The climate crisis, or climate emergency, is exactly that. A crisis. An emergency.

Time is of the essence, so let’s just get straight into it.

Here are some ridiculously easy things you can do to lessen your negative impact on the planet and do a bit of extra good in the world.

🌳 Plant trees

Wait! Don’t worry! We know very well that planting trees is absolutely not “the answer” - and don’t let anyone fool you that it is - but when reforestation and afforestation are done correctly, it can be of great benefit to the planet.

And the good news for those of us who can’t just go outside every day, roll our sleeves up, and do the planting ourselves is that there are lots of organisations, apps and websites that can do it for us. Here are just a few we love and use ourselves here at Avery & Brown.

1. Ecosia - ecosia.org

Ecosia is the search engine that plants trees. It really is that simple. You use Ecosia for your searches, they use ad revenue to plant trees where they’re needed most. Job done.

Start using Ecosia today.

Cost to you: nothing.

2. Refoorest - refoorest.com

“But I can’t use Ecosia - I still need to use Google!” No problem, we hear you. As a digital marketing agency, we also still need to use Google. And luckily, Refoorest has got us covered. This simple plugin works with any browser and helps you plant trees via its 7,000+ partner websites.

Start using Refoorest today.

Cost to you: nothing.

3. Ecologi - ecologi.com

There are lots of similar models popping up, but we are long-time users and fans of Ecologi. Again, it is not “the answer” - no form of offsetting ever is - but Ecologi makes it super easy to plant trees and purchase carbon offsets using a simple subscription model. Signing up as an individual, a family or a business is incredibly quick and easy, and you can choose how much you want to pay per month based on family size, number of employees, how much you travel, etc.

The way Ecologi gamifies the size of your forest is a fun added perk.

Use this referral link to subscribe to Ecologi today and get extra trees in your forest!

Cost to you: subscriptions can start from less than £1.25 per week

4. Treeapp - thetreeapp.org

Wake up and plant a tree!

We love Treeapp. As the app itself says, “Plant a tree for free, every day, in less than a minute.” And that really is the case! Answer a few quick questions about new sustainable brands, then choose where to plant your free tree for the day. Another ridiculously easy way to do a bit of extra good every single day - not just Earth Day.

Start using Treeapp today.

Cost to you: nothing

⚡️ Change your energy to a 100% renewable tariff

The climate crisis is all about fossil fuel emissions, so this one is a biggie.

Switching your energy to a truly 100% renewable tariff is one of the single biggest and easiest things you can do to reduce your household’s carbon emissions. Yes - it really is easy, because they do it for you. It takes you a few clicks. We’re speaking from experience.

There is an increasing number of renewable energy providers out there (certainly here in the UK, at least) but make sure to do your due diligence on where your money actually goes. If you’re in the UK, the best option is Ecotricity as they reinvest their profits into green energy projects.

Switch to Ecotricity today and use code L5A8U6 to receive a £25 voucher to EthicalSuperstore.com

Cost to you: will vary depending on your current provider / current costs / size of property etc, but it could be a few hundred pounds more expensive per year. But a lot of you reading this could still afford that! And that’s a small price to pay for moving away from fossil fuels as a household

Bonus tip! Even if you are on a 100% renewable energy tariff, please remember that you should still try to reduce your energy use by turning off lights and appliances when not in use, for example. Reduce, reduce, reduce!

🥦 Reduce your household food waste

Scary fact: if food wastage were a country, it would be the third largest emitting country in the world after China and the USA.

If that doesn’t blow your mind, nothing will! Seriously, just think about that and imagine how many tonnes of emissions that equates to.

Nearly all of us can make huge improvements in this area, through proper meal planning, smaller portion sizes (which is good for our waistlines too) and better knowledge around the issue of food waste. We are both keen composters here at Avery & Brown, but we can still make some big improvements to the amount of food waste we actually produce in our respective households.

Cost to you: this step could easily save you hundreds of pounds over the year thanks to proper meal planning and learning how to use your leftovers, etc.

🤑 Buy less and vote with your wallet

Just buy less new stuff.

Less of everything. Whatever it is. Books, BluRays, gadgets and gizmos, clothes (especially clothes!), literally everything - we all just need to buy less new stuff!

And when we do need to buy something new, we need to vote with our wallets by choosing to buy from small, local, sustainable, and ethical companies. We have that power! We don’t just vote in elections, we vote every day with our wallets for the products and services we want to see more of. Never underestimate the collective power we have as consumers.

Buy local. Buy small. Buy sustainable. Buy from Certified B Corps. But before you even buy, just ask yourself if you really even need to buy new at all. Do you need it? Or do you just want it?

Cost to you: you could quite literally save yourself thousands of pounds per year