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Can one person slow global warming? Actually, yes. You—along with scientists, businesses and governments—can create paths to cut carbon emissions. Here is our guide to some of the planet's best ideas.

Owaki - Kulla / Corbis

You could make your own clothes with needle and thread using 100% organic cotton sheared from sheep you raised on a Whole Foods diet, but the environmental quality of your wardrobe is ultimately determined by the way you wash it. A recent study by Cambridge University's Institute of Manufacturing found that 60% of the energy associated with a piece of clothing is spent in washing and drying it. Over its lifetime, a T shirt can send up to 9 lbs. of carbon dioxide into the air.

The solution is not to avoid doing laundry, tempting as that may be. Rather, wash your clothes in warm water instead of hot, and save up to launder a few big loads instead of many smaller ones. Use the most efficient machine you can find—newer ones can use as little as one-fourth the energy of older machines. When they're clean, dry your clothes the natural way, by hanging them on a line rather than loading them in a dryer. Altogether you can reduce the CO2 created by your laundry up to 90%. Plus, no more magically disappearing socks.

Next Give New Life to Your Old Fleece

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The Global Warming Survival Guide - TIME

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Can one person slow global warming? Actually, yes. You-along with scientists, businesses and governments-can create paths to cut carbon emissions. Here is our guide to some of the planet's best ideas.

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Today, you made the first purchase to your sustainable wardrobe. You feel badass in your outfit and you made the right purchase for the environment. Rock on! After a few wears, you decide it's time for wash. You throw it in the wash, pop in the detergent and walk away. What can go wrong?

Levi Strauss found that 37% of their jeans energy carbon footprint and 23% of overall water use was dedicated to the laundry process [ ref].

Can washing and drying clothes really be that harmful to the environment?

In the United States, laundry accounts for:

847,445 million gallons of water

241 thousand GWh of electricity consumption

179 million metric tons of CO2-e emissions [1]

Problem One: Frequency

Frequency refers to the amount of loads washed per week.

Our household is just the two of us, and we go through two main loads bi-weekly. One for clothes and another for towels and household linens. Audrey is better than me and for awhile, I was throwing my t-shirts in the hamper after every use. But why?
Washing and drying a load every two days creates around 440kg of CO2e each year [2].
Don't get me wrong, we need to wash our clothes and especially our underwear and socks. However, do we really need to wash our jeans, shirts or sweaters after every use? If you don't sweat in it, why wash it? :)

This might be a little extreme but the point being, if we want to be a sustainable consumer, we need to pay attention to the entire life-cycle of a product. Our laundry habits are part of that cycle.

Problem Two: Water

We need water to clean our clothes and currently, we cannot get around that. However, we can find ways to conserve as much as possible. Frequency is part of that puzzle but what else?

Only washing your clothes when you have a full load saves a ton of water. The same applies with your dishwasher. If you need to use the water, make it count! The next best step for water conservation comes with a dollar tag. Front-load washing machines can save on average 7,000 gallons of water per year compared to a top-load [ 3]. Most people can't just go out and buy a new machine but next time you are in the market, look for a front-load. You will save money over the long run as well!

Problem Three: Energy

The biggest part of our laundry carbon footprint comes from energy. It is also the place where we can actively become more green in our practices.
The diagram below outlines the distribution of energy used at every stage in the laundry process [ 1].
The rule of thumb is; the more heat an appliance needs, the more energy it takes to heat that appliance. Drying your clothes is an obvious criminal. We can solve this problem by getting a little creative and looking back to the days before the dryer.

Before the dryer, people used a clothesline and many people still do. This might seem foreign, as some people have always had a dryer. Why do more work when modern technology can do it for you?
A household running a dryer 200 times a year could save nearly half a ton of CO2e by switching to a clothes rack or washing line [ 2].
If you can switch to clothesline drying completely, do it! However, for most people, this is a little excessive. Many people don't see the sun 200 days a year. In the Pacific Northwest, we get lucky to have 150 days of sun.

The point being, when the sun is out, make the effort to dry your clothes outside. You can use an indoor drying rack for the days that lack sun but the temperature is warm enough. The more you do, the better it is for the environment!

