Looking for a quick place to start? Take a look at the following important measures anyone can take to get started on reducing your carbon footprint now. If you are already doing these or want to learn more, check out the other pages in the Take Action dropdown menu or scroll down and click on any of the action area icons.
For Residents
This is relatively simple but makes a big impact. Did you know you could easily opt-up to a 100% renewable electricity source just by filling out a simple form online? Renewable electricity generally costs about 1c per kilowatt hour more than regular electricity. For the average Marin County home that equates to about $5 more per month. Once you do this you can sleep well knowing you are now procuring 100% clean energy from your electricity provider.
Take Action
Click here to Opt-Up: https://www.mcecleanenergy.org/opt-up/#optupform or call 1 (888) 632-3674.
NOTE: Most San Rafael residents get their electricity from MCE Clean Energy even though their payment is on their PG&E bill. If you know for sure you get your electricity from PG&E click here for Solar Choice: https://www.pge.com/en_US/residential/solar-and-vehicles/options/solar/solar-choice/solar-choice.page
Did you know that food and plant material in landfills contributes almost 10% of our greenhouse gas emissions? If food waste were a country, it would come in third after the United States and China in terms of impact on global warming. Get a good food scrap container and start putting all your food scraps in it and then dump them in your green can and voila! You are removing this from the atmosphere.
Take Action
Click here to learn more: https://marinsanitaryservice.com/residential/residential-compostables/ or call (415) 456-2601.
Most of us think that recycling is a big help toward helping with environmental impacts. What they don’t know is that the mining of materials, production and transportation of goods is what really drives climate change. Reducing the amount of stuff you buy is much more impactful than recycling, especially the non-important stuff, red meat, and dairy. Not that we shouldn’t recycle, we should! It’s just that production and consumption contributes a lot more to the climate crisis. Consider cutting back red meat and dairy 2-3 times per week and you can make an immediate impact.
Take Action
Here’s a low-carbon diet to get you started: http://www.eatlowcarbon.org/diet-tips/
For Businesses and Organizations
Stop for just a minute. Take a look around your facility. What’s using energy? Is it mostly lighting, or appliances, or the HVAC? Are the computers on all the time and could they be shut down? Are your staff leaving the lights on when they leave rooms, or are people using space heaters at their desks? Pick one: ideally a big one, but any one you think you can change. Then do it: swap out the bulbs for LED’s (there are a ton of different types and color tones now), or put signs on all the computers and ask staff to turn them or the lights off when they leave. Give your employees nice fuzzy slippers and a lap shawl and let them know the space heater needs to leave or you will have to charge them for the electricity (but make sure the heating is good in your building!). Adjust the thermostat to turn off at night or when no one is there. Just one thing.
Take Action
Pick one action from this list and do it
- Adjust the thermostat to turn off or down at night (up if it’s summertime AC)
- Replace old light bulbs with LED’s (they are more expensive up front but save you money and time to replace burnt out bulbs in the long run)
- Ask employees to shut off computers every day when they leave
- Unplug appliances that are not used very often
- Ask employees to shut off lights every time they leave a room
- Contact Marin Energy Watch Partnership for more tips and rebates to replace inefficient appliances https://www.marincounty.org/depts/cd/divisions/sustainability/energy-programs/energy-watch (415) 473-2698
Did you know that food and plant material in landfills contributes almost 10% of our greenhouse gas emissions? If food waste were a country, it would come in third after the United States and China in terms of impact on global warming. Plus, lots of people, even here in Marin, go hungry each day. Be mindful with your business or organization’s food processes and donate the good stuff. Then get a good food scrap container and start putting food scraps in it and then dump them in your green can and voila! - you are removing methane from the atmosphere while educating your employees to boot.
Take Action
- Contact ExtraFood.org and see if you can set up a food pickup route with them: https://extrafood.org/ (415) 997-9830
- Click here to learn more about business composting or turning your food waste to energy: https://marinsanitaryservice.com/commercial/commercial-compostables/ or call (415) 456-2601
Think about it: how much gas and oil goes into shipping products around the globe? Why order something online from across the U.S. or purchase food that is imported from South America when we have great local farms and vendors here in the Bay Area? Plus, most of those dollars spent on things from other states and countries go out of the local economy, while most stay here and continue to circulate when you buy local. What’s one thing you could replace easily enough? Rather than ordering from a big supplier of food for instance could you purchase locally? Is that big box coffee product necessary when we have lots of local coffee purveyors here in Marin?
Take Action
- Find out about local farmers and food products at the Agricultural Institute of Marin https://agriculturalinstitute.org/ and Edible Marin and Wine Country https://ediblemarinandwinecountry.ediblecommunities.com/shop
- Find a local vendor for other goods and services on the Chamber of Commerce’s Directory and make one switch to local: https://srchamber.com/