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The COVID-19 pandemic changed just about everything in our lives, including our relationship with the environment.
All those “nature is healing” memes aside, the past year drastically altered our habits in areas like travel (goodbye international flights), commuting (hello work from home), and eating (if you weren’t already a home cook, you were forced to become one). As for the environment, global carbon dioxide emissions fell by 6.4% globally, and nearly 13% in the U.S.
Now, as restrictions ease across the country and behavior returns to something closer to “normal,” we’re all trying to
figure out what post-pandemic life is going to look like — and more importantly, how we can build back better. When
it comes to the environment, we wanted to identify the COVID-era habits we should all continue to embrace in order
to have the greatest impact on our individual, and therefore collective, environmental footprint moving forward.
Explore the infographics below to discover the carbon emissions cost of air travel, vehicle travel, and dietary
choices — and how relatively small lifestyle changes can add up to big gains for the environment.
How a year in lockdown can change our sustainability habits for the better
CO Emissions of Domestic vs. International Flights
2
Click to toggle
Domestic
international
NYC Atlanta
2
Chicago Miami
Chicago Los Angeles
NYC Los Angeles
559.1
751.1
977.3
1,238.1
NYC London
1,364.2
1,610
1,868.2
2,161
Chicago London
San Francisco Taipei
NYC Hong Kong
lbs of CO per person
2
Environmental Effect of Flight Frequency
1
1-2 flights per year
3-5 flights per year
6+ flights per year
Occasional
Infrequent
Frequent
Hover over buttons to view data
0.33
metric tons aviation CO
per person
2
0.83
metric tons aviation CO
per person
2
3.1
metric tons aviation CO
per person
2
*based on economy class, round trip
Dr. Jason Neff
Pearson author and professor of environmental studies at University of Colorado-Boulder
Approximately 2.5% of global carbon dioxide emissions come from aviation, and U.S. air passengers have the greatest carbon footprint among wealthy countries — greater than the next 10 countries combined. That’s because all those carbon-emitting flights are taken by a relatively small portion of people: Just 11% of the global population took a flight in 2018, and only 4% flew internationally. All of which means changes in flight habits among those people can equal big environmental effects.
During the pandemic, international travel was essentially grounded, and many of us avoided taking flights at all in
favor of road trips closer to home. Remember that experience and consider driving (or even better, carpooling) or taking
the train for domestic trips where possible, and rethink whether that “big vacation” has to happen overseas.
Toggle
The Bike Boom
*assuming driving alone, 30-mile round trip commute in 25mpg vehicle
The Carbon Cost of Commuting
3
1,414
lbs of CO emissions per year
2
3,677
5,939
per week
per week
per week
1 day
3 days
5 days
lbs of CO emissions per year
2
lbs of CO emissions per year
2
The U.S. saw a
increase in bike sales in 2020 vs. 2019
increase in electric bike sales in 2020 vs. 2019
The U.S. saw a
4
4
Choosing to cycle vs. drive once per day reduces personal carbon emissions from transport by
5
If you tried to purchase a bike in the last year, you know firsthand just how much personal transportation habits were upended by lockdowns. That being said, car traffic was also the fastest transportation sector to rebound, given the privacy it offers getting from here to there relative to public transit. So while you may not be looking to completely give up your car, reducing the ways you regularly rely on it, such as commuting to work or school, can have a meaningful reduction on your carbon footprint. It’s estimated that more than 20% of the workforce could work remotely 3-5 days per week as effectively as they could from an office. If you’re one of those workers and you previously drove to work, that could equal at least a 40% reduction in car emissions vs. the previously standard weeklong commute. (You can reduce this even more if you carpool vs. drive alone.) If you’ve just graduated and
are searching for your first job, consider looking at areas where you wouldn’t need to rely on a car to commute.
1.26
1.72
2.45
6.61
Poultry
Pork
Cheese
Beef
0.03
0.07
0.11
0.16
Potatoes
Carrots
Legumes
Rice
lbs of CO per serving
2
plant-based
Meat & dairy
CO Emissions of Animal vs. Plant-Based Diets
8
2
The Carbon Cost of Food Waste
of yearly U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are from food wastage
7
of fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, seafood, and grains are wasted globally per year
6
The greenhouse gas emissions from food loss/wastage in the U.S. every year is equivalent to the emissions of
6
of U.S. landfill input every year is from food waste
7
An estimated
When lockdowns went into place and restaurant dining rooms shuttered, all of us found ourselves cooking at home more than we ever had before — as well as stockpiling food on our now less-frequent grocery trips. You’ve probably heard the depressing stat that one-third of the food produced in the world is wasted, which comes with an environmental impact: around 8% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.
Hopefully, that extra time at home and in the kitchen inspired you to get in the habit of finding ways to use up vegetable scraps, or made you more likely to cook that chicken before it expired. But the biggest environmental change you can make with regards to diet is to eat less meat. A serving of chicken has 11 times the carbon footprint as a serving of beans; a serving of beef jumps to 60 times that amount. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to suddenly go vegan (though that would have the greatest impact). But you can use more time at home to try out vegan and vegetarian recipes with the goal of going meatless several days per week. Since plant-based diet items like rice, lentils, and root vegetables have a greater shelf life than meat and dairy, you’ll likely cut down on your food waste, too.