Keeping your clothes out of the dryer is also beneficial for the garments health. All the lint you remove from the dryer is from your clothes. "That is why my jeans are fading."

For those rainy months, using a dryer is almost a necessity and we get that. Below are a few tips if you can afford the effort.

Drying your clothes produces useful heat. Most older buildings pump that useful heat outside. During the cold months, if you can keep that heat in your home, it can act as a personal heater and save you on your electric usage, and bill.

When purchasing a new appliance look for washers (yes washers) with a good spin cycle. Our washer has a great spin cycle and most of our clothes are damp when they come out of the wash. This makes drying them much quicker and in-turn uses less energy.

If you dryer has a moisture sensor, turn it on. The dryer will turn off when it senses the clothes are dry. Modern technology has its benefits!

Problem Three Extended: Energy and Hot Water

From the energy consumption diagram above, you might have missed the 16% attribution to heating water. This 16% of energy can be easily saved by simply switching to cold water washes. For example, switching to cold water, you can save roughly 100g of carbon emissions per wash or 34 million tons per year for the entire United States [ 2, 3].

Hot water is used to help soap activate in the cleaning process and remove those hard stains. However, modern laundry detergents work great at low temperatures and it is usually not recommended to use hot water. Hot water can also shrink and fade colors.

2.4 kg washed at 40°C, tumble-dried in a vented dryer

If you must use warm water, look to see if your machine has an eco-warm setting.

Final Thoughts

If you have never used any of these energy and water savings techniques, don't get overwhelmed. Start by using cold water and be happy with that. You just saved 100g of carbon emissions! At Soluna Collective, we are not perfect and never claim to be. We have our days where the dryer is our best friend. However, we pledge to improve everyday and make this planet a better place, one step at a time. #LetsFightTogether

We would like to leave you with a passage from a study done by Duke University.

, calling for the use of front load washer and dryers, washing in cold water only and hanging clothes to dry half the time, the environmental and economic benefits would be drastic. In fact, it would be equivalent to removing 12.1% of passenger cars of roads in the United States or taking 23 coal plants off the grid. In addition, more than 60% of water consumption (512 billion gallons) used while laundering could be reduced through these strategies" [ "If Americans adopted European and Asian standards 1].

Bonus Round: The waste

Dryer sheets are not a necessity and create the biggest amount of waste in the laundry process. Most people use a dryer sheet approximately once before they throw it away. For us, eliminating dryer sheets was the first step in the sustainable laundry process. In our drying process, we don't use any added scent and the only noticeable difference is the lack of a smell. For the people who love a fresh scent, try a scented wool dryer ball. You can even customize the smell with any essential oils.

Image Credit: Top Image: DreamsTime Witch GIF: GIFY

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Today, you made the first purchase to your sustainable wardrobe. You feel badass in your outfit and you made the right purchase for the environment. Rock on! After a few wears, you decide it's time for wash. You throw it in the wash, pop in the detergent and walk away.

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1. Stop Eating (or Eat Less) Meat

The single most effective action you can take to combat climate change is to stop eating meat. Just limiting your meat consumption can make a huge difference. Greenhouse gas emissions from agribusiness are an even bigger problem than fossil fuels. So while we often talk about cutting our reliance on fossil fuels - and this is still critically important - we rarely discuss the worst culprit. Red meat is particularly to blame, consuming 11 times more water and producing 5 times more emissions than its poultry counterparts. You don't have to become a vegetarian, but eating meat less frequently (the average American eats 8.5 ounces of meat per day!) will significantly help the environment. To get a single pound of beef, it takes over 5,000 gallons of water - as the number one consumer of freshwater in the world, animal agriculture is drastically increasing the problem of water scarcity. Don't forget to inform others: many people simply don't know about the connection between meat and climate change.

You might be surprised to learn that all electronics suck energy when they're plugged in, EVEN IF they're powered down. In the U.S. alone, "vampire power" is responsible for draining up to $19 billion in energy every year. Anytime a cord is plugged into a socket, it's drawing energy - so although your device isn't charging, you're still contributing to your carbon footprint. Simple solution? Leave your electronics unplugged at all times, unless you're actually using them.

