What Can I Do?

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Lowering your carbon footprint benefits more than just the environment—it can make your home more comfortable, save you money, and make your family healthier. Did you know that 98% of emissions in Mountain View come from the community (as opposed to municipal operations)? YOU have the power to make a big impact by making your life more sustainable!

There are many things you can do to lower your carbon footprint, from small changes in habits that can have big impacts over time, to bigger actions with large financial savings. We hope we can help make the process a little easier by showing some of the most effective things you can do and providing resources to help you follow through.

Below are some actions you can take to stay informed, learn new information, and lower your carbon footprint.

For more information and ideas on what you can do, check out the "Resources" section on the sidebar of this page. Have an idea we didn't cover? Leave a comment below!

Lowering your carbon footprint benefits more than just the environment—it can make your home more comfortable, save you money, and make your family healthier. Did you know that 98% of emissions in Mountain View come from the community (as opposed to municipal operations)? YOU have the power to make a big impact by making your life more sustainable!

There are many things you can do to lower your carbon footprint, from small changes in habits that can have big impacts over time, to bigger actions with large financial savings. We hope we can help make the process a little easier by showing some of the most effective things you can do and providing resources to help you follow through.

Below are some actions you can take to stay informed, learn new information, and lower your carbon footprint.

For more information and ideas on what you can do, check out the "Resources" section on the sidebar of this page. Have an idea we didn't cover? Leave a comment below!

Tell your story

Have you recently adopted a new habit or taken an action that reduces your impact on the planet? Have you been living an eco-friendly or zero waste life long before it was cool? Have you discovered additional benefits to sustainable living? Maybe you’ve made energy upgrades to your home, changed something in your diet, found an alternate mode of transportation you love, or swapped out disposable household products for reusable ones. What motivated you to make the change, and how has it affected your life since then?

Tell us your sustainability story! Our community is our best resource, and when we share our stories, others can learn from them and be inspired to try things in their own lives.

Thank you so much for submitting your story! Your actions have an impact, and you may have just inspired someone to try the same action in their own life.

We’ll be moderating the stories before they’re posted, but expect to see your story up on the site within two business days.

All fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required.

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    Incremental step for a sustainable community

    by Akshat, 4 months ago

    I am a high school junior. I live in Mountain View, California, and I am highly concerned about the ever-growing nemesis of plastic pollution and its impact on the natural environment. Since the summer of 2022, I have been raising awareness about plastic bag pollution. I have been campaigning outside the farmers market (on Sundays) with banners and placards for several weeks and have named my campaign––Sustainable Sundays. I also spoke with customers about plastic bag pollution and the use of reusable bags to carry produce.

    To encourage them to bring their reusable produce bags, I even distributed free cloth... Continue reading

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    Decarbonizing My House and the Magnitude of the Building Decarbonization Challenge.

    by James, over 1 year ago

    Most discussions of building decarbonization start with talking about zoning code changes and other modifications for new buildings, like prohibiting gas hookups. The problem is that 90% of the buildings that will be around in 2050 are here today, and so building decarbonization is primarily a question of retrofits. There are a number of startups that are looking into sophisticated AI solutions for controlling energy use in existing public, commercial and industrial buildings by connecting the building automation systems to cloud based controllers, and these solutions are likely to yield important and substantial changes.

    But the problem of residential building... Continue reading

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    Switching to All-Electric Heating

    over 2 years ago

    From Donna Davies, August 31 2020

    About a year ago, a new friend showed me her home remodel which included a brand new electric heat pump. I was especially impressed by the sleek, clean design and her reassurance that it was very quiet. Although our gas furnace was still in good condition, it sounded like a 737 on takeoff in a storm, without enough pretzels and peanuts on board. My husband and I had solar panels installed several years earlier and were very interested in other fossil fuel free conversions. Besides that, he spent one unusually hot summer working at... Continue reading

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    Divesting Fossil Fuels, Who Me?

    about 3 years ago

    From Donna Davies, February 11 2020

    Until recently, I thought divesting fossil fuel stocks and mutual funds was the enterprise of the Big Boys – well endowed universities, philanthropic foundations, and faith-based organizations. After all, those muscle clubs have been seriously divesting for at least a decade. Me? I dropped out of Girl Scouts before I earned my Insider Trading Badge. But my millennial son shamed me into action. So, I plunged into research and quickly found out it is easier than ever to assess the damage done and discover what funds to buy to remedy this oily situation.

    Just... Continue reading

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    Right Time for 100% Electric Home

    by Hala61, over 3 years ago

    When we remodeled our place in 2017, we learned that upgrading to all electric, meant reducing the home GHG emissions to ZERO. Thanks to SVCE (Silicon Valley Clean Energy), we are able to get 100% clean electric power, which we use to heat the water tank and living space, to cook our food, dry our clothes, and charge our electric vehicle.

    With incentives and rebates from city, county, state and utility provider SVCE, this is the perfect time to upgrade old home systems to clean electric energy.

    Eventually we would like to install solar panels with battery storage system, so... Continue reading

Page last updated: 03 Apr 2023, 06:00 PM