Climate action starts from you

I am a new parent and also work as a climate and sustainability consultant. As such, I feel a deep sense of responsibility towards my child's future. The increasing global temperatures make me worried about what kind of world we are leaving for the coming generations. In 2023, the IPCC published a synthesis report that provides a detailed analysis of different climate scenarios and predicts the ages at which current leaders like Xi Jinping, climate scientists such as Katherine Hayhoe, celebrities and billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg, and Beyonce, and activists like Greta Thunberg will experience the impacts. My child, who was born in 2023, will see a temperature rise of approximately 2-3 degrees by the time they turn 30.

After the birth of our son, my husband asked me how we could make the world a better place for him. I had a very vague answer to it at that time and realized that I was doing way too less to ensure that our future generation could at least live a life that we have seen in the past. Being aware of the climate crisis for more than a decade and voicing it from time to time on a daily basis at personal and professional levels, I felt the urgency to create a checklist and easy action plan for climate change at a personal level. Here is the list of actionable things at the individual and family levels that we can do to contribute towards solving climate crises:

• Educate yourself about climate change. Discuss it with friends, family, and children. Gift children books on climate change and reversing it.

• Start measuring your carbon footprint. What gets measured, gets done. Here is another tool by IIT Kanpur to know your and your family's footprint. You may check apps or websites like Cool the Globe, Sortin, and many more to assist in a sustainable lifestyle.

• Cut back on your energy consumption. Ask your society to at least get your common energy needs to be met from solar panels. If you live in small towns or Tier II/III cities, it is easier to switch to rooftop solar panels for the entire building via government subsidy under the 'Rooftop Solar Scheme' for single-unit houses.

• Save energy at home. Switching to LED lights at home, smart lighting solutions to reduce energy wastage. Checking star labeling standards by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) for energy efficiency while purchasing electric equipment.

• Switch to alternative energy at home for cooking. We can convert our kitchen and garden waste into Biogas. I know a few amazing people like Priyadarshan Sahasrabuddhe (Vaayu Mitra, Making fuel out of food) and Himanshu Lele (Waste-cart solutions) working on waste-to-biogas products for the household to commercial levels. You can mention such amazing people and their initiatives in the comments for more awareness.

• Home composting is another excellent option for treating the waste at family/community level. Solutions from Daily Dump, Vapra, and SwachaGraha are some of the existing options in the market.

• Eliminate single-use plastic from use. See how plastic affects climate change. Always carry a cloth or reusable bag with you. The grocery and food delivery apps have started providing the option of no-bag delivery to avoid plastic usage which you can choose. Carry a water bottle with you while traveling, and refuse to drink from plastic bottles. You can ask restaurants for normal filtered water served in glasses instead of mineral water served in plastic bottles. The filtered water is mostly safe in most places.

• Opt for more planet-conscious brands for daily consumption. We need handwash, bathing soaps, detergents, and whatnot on a daily basis. Do we check the packaging they come in? Whether we give the empty bottles for recycling or throw in the waste? Are we looking for more sustainable brands for such products? Have we considered these questions when making our purchases? Switching to sustainable home cleaning, and laundry options offered by brands such as AraniEco, Bare Necessities, Coco Custo, and many more would help in reducing our footprints and plastic generation in the first place.

• Reduce food waste. Eat local and seasonal. Shop groceries from local markets. Read the labels or ask the vendors if there is no label, and see if the products especially perishables are local/seasonal or imported ones. For example, Kiwis are from Chile, Apples are from the USA, Avocados are from Tanzania, Mandarin Oranges are from Egypt, Red Grapes are from Australia, and Almonds are from California is what my online grocery apps are telling me right now. You can choose consciously to reduce your carbon footprints by simply taking 2-3 seconds more while ordering from these apps. For example, California Almonds are a water-guzzling crop impacting the ecosystem and water availability in the California region. It takes 70L of water to produce an avocado, Avocado farming can cause water scarcity and completely damage the soil. Imagine the GHG emissions attached to such imported products. Here is an analysis by Down To Earth of it.

• Walking is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint and improve your health in today's sedentary lifestyle. If you are unable to walk to work or to buy groceries, you can combine your activities to reduce the number of trips you make to the store for your regular purchases.

• Childcare doesn't have to be high-emission intensive. Most products that are safe for the planet are also safe for babies. Opt for wooden toys instead of plastic ones, and choose cloth diapers over regular ones. There are many sustainable options for baby care, diapering, and toys, such as Super Bottoms, which can help reduce the number of diapers used per day and save you money.

Every small step towards sustainability and climate action makes a difference. By educating ourselves, reducing energy consumption, choosing sustainable transportation, and supporting planet-conscious brands, we can create a better future for our children and the planet. Let's work together for a more sustainable world.