Here’s where every one of us can make a difference

Home energy

Electricity drives our lifestyles. Although some 750 million people in the world still lack access to electricity, for the rest, everything from a computer to a television to a refrigerator needs energy.

The energy supply sector (electricity, heat, and other energy) is the largest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for approx. 35% of total emissions.

Globally, residential and commercial buildings, consume over half of all electricity.

Phasing out fossil fuels for home heating is crucial, for instance by banning on new gas-fired boilers and introducing electric heat pumps.

Increasing the thermostat setting from 24°C to 28°C during the cooling season can reduce annual cooling energy use by more than a factor of three for a typical office building in Zurich, Switzerland.

Energy demand for cooling is the fastest growing end-use in buildings, with ten air conditioners expected to be sold every second over the next 30 years.

Emissions from air conditioning and refrigeration are expected to rise 90% from 2017 levels by 2050.

Being mindful of the living space you need is important, too. In developed countries, the average living space per person has dramatically increased over the past decades.

Transport

In most high-income countries, personal transport is the lifestyle domain with the largest contribution to the overall lifestyle footprint.

The world’s roadways are clogged with vehicles, most of them burning fossil fuels. Fossil fuels power the ships that carry trade and the airplanes that allow us to travel.

Greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector have more than doubled since 1970, with around 80% of this increase coming from road vehicles.

Around 10% of the global population account for 80% of total motorized passenger-kilometres, with much of the world’s population hardly travelling at all.

But we do have alternatives to driving that can make a difference. Walking, biking, urban public transit and trains help reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

Switching to an electric car can help reduce emissions, improve air quality and boost green jobs — if the electricity is not powered by fossil fuels. By achieving a 60% share of battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road, more than 60 billion tons of CO2 could be saved between now and 2050.

Domestic and International aviation is responsible for about 10% of global emissions in the transport sector, and an estimated 1% of the world population is responsible for more than half of these emissions.

Switching to renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind or hydroelectric power, also means less pollution and new and better jobs. Currently, around 80% of global energy and 66% of electrical generation are supplied from fossil fuels.

Food

Three billion people cannot afford a healthy diet. Two billion are overweight or obese. Food systems generate one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions and are responsible for up to 80% of biodiversity loss.

17% of all food available at consumer levels is wasted. This amounts to a big waste of resources used in production, such as land, water, energy and other inputs, and unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. By reducing food waste, you can save money, reduce emissions, and help preserve resources for future generations.

Meat and dairy provide just 18% of calories consumed, but use 83% of global farmland and are responsible for 60% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Shifting to healthy diets that include sustainability considerations can contribute to reductions in environmental impacts on land, energy and water use.

A diet that is higher in plant-based foods, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds, and lower in animal-based foods, has a lower environmental impact (greenhouse gas emissions and energy, land, and water use).

Fashion

Being stylish does not mean being wasteful. Buying fewer clothes, shopping second-hand, or upcycling, i.e. creating new clothes out of old ones, helps save water and reduce waste.

In the last 15 years, clothing production has doubled while the number of times a garment is worn before being discarded has decreased by 36%.

The fashion industry (clothing and footwear) produces more than 8% of the greenhouse gases and 20% of global wastewater annually.

It takes about 7,500 litres of water to make a single pair of jeans — from the production of the cotton to the delivery of the final product to the store.

85% of textiles end up in landfills or are incinerated although most of these materials could be reused. Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck full of textiles is landfilled or burned.

Some 93 billion cubic meters of water — enough to meet the consumption needs of five million people — is used by the fashion industry annually.

Waste

Every year, an estimated 11.2 billion tonnes of solid waste is collected worldwide, and decay of the organic proportion of solid waste is contributing about 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Where waste cannot be avoided, recycling leads to substantial resource savings. For every tonne of paper recycled, 17 trees and 50% of water can be saved.

Recycling also creates jobs: the recycling sector employs 12 million people in Brazil, China and United States alone.

Only 9% of all plastic waste ever produced has been recycled. About 12% has been incinerated, while the rest — 79% — has accumulated in landfills, dumps or the natural environment.

Using a refillable bottle, bringing your own reusable bag, and asking the restaurants you frequent to stop using plastic straws helps reduce plastic waste.

Around the world, one million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute, while up to 5 trillion single-use plastic bags are used worldwide every year. In total, half of all plastic produced is designed to be used only once — and then thrown away.

From 2010 to 2019, e-waste generated globally grew from 5.3 to 7.3 kilograms per capita annually. Meanwhile, the environmentally sound recycling of e-waste increased at a much slower pace – from 0.8 to 1.3 kilograms per capita annually.

Water

Water is a precious resource: Less than 3% of the world’s water is fresh (drinkable), of which 2.5% is frozen in the Antarctica, Arctic and glaciers. And humans are misusing and polluting water faster than nature can recycle and purify water in rivers and lakes.

Using water smartly can help us ensure a steady flow of clean, safe water.

You can save water by taking shorter showers, turning off the tap when brushing your teeth, installing a low-flow toilet, and many other ways.

With one shower of about 10 minutes a day, an average person consumes the equivalent of over 100,000 glasses of drinking water every year.

Severe water scarcity affects about 4 billion people, or nearly two thirds of the world population, at least one month each year.

Agriculture is by far the largest water consumer, accounting for 72% of annual water withdrawals globally. Shifting towards a plant-based diet is one of the most impactful actions one can take to save water.