Dr. Jason Neff
Pearson author and professor of environmental studies at University of Colorado-Boulder
Source 1: ICCT / Source 2: ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator / Source 3: Stanford Transportation Commute Cost & Carbon Emissions Calculator / Source 4: Vox Media Source 5: Bloomberg L.P. / Source 6: World Wildlife Fund / Source 7: ReFED, Inc. / Source 8: University of Michigan, Center for Sustainable Systems
CREDITS
Written by Andrea Morabito
Designed by Allie Pakrosnis
1 metric
ton
=
2,204 lbs
Click to toggle
Hover over buttons to view data
The COVID-19 pandemic changed just about everything in our lives, including our relationship with the environment. All those “nature is healing” memes aside, the past year drastically altered our habits in areas like travel (goodbye international flights), commuting (hello work from home), and eating (if you weren’t already a home cook, you were forced to become one). As for the environment, global carbon dioxide emissions
fell by 6.4% globally, and nearly 13% in the U.S.
Explore the infographics below to discover
the carbon emissions cost of air travel,
vehicle travel, and diet choices — and how relatively small lifestyle changes can add up
to big gains for the environment.
Now, as restrictions ease across the country
and behavior returns to something closer to “normal,” we’re all trying to figure out what post-pandemic life is going to look like —
and more importantly, how we can build back better. When it comes to the environment, we wanted to identify the COVID-era habits we should all continue to embrace in order to have the greatest impact on our individual, and therefore collective, environmental footprint moving forward.
1-2 flights per year
Occasional
3.1
metric tons aviation CO
per person
2
3.1
metric tons aviation CO
per person
2
3-5 flights per year
infrequent
2,161
1,868.2
1,610
1,364.2
NYC
Hong Kong
San Francisco
Taipei
Chicago
London
NYC
London
The COVID-19 pandemic changed just about everything in our lives, including our relationship with the environment. All those “nature is healing” memes aside, the past year drastically altered our habits in areas like travel (goodbye international flights), commuting (hello work from home), and eating (if you weren’t already a home cook, you were forced to become one). As for the environment, global carbon dioxide emissions
fell by 6.4% globally, and nearly 13% in the U.S.
Approximately 2.5% of global carbon dioxide emissions come from aviation, and U.S. air passengers have the greatest carbon footprint among wealthy countries — greater than the next 10 countries combined. That’s because all those carbon-emitting flights are taken by a relatively small portion of people: Just 11% of the global population took a flight in 2018, and only 4% flew internationally. All of which means changes in flight habits among those people can equal big environmental effects.
During the pandemic, international travel
was essentially grounded, and many of us avoided taking flights at all in favor of road trips closer to home. Remember that experience and consider driving (or even better, carpooling)
or taking the train for domestic trips where possible, and rethink whether that “big vacation” has to happen overseas.
3.1
metric tons aviation CO
per person
2
1-2 flights per year
Occasional
3-5 flights per year
infrequent
6+ flights per year
frequent
Click buttons to view data
Environmental Effect of Flight Frequency
3
*based on economy class, round trip
5,939
lbs of CO
emission
per year
2
3,677
lbs of CO
emissions
per year
2
Approximately 2.5% of global carbon dioxide emissions come from aviation, and U.S. air passengers have the greatest carbon footprint among wealthy countries — greater than the next 10 countries combined. That’s because all those carbon-emitting flights are taken by a relatively small portion of people: Just 11% of the global population took a flight in 2018, and only 4% flew internationally. All of which means changes in flight habits among those people can equal big environmental effects.
1,238.1
977.3
751.1
559.1
NYC
Los Angeles
Chicago
Los Angeles
Chicago
Miami
NYC
Atlanta
2,161
1,868.2
1,610
1,364.2
NYC
Hong Kong
San Francisco
Taipei
Chicago
London
NYC
London
lbs of CO per person
2
plant-based
meat & dairy
Click to toggle
CO Emissions of Domestic vs. International Flights
2
2
If you tried to purchase a bike in the last year, you know firsthand just how much personal transportation habits were upended by lockdowns. That being said, car traffic was also the fastest transportation sector to rebound, given the privacy it offers getting from here to there relative to public transit. So while you may not be looking to completely give up your car, reducing the ways you regularly rely on it, such as commuting to work or school, can have a meaningful reduction on your carbon footprint. It’s estimated that more than 20% of the workforce could work remotely 3-5 days per week as effectively as they could from an office. If you’re one of those workers and you previously drove to work, that could equal at least a 40% reduction in car emissions vs. the previously standard weeklong commute. (You can reduce this even more if you carpool vs. drive alone.) If you’ve just graduated and are looking for your first job, consider looking at areas where you wouldn’t need to rely on a car to commute.
When lockdowns went into place and restaurant dining rooms shuttered, all of us found ourselves cooking at home more than we ever had before — as well as stockpiling food on our now less-frequent grocery trips. You’ve probably heard the depressing stat that one-third of the food produced in the world is wasted, which comes with an environmental impact: around 8% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.
Hopefully, that extra time at home and in the kitchen inspired you to get in the habit of finding ways to use up vegetable scraps, or made you more likely to cook that chicken before it expired. But the biggest environmental change you can make with regards to diet is to eat less meat. A serving of chicken has 11 times the carbon footprint as a serving of beans; a serving of beef jumps to 60 times that amount. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to suddenly go vegan (though that would have the greatest impact). But you can use more time at home to try out vegan and vegetarian recipes with the goal of going meatless several days per week. Since plant-based diet items like rice, lentils, and root vegetables have a greater shelf life than meat and dairy, you’ll likely cut down on your food waste, too.
Pearson author and professor of environmental studies at University of Colorado-Boulder
Dr. Jason Neff
