Different industries and businesses are becoming more aware of their carbon footprint. Here are the various ways industries are lowering their emissions.
Climate change is a topic that has been at the forefront of almost everyone’s minds for the last couple of decades, and businesses are finally taking some steps to curb their emissions. There’s still a lot of work the world needs to do, but it’s interesting to see the different ways industries are lowering their emissions. Not every change is reducing emissions in the same way, but they are all helping to create a greener and more sustainable world.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Since people have started talking about environmentalism, there’s been the phrase, “Reduce, reuse, recycle.” In the years since this phrase gained recognition, people have typically dropped the first two points and focused on recycling. While recycling is good, reducing consumption as a whole and reusing will typically always be better than simply recycling.
While industries were slow to adopt recycling, they are making progress in that direction and are working to reduce and reuse as well. A lot of industries around the world are leading the charge, trying to go zero-waste or are already zero-waste, with notable examples like the following:
- Subaru and the larger car industry
- Google and other tech businesses
- Breweries and vineyards
By working in this way, they are dramatically lowering their emissions and recognizing their larger role in the Earth’s health. Many more businesses and industries need to jump on this trend, but they are slowly making their way there.
Industrial Regulations
Another way industries are lowering their emissions is through different industrial regulations. The EPA has instituted various rules and regulations about which materials are safe and how businesses need to lower their carbon emissions. These are standard regulations, and to meet these regulations, different industries have begun creating their machines with a greater focus on how much they emit.
For example, for the last 30 years, generator manufacturers have followed different emission tiers for diesel generators. What do these tiers mean exactly? Well, there are differently-sized diesel generators, each capable of producing different amounts of energy. To meet standards put forward by the Clean Air Act of 1970, generators within a certain tier of power must not exceed a certain emission threshold.
Going Remote
It’s not possible for every industry, but some industries and businesses have begun offering remote work for their employees. The pandemic was partly behind the trend as people needed to avoid gatherings, but this strategy quickly proved to be a great way to reduce emissions. Some businesses worked remotely before the pandemic, and as regulations loosened, others began bringing people back into the office.
Regardless of what some individual businesses are doing, industries allowing workers to work remotely significantly reduce their emissions. Without the need to commute or maintain large office buildings, these businesses’ carbon footprint is decreasing dramatically. There are multiple ways that industries are lowering their emissions, and it will be exciting to see what they come up with for the future as well. Many changes need to happen globally to help stop the advancement of climate change, and while these changes aren’t enough, they are a step in the right direction.