Embrace the sustainable Friday night fever with Plan A's team. We have been working all week long, so let's celebrate our achievements. What are your plans this weekend? Are you going to surf Hawaiian waves, or eating your weight in vegan waffles?
For this third edition, the Plan A team share their sustainable tips so we can all become the Elon Musk of sustainable living. Life is good so let's make peace with Mother Earth.
Sustainable tip #5. Reduce your personal carbon footprint
Vamsi, our genius Chief Emissions Accounting Officer, tells us the importance of reducing our carbon footprint. To succeed in this challenge, he recommends reading the book "How bad are bananas?", written by Mike-Berners Lee.
This book provides the carbon answers we need: from a text message to Valentine's rose. It analyses the environmental footprint and impact of our daily lives: the world cup, volcanoes, flights. Be prepared to get your mind recalibrated, and become an expert in sustainable living. This weekend, hop on a carbon footprint reduction journey and share your thoughts with the hashtag #mycarbonfootprint.
Learn more: Top options to reduce your carbon footprint.
According to the World Health Organisation, your carbon footprint is: "a measure of the impact your activities have on the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) produced through the burning of fossil fuels and expressed as a weight of CO2 emissions produced in tonnes."
Why is it important to reduce your carbon footprint? A human emits approximately 4.7 metric tons of CO2 per year, on average, globally. The per capita carbon footprint, varies from countries to countries, with the US (20 metric tons per habitant) and China being the biggest emitters. It is, therefore, vital to make a collective effort in reducing our footprint.
Sustainable tip #6. Use bamboo straws
Phuong, our incredible research analyst, is telling us how to reduce our plastic waste. No need to use a single-use plastic straw when we can switch for reusable glass or bamboo ones. For this occasion, she brought her bamboo straw. In Vietnam, tea is a popular beverage, especially milk ones. So why not try an ice tea recipe with a lovely bamboo straw?
In the US alone, 500 million straws are used daily. Each year, 8.3 billion plastic straws are polluting the world's beaches. Even if plastic straws represent 0.025% of the global plastic pollution, it is still part of our civilisation major challenge. We use straws for a few minutes to enjoy a beverage, and sea turtles will struggle with straws in their noses and throats. To preserve our biodiversity and environment, let's ban plastic straws from our lives.