The state of the environment today is less than ideal. With the growing threats of climate change and rampant pollution looming overhead, it’s easy to feel the call of the remote wilderness as an alternative to mainstream society. Luckily, preparing yourself to live off the grid provides you with several great ways to reduce your own carbon footprint in the process. Here’s what you need to know about eco-friendly living.

Clean Energy

The single biggest problem facing the planet today is that of greenhouse gases, and the use of fossil fuels for energy and the resulting carbon dioxide emissions are the primary offender. This manifests in many ways, but there are two in particular that come to mind for the average person. First and foremost, the most obvious way that an individual can create CO2 emissions is simply driving a car. The combustion engine of the average car burns gasoline for energy, and that resulting exhaust is one of the leading causes of CO2 pollution. Moving away from civilization proper in favor of a wilderness retreat will, almost automatically, lead to less driving.

However, a greater concern is potentially the use of electricity. While it’s not obvious to laypeople, the average electrical plant produces electricity by burning coal, thereby creating CO2 pollution as that energy is created and consumed. Solar panels or water wheels make a great alternative for homes in the wilderness, however. Water wheels are perhaps more efficient and more affordable than solar panels, but they are much less accessible, because they depend on a nearby source of running water, such as a river. Solar panels are by far the most accessible and affordable form of clean energy, but there are some tradeoffs. For starters, you’ll need a solar battery in order to get access to power around the clock and regardless of weather. Furthermore, you’ll be stuck with less efficient energy production than most of the alternatives. However, additional panels are easily installed and, more importantly, easy to afford.

Waste Reduction

In addition to pollutants in the air, the environment today has been negatively impacted by garbage. The mass production of various disposable products in conjunction with inadequate methods of disposal and recycling, has led to the widespread proliferation of overfilled landfills and littering, resulting in a floating patch of garbage bigger than Texas floating in the Pacific Ocean. The best way for the individual to combat this problem is to overhaul his or her shopping practice to eliminate this kind of waste from their lifestyle entirely. However, proper recycling presents a best of both worlds approach, but recycling has its limits. For example, the most egregious form of mass produced waste is plastics wrappers and bags, and those can’t be recycled using current methods. Many types of waste can’t be recycled, meaning that depending on recycling too much can be a recipe for disaster, and abstaining from buying products that incorporate waste in their design is a far more effective approach.

Another way to reduce your waste production is to simply avoid depending on shopping completely, or insofar as is possible. Gardening, for example, can allow you to produce your own fruits and vegetables, and this is both cheaper and more eco friendly than shopping in a supermarket. You can also invest in raising livestock for meat and animal products like eggs and dairy. However, cattle in particular present a different sort of problem. While carbon dioxide from fossil fuels is the biggest contributor of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, a close second is methane from industrial farming. When opting to raise livestock, consider avoiding cattle in favor of more eco friendly animals.

The state of the world today can be distressing, and the kind of large scale change necessary to reverse the damage requires the action of governments and corporations. However, a concerned individual has options with which to reduce his or her carbon footprint. If enough people adopt these strategies, change for the better is possible.