How to remove 200 Kg CO2 from the athmosphere per month!

Here is very recent example of down to earth resolutions from my personal life. In the past few weeks I was driving from home to EPFL everyday to work in the amazing library, the vibe is great and the space is just splendid.
Earlier this week I looked at the map and saw it is almost 35KM of driving per day. I took a few moments, stopped working, and started to put my thoughts together to answer a simple question: does this make sense? Why would I create so much CO2 for finding a nice spot to work? The calculation is simple: each mile of driving your car creates about 404 grams of CO2. So if you drive 35 KM (22 miles), you put around 9 Kg of CO2 per day directly in the atmosphere. And if you think about a month with 25 days of driving, it will be more than 200 Kg of CO2!

And then the answer was simple: my driving does not make sense, period!

So, I started searching again and luckily found another beautiful library that I can walk there to work, and I have been doing so for a week now. Happy me, happy planet!

Please don’t get me wrong, the point of the story is not about the change itself or self promotion. It is the trivial, but often neglected fact that sometimes we get too drawn into our daily routines that we forget to pause for a moment, take a few steps back, reflect and see if there are other paths we can take. And not surprisingly, in many cases these few moments can make a big difference.

22 April 2022 is the earth day. It is a great opportunity to take a moment and reflect on what we do, and what decisions do we make that helps or hurts the wonderful earth we live on.
Think of it as a New Year’s resolution, one that matters not just for ourselves but for the universe. It can be your 2022 down to earth resolution.

What are the things I am doing that hurt the earth?
What are the things I can be doing that help the earth?

Change doesn’t happen over night, it require awareness and continuous effort to translate our awareness into new actions and habits.

So, please take a few moments on earthday and reflect on the choices you are making that affects the environment. Any small changes that can help?
Making a real change doesn’t always need lengthy corporate sustainability reports with public announcements and promotion while we are still taking the car to work, travelling like crazy with the plane, and …. .
Each of us can just make a decision and act, now.