Hello and welcome to Environmental Minute! This is a segment brought to you by WDIY, in part by the Estate of Don Miles, and I am your host, Maddie Yang, a senior in high school at Moravian Academy in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I am super passionate about all things climate change, sustainability, and empowering and educating others to take action against the climate crisis. My goal for this segment is to provide listeners with a glimpse into a whole variety of topics in the vast realm of sustainability, from biodiversity to ecotourism, and plant-based diets to sustainable swamps.
Today’s episode is about carbon footprint. But what exactly is a carbon footprint, and why does it matter?
A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases — primarily carbon dioxide or CO2 — that are released into the atmosphere as a result of our daily activities. Whether it be driving to work, eating a meal, charging our phones, or turning on the faucet, all of these activities require energy. And depending on how this energy is produced, it can dramatically contribute to climate change.
The average carbon footprint is roughly 4.5 to 4.8 metric tons of CO2 per person per year globally. However, this metric varies widely across the world. The average American’s carbon footprint, for instance, is 14-16 tons of CO2 annually, whereas someone from South Asia or Africa’s carbon footprint can be under 2 tons per year. And according to organizations like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the average person’s carbon footprint should drop to around 2 tons per year to avoid serious negative effects of climate change.
Let’s first look at transportation: an aspect of our lives notorious for emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases. Not only does driving a car release greenhouse gases into our atmosphere, but manufacturing these vehicles, building roads, and transporting goods globally also generate large amounts of emissions. In fact, cars and passenger vehicles account for roughly 10-16% of total greenhouse gas emissions
The little trips made to school, work, or to run errands seem insignificant in the moment, but can quickly add up, especially when you consider that millions of people globally do the same thing. Obviously, that doesn’t mean we all stop driving. The fight for a more sustainable future is an imperfect one at the end of the day. But it means we consider walking, biking, carpooling, or using public transportation more often when we can.
But transportation is only one piece of this enormous puzzle.
The food we consume also plays a major role. From growing crops and raising livestock to processing, packaging, refrigerating, and transporting food, food has a carbon footprint throughout its whole lifecycle.
But not all food has the same effect. Animal-based foods, especially beef and lamb, tend to have the highest carbon footprint of any food group. Producing just one kilogram of beef can generate more greenhouse gas emissions than driving a car for several hours — largely because of methane released by cattle, the land needed to raise them, and the crops grown just to feed them. Dairy and other meats like pork and chicken have a smaller footprint than beef, but still outpace most plant-based foods by a wide margin. Fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes, on the other hand, generally require far less land, water, and energy to produce.
This doesn't mean everyone needs to become vegan overnight. But even small shifts like swapping one or two meat-based meals a week for plant-based options, or choosing chicken over beef, can meaningfully lower your food-related emissions over time.
Here in the Lehigh Valley, we're lucky to have another powerful tool: local, seasonal eating. Farmers markets in Bethlehem, Allentown, and Easton, along with local farm stands throughout the valley, offer produce that doesn't have to travel thousands of miles to reach your plate. Buying local reduces transportation emissions and often supports more sustainable, smaller-scale farming practices.
Food waste is another piece of this puzzle. Nearly a third of all food produced globally is never eaten, and when it ends up in a landfill, it breaks down and releases methane — a greenhouse gas even more potent than CO2. Simple habits like meal planning, freezing leftovers, or composting food scraps — something several Lehigh Valley municipalities now offer programs for — can help cut down on that waste.
A third way to shrink your footprint: paying attention to how much water we use at home — especially hot water. In the U.S., water-related energy use is responsible for about 5% of the country's total CO2 emissions each year — roughly 290 million metric tons, which is the same as the emissions from 53 million cars on the road. Most of that comes from one place: heating the water, which makes up nearly three-quarters of all the energy tied to water use in a typical home.
For example, if just 75% of laundry loads across North America were washed in cold water instead of warm, it would have the same impact on greenhouse gas emissions as taking about a million cars off the road for an entire year. That's because roughly 90% of the energy used in a load of laundry goes toward heating the water — not actually cleaning the clothes. In addition, modern detergents are built with enzymes that break down stains even at low temperatures, so a simple change can make a real difference.
At the end of the day, no single choice — what we eat, how we get around, or how much water we use — will solve the climate crisis on its own. But small, consistent changes, multiplied across millions of people, add up to something powerful. So whether it's biking instead of driving, choosing a plant-based meal, shopping local, or washing your clothes in cold water, every choice is a chance to shrink your footprint and build a more sustainable future.
I encourage you all to calculate your carbon footprint yourself! The Environmental Protection Agency, The Nature Conservancy, and World Wildlife Fund all have carbon footprint calculators that I recommend you check out. Not only does using a carbon footprint calculator put a numeric value to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions your household uses based on the food you eat, the items you purchase, and your transportation habits, it can be a motivator to see which aspects of your life you can make more environmentally friendly.
Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of Environmental Minute, and I hope this conversation has inspired you to think more deeply about your carbon footprint. Until next time, I’m Maddie Yang, and this has been Environmental Minute.
