How We Can Help Solve The Climate Crisis: Six Lifestyle Changes I Am Making As A Conscious Consumer

Written By Afdhel Aziz

Tesla Solar Panels - Tesla

The problem of the climate crisis has been one of ‘the agency and the urgency’: because we feel like we do not have the ‘agency’ – the ability to do something as an individual – we have not felt the urgency to act.

As the father of a six-year old son, I am now confronted with the reality that my actions (or inactions) have contributed to a world of potential chaos and terror – unless we do something in the ten slim years we have before ecological collapse occurs. Faced with the evidence, I understand that I need to do something about it to try. But where do I start?

It is easy to point the finger at governments and expect them to fix the problem, and I do not argue that indeed massive systemic change is needed. My actions as a voter will henceforth only support candidates at a city, state, and federal level who have a clear climate action plan, and I will actively donate money to defeat candidates who accept money from the oil and gas lobbies, or who deny climate change is a reality.

But it is as an individual consumer that I believe that I also need to take responsibility for my actions. I believe our behaviors collectively can help signal to corporations the huge hunger for innovation and new climate-friendly products (witness General Motor’s unprecedented announcement that it will only sell zero-emissions vehicles by 2035). So here are the six ways I’m hereby pledging to try and make a difference.

(A gentle disclaimer: while these actions work for me and my family, I realize they don’t work for everyone. It’s important to find ones that work for you. I offer these simply as inspiration to get you thinking.)

1. Energy consumption

We live in Los Angeles, California, a city blessed with 284 plus days of sunshine. We have been buying green energy from LADWP (similar providers are available in many cities), but recently took the step to apply to get Tesla Solar installed, making our house 100% energy independent. This not only lessens the load on the national grid but also protects us against California’s increasingly frequent blackouts from wildfires caused by – you guessed it – the climate crisis. The energy from the solar will also power our car (a Tesla Model Y), meaning we use zero energy from fossil fuels for transport. (Our house came fitted with a natural gas boiler so I’m still working on how to transition that out. Suggestions welcome.)

2. Clothing

According to The Fashion Law website, the average number of garments that the average American purchases per year is 59. This is up from the 28 items of clothing per year that American consumers purchased in the mid-1990’s – maybe also because the price of apparel has fallen by 39 percent since 1994. Since 2020, I’ve tried to experiment with only buying 10 new items of clothing a year, barring staples like socks and underwear for now. (A caveat: This is of course easier since I’m 47 years old and already have a pretty built out wardrobe.)

But it’s fascinating how this has completely changed my buying habits. It’s made me really think hard about what I buy – ethical, sustainable brands like Naadam, Crafted Society and Pistol Lake have become a favorite – and the longevity of each piece. I now ‘Buy Once, Buy Well’, really evaluating the quality of the garment. And by the way, in my experiment there is no limitation on buying second-hand and vintage clothing; easy since the advent of online platforms like Grailed, Heroine, ThredUp, Depop, Recrafted from Patagonia and supercool stores like Forty Five Ten’s vintage store in Hudson Yards.

3. Food

So, according to a study this month in the journal Scientific Reports, “if everyone in the country reduced their consumption of beef, pork, and poultry by a quarter and substituted plant proteins, we’d save about 82 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year ( a reduction of 1%).” Eating less meat and a more plant-based diet is one of the easiest lifestyle changes that I’ve made. I meal-prep breakfast and lunch so I can eat the same thing every day: breakfast is spicy oats with leafy greens, and lunch is a completely vegan salad (which also keeps me alert and not sluggish). For dinner, we eat a normal range of light proteins like fish and chicken. I love the products that Beyond Meat makes and whenever I see an Impossible Burger on the menu I have one. Once in a while, we’ll still toss a grass-fed steak on the barbecue, because dammit, it tastes good.

Beyond Meat's Burgers

4. Air Travel

This is a big one. I had to fling myself around the world as a professional speaker and ran up a huge number of air miles. (The good news is that the world seems to be shifting to virtual talks and workshops in a big way.) I offset my travel miles by using Native Energy, a B Corp and will continue to do so for professional and personal travel. My family still intends to take vacations using flights (sorry Greta) but it’s easier than ever before to calculate your offsets using airline miles. I also intend to only fly airlines like Jetblue and Delta who have made commitments to becoming carbon neutral themselves.

5. Investments

 This is another big area where with a bit of diligence you can make a big impact in a relatively simple way. As a solo entrepreneur, I’ve set up a green 401 (k), which ensures my investment portfolio is completely free of any fossil fuel companies, well as guns, tobacco and other ethically compromised industries (you would be amazed at how many people do not know what is in their portfolios that they fundamentally would disagree with). Not only are these ESG funds good for the planet – they have been outperforming the rest of the market quite substantially as well. I also have an Aspiration Redwood Fund which invests in social and environmentally positive companies.

6. Plastics

We have focused on the link between plastics and the oceans recently which is horrifying enough (by 2050 there is estimated to be more plastic in the oceans than fish). But it’s the link between plastic and climate change we should be even more concerned about. According to the WWF “Almost all plastic is derived from materials (like ethylene and propylene) made from fossil fuels (mostly oil and gas). The process of extracting and transporting those fuels, then manufacturing plastic creates billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases. For example, 4% of the world's annual petroleum production is diverted to making plastic, and another 4% gets burned in the refining process.” But how we manage all this plastic that also creates issues: only a small percentage is recycled and in many countries the remainder is just incinerated or breaks down in landfills, releasing more methane and etheyline and accelerating climate change. In our household, we’re gradually shifting to products like Blueland, Bite, Dropps and Humankind which have no or low-plastic alternatives.

Our bathroom, before and after a plastics purge

In the coming months, I’ll be writing more columns exploring my quest to live a climate-friendly lifestyle. I’d love to hear your suggestions and solutions.

All of these individual actions I’m taking may seem like a drop in the bucket. But I like to quote David Suzuki: “In a world of more than seven billion people, each of us is a drop in the bucket. But with enough drops, we can fill any bucket.”