see, everybody loves me, baby
What's the matter with you?
Won'tcha tell me what did I do to offend you?
Don McLean - Everybody loves me, baby
The quality I look for most is optimism: especially optimism in the face of reverses and apparent defeat. Optimism is true moral courage.
Ernest Shackleton
I have had more debates with friends and acquaintances about climate change than I want to think about. Frankly, it has gotten exhausting. There is a massive amount of information and misinformation out there, and I don't want to make this post about any of that, although I will include a couple of links that I have found interesting for anyone who cares to look at them. This post is about my family's actions to make a difference in our county and locally. The point is that climate change is a human and global problem, but like every such problem, individual behaviour does matter. I also want to introduce my latest project on this matter – a gradual reduction in my family’s carbon footprint without making us miserable, uncomfortable or undergoing huge lifestyle changes.
I am beginning this with three givens:
The anthropogenic (artificial) release of CO2 contributes to the current enhanced greenhouse effect.
There is no solution for this problem that doesn't also have environmental implications.
We each have an individual carbon footprint (calculated by taking the national carbon emissions of our country and dividing by the population).
This post is not intended to be a debate; with item 1, there isn't a debate to be had. I will not attempt to justify that statement or talk about the vast preponderance of scientists who agree that we are the problem here. If you want that debate, go elsewhere because you tire me.
The second point is, sadly, is true. No matter what we do, it will have an impact. The question is the severity and continuity of the same. If I am burning fuel in a car, there is a supply and energy chain behind it. I have used energy and resources to manufacture the vehicle, and I am using a continuous supply of power, which I have to extract at an additional energy and resource cost, to keep that car running. If I build an electric car, again, I have to make it, which takes resources and energy. Still, I can change the equation concerning the operation of that car to a renewable, lower-carbon solution. One is better from a carbon footprint point of view than the other. Granted, there are a lot of "devils in the details," but that debate is well discussed in articles other than this one, and I will include links at the end of this discussion for those interested. Click here to see details the lifetime emissions of ICE vs Hybrid and BEV cars. Note that in many places, the grid is being aggressively decarbonized, reducing the BEV footprint significantly further.
The third point. A friend once told me that we don't need to do anything about this problem here in Canada because we are too small to make a difference compared to someone like China. Arithmetically, I suppose this is true, but it is morally bankrupt to say that while the West created this problem, and we did, the solution is entirely someone else's business. This is an issue of national and, thus, personal responsibility. In my country, Canada, we emitted 708 Megatonnes of Carbon in 2022, which translates, by my calculation, to 18.4 tonnes of carbon per individual per year. Other sources would put it slightly lower at 15.22. China comes in at 8.85, so we are twice the problem that your average Chinese Citizen is. The US is about where we are, the UK is doing way better at about 5, and the UAE is doing way worse at about 26.[i]
Focusing on Canada, though, a large chunk, 28%, of those emissions are for transport, and a further 45% are from "Stationary Combustion Sources," of which approximately 1/3, 16% of the total, are for home heating and an additional 4% are for home electricity consumption. The good news? These emissions have, broadly, been falling since the early 2000's. The bad news is that they are not falling either consistently or fast enough.
My purpose here is to "make this about me," a tendency of mine which is something that I have had a lot of complaints about in personal relationships over the decades. What can my family and I do daily to make a slight difference? I am not looking for perfection, and I still like my heated pool, charcoal barbeque, and wood-burning fireplace; I am not a vegetarian and will never likely be one. There is no attempt here to impose some sort of ideological energy purity on anyone; it is simple a question of how do we do things better.
With 28% of energy used for transportation, I can simply say that 28% of my 15 tonnes annually is something that I choose to tackle first. Simple steps would include using more public transit, but I live in the suburbs, which is a bit challenging. I can ride my bike more, and I do in summer, but riding a bike in Ontario isn't a great idea from November to April, so I have to do something else. The natural choice was to replace my gas car with an EV, and I was due for a new car anyway. Pushing aside vacation flights and the like to focus on the core numbers would give me 4.2 tonnes annually to play target. Energy generation in Ontario is approximately 85% carbon-free (nuclear, hydro, wind and a little bit of solar), so, in theory, that would mean I could potentially lower my carbon footprint by 3.6 tonnes and do the same for my wife and daughter. Acknowledging that not everyone can buy an electric car today, but that switchover seems underway so we will get there.
Next, I can look at home heating which, again, broadly speaking is approximately 45% of my 15 tonnes of carbon annually, about 6.7 tonnes. So, to that end, I began with an energy audit, offered through my local natural gas supplier. The results were not good, my home is a bit older and a few things have been left at the original builder level going back almost 40 years.
This graphic shows my family home's energy consumption currently versus a possible ideal of a net zero home. Now to avoid jumping around between units of GigaJoules per year and Tonnes of CO2 I am going to say that a net zero home is 0% and our current score is 100%. Not exact but demonstrative. So here are some things I can do to improve the house and reduce its carbon footprint.
Replacing the windows with more efficient modern models will reduce our home's carbon footprint by about 10%
Upgrading the attic insulation would reduce it by a further 5%
Upgrade the heating system to a heat pump would improve matters by a further 36%
Adding solar power, particularly coupled with the addition of the heat pump by a further 30%
The first two, though smaller, were easy "low-hanging fruit," and government subsidies were available to help. Easy 1-tonne reduction. This means that between the EV and those simple steps in the house, I have managed to reduce the carbon footprint, over the longer term, by approximately 1/3 for each of my wife, daughter, and myself.
I then started investigating heat pumps, and while I learned a lot, I also learned that the technology is new, finicky, and not that easy to retrofit into a house. We did start the project, but so far, it has been a failure. Once I get through it, there will be a future article on our journey, but I don't want to do that now as I remain hopeful we can get to where we need to be.
So, with a 1/3 carbon footprint saved on the house, I am about to begin the next project: photovoltaic solar and a battery system. That project is just starting, and I will post two separate articles here over the next few months.
There are other things we did at home as well. Passive Solar Heating for our pool an upgrade to our fireplace with a heat diverter to help share the heat through the house, but they are likely carbon neutral in the grand scheme. Still, with really modest effort, I was able to plan and implement solutions to take our family's carbon footprint down by 1/3. It isn't all that hard to do and if we all do it we can make a significant difference.
I know that all this news about the environment and climate change can be daunting and depressing. It is a human reaction to reject, put out of mind or even scorn this sort of constant news and pressure. I had one friend say to me that it was all too much, and we were being forced to deal with too many changes. My answer is that there is a crisis upon us, and those changes are definitely coming. Not everyone will accept these things, but eventually, we will get there. Please take this modest writing as a statement of optimism and a suggestion as to how to make small changes that will actually get you to a better place - probably save you some money, too!
The inspiration for this post came from the Ezra Klein podcast this past week. I have included here and encourage you to listen - it will help make you feel optimistic and better about the changes we are experiencing.
Thank you for reading this. It is the first part of a series and I promise there will be more coming soon.
[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita
[ii]Government of Canada https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/greenhouse-gas-emissions.html, United Nations – World Population Prospects https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/CAN/canada/population