Trying to make eco-friendly changes can seem daunting at times but usually it comes down to implementing a few easy steps in your daily routines that not only will help the Earth breath a little easier but keep you and your family healthier as well. And a crucial step is always educating yourself first.
Therefore, here are a few little known facts about our carbon footprint and how we can reduce it as well as strengthen your heart, melt away fat and improve your overall health while making the world just a bit greener:
- 15% of all trips in the US are less than a mile long and unfortunately, most of them are made by car. Driving 10 fewer miles a week will reduce pollution by more than 500 pounds a year. A walking a mile a day (e.g. to your local store) will help you loose weight and keep you strong and healthy.
- Walking just 30 minutes a day instead of driving will save about 8.4 billion gallons of petrol a year as well as reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by 82 million tons!
- 10,000 people walking five miles a week instead of driving for a year will eliminate the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by 219 cars.
If you’re still not quite sure whether you can implement these small changes, here are a couple of tips for walking more and driving less:
- Think about the most commonly visited places in your weekly routines (e.g. ATM, post office, convenience stores, friend’s house etc) and find out how far exactly they are located from your home (use internet like google or yahoo maps). If they are under a mile, walk.
- If you live in the country or suburbs, link a few errands together. Then drive to a downtown area, park your car in a central location and walk to do your errands, e.g. go to a bank, hardware store or a shoe store…
And now you know…