Choose to walk, bike, or take the bus - leave the car at home, and you'll be making an easy decision with immediate results. Many people are opting to bike to work, especially with bike lanes becoming more prevalent. Cities are finally investing in the necessary infrastructure to make it easier not to own a car. There are over 65 million cyclists in the United States, a number that has risen dramatically over the past five years. Increasing populations have made effective public transportation more necessary than ever, and options like subways, trains, buses, and rapid transit continue to grow. Many new bus routes are even turning to hybrids, solar power, and other eco-friendly alternatives. In the U.S., public transportation saves 37 million tons of carbon emissions every year. Cities are also increasing walkability, with architects incorporating more outdoor and green spaces, and new buildings focused on green infrastructure and community engagement.

4. Don't Buy "Fast Fashion"

Many major clothing retailers practice what is known as "fast fashion" - selling an endless cycle of must-have trends at extremely low prices. Have you ever wondered how it's possible to pay only $4 for that t-shirt? In this consumer society, we think of fashion as disposable - after all, if I only pay $4 I might not think twice about throwing it away. Heaps and heaps of clothing ends up in the landfill, often to justify buying the latest styles. We're talking over 15 million tons of textile waste - with quantity over quality, fast fashion retailers can charge next to nothing for items that are mass-produced. They push these garments to sell by creating more fashion "cycles" or "seasons" - where there used to be 4 per year, there's now often 12 to 15. There's also the issue of contamination: almost half of our clothing is made with cotton, and unless it's labeled as "organic" cotton, there's a high chance that it's genetically modified cotton sprayed with lots of pesticides (including known carcinogens). This can be damaging to neighboring non-GMO crops, cause water contamination, reduce biodiversity, and have negative impacts on human health. Don't forget that anything made overseas has a huge environmental impact - from the physical act of shipping a product across the ocean, to the chemical runoff from garment factories ( leather tanneries are particularly bad). As if that's not enough, fast fashion is an industry still largely propped up by child labor. Toxic to the environment, detrimental to human rights - who needs it? Try alternatives like re-purposing old clothing, choosing locally handmade garments, buying vintage, or participating in clothing swaps with family and friends.

Whether you live in a house or an apartment, planting some greens is a quick and easy way to reduce your carbon footprint. We all know plants absorb carbon dioxide - a beneficial relationship for humans, that we should all be seeking to nurture. Plant some bee-friendly flowers, a few trees, or a vegetable garden. Balcony gardens are great for urban dwellings. Cities often need to reduce the "urban heat island" effect - basically, cities tend to be hotter than rural areas because of vast pavement areas, concrete buildings, and increased human activity. Creating more spaces for plants, grasses, and trees can mitigate this effect and lead to better cooling, which will be a necessity with worsening climate change. Help avoid the "heat island" effect by planting trees for shade, or maybe try a green roof or community garden.

Whenever possible, try to eat local, in-season produce. Sticking to foods that are grown locally, in your own city or surrounding area, helps to reduce the carbon footprint created by shipping foods from elsewhere. A general rule for where something is grown? The closer to you, the better. When a fruit or vegetable can be grown in your own backyard, or a local farm, the environmental cost is significantly reduced. Just imagine the journey that food from a distant country has to take - by plane, ship, train, or truck, the produce must stay cooled, so it doesn't spoil, and has usually been picked way too early (resulting in not-so-great quality, and fewer nutrients). Small farms are more likely to adopt beneficial soil-care practices and maintain borders for local wildlife, and eating locally-grown food supports your local economy and promotes food security. It's equally important to eat organic produce, which hasn't been sprayed with toxic pesticides and other environmentally detrimental chemicals. Don't forget to avoid processed foods: processed and packaged foods are often bad for your health, not just the environment. Processing plants are major polluters, and their products contribute to health epidemics like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Choose whole foods that are better for the planet, and better for your own longevity.

New is not always better - the traditional method of line-drying your clothing is much better for the environment. One dryer load uses 5 times more electricity than washing - by simply line-drying your clothes, you can save 1/3 of their carbon footprint. Unfortunately, line-drying seems to be America's least favorite way to save energy - despite the fact that running a clothes dryer is equivalent to turning on 225 light bulbs for an hour. Europeans, on the other hand, are excellent at this (95 percent of Italians don't even own a dryer) - it might be time to follow their lead, especially considering the tumble dryer is one of the top energy-consuming appliances (not to mention the leading cause of appliance-related house fires).

