Action Catalog
24 actions. How they work, including the trade-offs. Your quiz picks 3–5 that fit you. The full list is here.
How it works
Cuts the massive fuel burn required to lift heavy aircraft and fly thousands of miles.
Context & nuance
Aviation has no green scale yet; carbon offsets rarely neutralise high-altitude non-CO2 effects.
Single biggest personal reduction for high-earners.
How it works
Replaces internal combustion (burning oil) with an electric motor that is 3x-4x more efficient.
Context & nuance
Grid dependent; if your local grid is 100% coal, an EV is essentially a 'coal-powered car'.
Depends on grid greenness and charging infra.
How it works
Uses human energy instead of fossil fuels for the 'last mile' of daily travel.
Context & nuance
Safety over Carbon; without protected lanes, the 'effort' is often a physical risk.
Health co-benefits; infrastructure dependent.
How it works
Moves many people using a single engine, drastically reducing the energy used per person.
Context & nuance
Occupancy matters; a near-empty diesel bus can have a higher footprint than a full efficient car.
High impact in urban settings.
How it works
Electric trains use a fraction of the energy per kilometer compared to short-haul jet takeoff.
Context & nuance
Time vs. Carbon; only effective if high-speed rail exists; slow diesel trains have diminishing returns.
'Flight shame' movement focus; very effective in EU/Asia.
How it works
Divides the carbon cost of a single vehicle trip across two or more passengers.
Context & nuance
Consistency is key; occasional carpooling has negligible impact compared to daily habit changes.
Bridge action for low-infrastructure areas.
How it works
Instead of creating heat by burning fuel, it moves heat from the outside air into your home.
Context & nuance
Heat pumps are 3-4x more efficient than boilers, but still rely on the carbon intensity of the grid.
Decarbonizes the most energy-intensive home load.
How it works
Creates a thermal barrier that keeps expensive heat (or cooling) inside the house longer.
Context & nuance
The 'Leaky Bucket' rule; installing high-tech heating is a waste if the heat escapes through the roof.
Best ROI; reduces demand permanently.
How it works
Directs your monthly utility bill to support wind, solar, or hydro generators instead of coal/gas.
Context & nuance
Some tariffs just 'shuffle' existing green energy rather than funding new wind/solar farms.
Market-based signal to utilities.
How it works
Uses sensors and logic to ensure you aren't heating or cooling an empty house.
Context & nuance
Savings are often lost if users feel 'guilt-free' and set the base temperature higher than before.
High tech-readiness; low friction.
How it works
Produces the same light for around a tenth of the energy, where old bulbs lost almost everything as heat.
Context & nuance
A 'gateway' action that shouldn't distract from high-impact thermal changes.
Quick win; global availability.
How it works
Eliminates the energy-intensive step of heating liters of water for every wash cycle.
Context & nuance
Drying is the real culprit; using a tumble dryer afterwards negates almost all the energy savings.
Significant cumulative energy saving.
How it works
Removes the 'middleman' (animals) and gets calories directly from plants, saving land and water.
Context & nuance
What you eat (beef vs. beans) matters significantly more than where it was grown.
Targets methane and land-use emissions.
How it works
Ensures the carbon used to grow, pack, and ship food isn't wasted for zero benefit.
Context & nuance
Wasted food rots in landfill and releases methane, which traps around 80 times more heat than CO2 over its first 20 years.
1/3 of global food is wasted; high lifecycle impact.
How it works
Reduces the need for long-distance refrigerated shipping and energy-heavy greenhouses.
Context & nuance
Eating 'local' hothouse tomatoes in winter can be higher carbon than shipping them from the south.
Reduces 'food miles' and heated greenhouse use.
How it works
Keeps existing items in use, preventing the emissions required to mine and manufacture new ones.
Context & nuance
Buying 10 'second-hand' items you don't need still contributes to a shipping footprint.
Avoids 'embedded carbon' in new manufacturing.
How it works
Spreads the massive 'startup' carbon cost of making a device over a longer period of time.
Context & nuance
Up to 80% of a laptop's lifetime emissions occur during manufacturing.
Electronics have high mining and mfg footprint.
How it works
Lowers the demand for cheap, oil-based synthetic fabrics and high-turnover production.
Context & nuance
Synthetic clothes (polyester) are essentially oil-based and shed plastic into the water.
Textile industry is a top water/carbon polluter.
How it works
Prevents 'broken' items from becoming waste and stops the carbon-heavy cycle of new production.
Context & nuance
Many modern electronics are designed to be impossible to repair without specialized tools.
Supports circular economy; high effort.
How it works
Lowers the cooling and power demand on massive server farms that store 'junk' data.
Context & nuance
Data centers are the fastest-growing energy consumers; 'Digital waste' is physically real.
Targets data center energy use (the 'hidden' footprint).
How it works
Attacks the root cause of emissions by simply reducing the total volume of goods produced.
Context & nuance
This is hard because it actively pushes against global advertising and social norms.
Psychological shift away from consumerism.
How it works
Reduces the demand for virgin plastic, which is made from oil and gas feedstocks.
Context & nuance
Replacing plastic with heavy glass/paper can sometimes increase carbon.
Mostly waste-focused, but reduces oil demand.
How it works
Uses your influence as an employee to shift large-scale budgets and supply chains.
Context & nuance
Your personal footprint is 1, but your company's could be 10,000. This scales your influence.
Leverages professional influence for scale.
How it works
Changes the 'rules of the game' so that green choices become the cheapest and easiest for everyone.
Context & nuance
Individual actions hit a wall if the government doesn't build the trains or green the grid.
The ultimate systemic lever.
