A Climate New Year’s Resolution: Make a Friend
If you’ve been on this site before, you’re probably aware that I think a key part of being climate smart is to make a plan ahead of time for how you’re going to reduce your carbon footprint. Although it’s gotten relatively doable to find clean energy sources and technologies in the consumer marketplace, it is important to leave yourself some time to do the right homework – check out product reviews, get contractor quotes, look at potential incentive programs or tax credits – especially for those items you might otherwise end up replacing in a last-minute emergency, like a car or HVAC equipment. That’s more important than ever now that the federal Inflation Reduction Act will offer significant tax credits and upfront rebates for clean energy investments over the next decade, which means you could miss out on thousands of dollars to supplement your climate budget if you don’t plan ahead.
That said, making that “climate smart” plan can be harder than any of us would like. I think that’s at least partly because of two things we’re all short on these days: time and trust. Everyone has to balance their grand climate ambitions with other priorities like getting dinner on the table or doing taxes or even fun things like watching the latest and greatest streaming hit. And when you do put in the time to find a product recommendation or get a contractor’s proposal for an HVAC overhaul, how can you trust that’s the right investment if you don’t have the bandwidth to become an energy expert yourself?i
My proposed answer? Make a climate friend. Okay, that may seem a little cheesy, and yes, I am the parent of a kindergartener. But consider this: where do you go when you’re looking for a new plumber or dentist, the best pizza place in the area, or the latest info on town zoning changes? Maybe it’s the local social media forum, or a text chat with friends and neighbors, or your book club/model train club/whatever club buddies. All of those are resources for you to tap into when you need to get information quickly and want it from someone you can trust. The good news is that, if you try, you can find the same type of resource for your burning questions about heat pumps, smart thermostats, and EV charging.
What does that look like? There are a lot of variations on the theme. You might have a local sustainability group in your town or city, or a “green team” at your workplace or house of worship.If you’re not sure, you might ask a friend if they know of any resources (see what I did there?), or at the national level there’s a Facebook group called “Electrify Everything” that brings together electrification devotees from across the U.S. In fact, one of the reasons this blog has been pretty quiet is that I’ve been working with a friend to start a clean energy/electrification group in our area. (Central Ohio folks - join us!)
Of course I couldn’t make it through this blog post without saying it: you can get by (better) with a little help from some climate friends. They can save you time on figuring out your climate smart plan, point you to resources to carry it out, provide advice at each step, and keep you accountable to make real progress on reducing your climate footprint. Plus you might even have some fun with them along the way. Not a bad goal for 2023 — and probably easier than making it to the gym more or eating healthier, right?