Anyone can make these simple changes: they're easy to implement, and are immediately effective in reducing your carbon footprint. Our actions and choices ultimately make a difference, and we all share the responsibility to do whatever we can to address climate change, big or small.

BEFORE YOU GO

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7 Instant Ways To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

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1. Stop Eating (or Eat Less) Meat The single most effective action you can take to combat climate change is to stop eating meat. Just limiting your meat consumption can make a huge difference. Greenhouse gas emissions from agribusiness are an even bigger problem than fossil fuels.

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On Wednesday a gigantic clothesline dangled over Berkeley's Civic Center Park. T-shirts, sweaters, jeans, and all kinds of clothing swayed in the wind as members of Rising Sun Energy Center 's California Youth Energy Services (CYES) program proudly explained the work they've been doing to make Berkeley's community more sustainable.

"Really what this is is a call to action," said Jodi Pincus, executive director of the Berkeley-based Rising Sun Energy Center. "You may be asking, how does [climate change] relate to air drying my clothes? Clothes dryers are the second largest energy hog appliance in the home, and CO2 emissions from a single household can amount to nearly 23,000 pounds of CO2 per year. It is up to us to do something."

The "Air Dry For the Environment" event on July 17 included short speeches from Pincus, RSEC's Outreach Manager Christina Chan, Berkeley Vice Mayor Linda Maio, Councilman Laurie Capitelli, and two of CYES's youth employees.

CYES aims to tackle two issues through its program: youth employment and resident efficiency. CYES hires and trains local youth ages 15 to 22 as Energy Specialists, providing jobs in the green economy to young people who really need them. CYES's Energy Specialists offers Green House Calls to renters and homeowners, providing an efficiency assessment, installation of energy and water saving products and personalized recommendations to help residents save energy where they can.

If you have a yard, members of CYES will install a retractable clothesline as a sunny-day alternative to a tumble dryer.

The best part is, these house calls are free. Any PG&E customer in Berkeley, Antioch, Dublin, Emeryville, Fremond, Hayward, Oakland, Pleasanton, Richmond, Union City, and Marin County is eligible.

"I keep coming back because I'm excited to see the program grow," said one youth employee who had been with CYES for three years. "But I want us to get further than the Bay Area, because the further we go, the smaller our carbon footprint will become."

"Doing this job, we get to educate a variety of communities, people that come from all kinds of backgrounds," added another youth employee. "We get to educate all of them about little changes they can make in their own homes to help the greater environment."

"Somehow or another we have to make it, 'You're not with it if you're not air drying your clothes!'" said Vice Mayor Linda Maio. "Let's get with it, and let's air dry."

To sign up for a free Green House Call visit RSEC online.
Julia Hannafin is a summer intern at Berkeleyside and a student at Columbia University studying creative writing and American studies. She writes for the music blog The Metropolitan Jolt. Berkeleyside publishes many articles every day. To see all our stories in chronological order, and read ones you may have missed, check out our All the News grid.

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'You're not with it if you're not air drying your clothes!'

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By Julia Hannafin On Wednesday a gigantic clothesline dangled over Berkeley's Civic Center Park. T-shirts, sweaters, jeans, and all kinds of clothing swayed in the wind as members of Rising Sun Energy Center's California Youth Energy Services (CYES) program proudly explained the work they've been

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Line-drying clothes is a mostly hands-off process. Spend 15 minutes (or less) hanging your clothes, and the sun will take it from there.

Feel like you're really slow at hanging clothes? Once you do it a few times, you'll get much faster at it.

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Line-drying clothes is a mostly hands-off process. Spend 15 minutes (or less) hanging your clothes, and the sun will take it from there. Feel like you're really slow at hanging clothes? Once you do it a few times, you'll get much faster at it.

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View Stock Photo of Tween Girls. Find premium, high-resolution photos at Getty Images.

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millie bobby brown of stranger things. The only girl star on it...

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millie bobby brown of stranger things. The only girl star on it...

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One of our tools, the 4 Boxes around the green lens

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One of our tools, the 4 Boxes around the green lens

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Short 3 slides about characterizations one of our coaches but together with our graphic designer

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The Bible Calls for Moral Action on Climate Change

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To ignore climate change is to abuse the moral call to care for the environment, and generations to come will suffer

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What does the Bible have to say about conservationism and environmental concerns? I've noticed lately that several well-known Christian leaders have decided to make "global-warming" a key issue. Other evangelicals suggest that the "climate change" movement is primarily political and ideological in motivation. That's the way I've viewed it, but I'm also aware that God expects us to act as good stewards of His creation. I'm thinking in particular of Bible verses like Gen. 1:28-30 and Ps. 24:1. Can you help me understand what they mean within the context of a specifically Christian worldview?

It's true that some secular environmentalists are clearly pursuing goals that contradict biblical values. But that doesn't necessarily mean that Christians can't come to some kind of a meeting of the minds with them to the extent that it involves our love for nature and our sense of responsibility towards God's creation.

Don't get us wrong. We realize that many environmentalists focus on side issues which they mistakenly associate with the preservation of the earth. For example, a disturbing number of them are avidly pro-abortion. That's because they feel that "overpopulation" is a grave threat to the well-being of the planet. As for the evangelicals who have joined the "global warming" camp, we can't help feeling that in some cases, their focus and emphasis have been misplaced. Why devote more attention to an unproven theory than to the reality of ongoing attacks against life, the family, and the Christian worldview?

But having said this, we should hasten to add that there is no necessary link between appropriate concern for the natural environment and a pro-abortion stance. That connection has been trumped up and popularized in some circles through the influence of certain powerful groups and outspoken individuals. In our view, there's no good reason why believers can't find a way to love both God and His creation. The key is to keep our eyes fixed firmly on the truth of His Word.

What would a genuinely Christian and thoroughly biblical expression of environmental concern look like? In our view, it would have to begin with a confession of faith based upon one of the Scriptures you cited: "The earth is the Lord's, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein" (Psalm 24:1).

Christians, of all people, understand that we do not own the world in which we live. The earth, like the vineyard in Jesus' parable (Matthew 21:33-46), is a trust given into our keeping by its Maker and Proprietor. God has tasked us with the tending of His garden. We owe Him a positive return on His investment.

God gave man "dominion" or "rule" over creation in Genesis 1:28. But this does not mean that man is free to pillage or abuse the earth's resources. On the contrary, "dominion" involves responsibility and accountability. It's a mandate to care for God's world just as He cares for it. Among other things, this means finding ways to put back into nature at least as much as we take out of it. As any good agriculturalist knows, a fertile field becomes a dustbowl if the farmer can't find some way to maintain and replenish the soil. In the same way, industry can be helpful when it supplies basic human needs. But it should also act responsibly by doing what it can to preserve natural resources in the process. That's good stewardship of the Master's estate.

Exactly how should this stewardship principle be applied to life in the modern technological world? That's not easy to say. Here at Focus on the Family, we're not qualified to make authoritative statements about the science behind "global warming" theories. Nor are we experts on subjects such as chemical fertilizers, alternative energy sources, organic farming, or the various methods of mining gas and oil. As we see it, there are still many questions that remain to be answered in all of these important fields of study. And we'd encourage Christians working in those fields to do everything they can to find solutions to the problems we face.

What we can say is that every Christian has a responsibility to care deeply about the natural world. We must do this not only for the environment's sake, but also as a way of serving mankind. Our interactions with the environment should aim at improving human life and alleviating the sufferings of men, women, and children who have been created in the image of God. Exactly how you and your family should apply this principle is something we can't possibly prescribe. You'll have to discover that for yourself through prayer, study, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. When you do, it's up to you to put your findings into action.

If you think it might be helpful to discuss these ideas at greater length with a member of the Focus team, our staff of pastoral counselors would love to speak with you over the phone.

Resources
Resisting the Green Dragon

Resisting the Green Dragon 4-DVD Set

Articles
Focus on the Family: A Statement on the Environment

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What does the Bible have to say about conservationism and environmental concerns? I've noticed lately that several well-known Christian leaders have decided to make "global-warming" a key issue. Other evangelicals suggest that the "climate change" movement is primarily political and ideological in motivation.