5 easy ways you can fight climate change - Telstra

Climate and sustainability

Many of us are concerned about climate change. If you’d like to do more, here are 5 easy tips to consider.

5 easy ways to help lower your household’s emissions

Consider eating 1 less meat dish a week and more vegetables.

Did you know that 36.44kg of CO2 emissions are produced to serve up 1,000 calories of beef and 5.15kg of CO2 emissions give us 1,000 calories of pork?

But only 0.63kg of CO2 emissions are released for every 1,000 calories of potatoes and 0.07kg are created for 1,000 calories of nuts?

Find out more about food and the emissions they produce

Lower your energy bills

A home’s heating and cooling makes up around 40% of its energy use.

To help lower your energy bills and your carbon emissions, seal your windows and doors to keep the heat inside in the cooler months and the heat outside in the warmer months. Door and window weather strips are available at DIY stores.

Find out more ways to save on energy and reduce your carbon footprint

Appliances can contribute up to 30% of the home’s carbon footprint. Think about using high energy efficient appliances – all appliances come with an energy star rating, the more stars, the more energy efficient they are.

Consider changing the lighting in your home to energy-efficient lighting, like LEDs, which consume around 80% less energy than older globes and can last between 4 and 10 times longer.

Find out how much energy appliances use, and how much they cost to run

Walk or cycle more

On short trips - think about leaving your car behind.

Cars are least efficient and most polluting at the start of trips and on short trips of less than 5km, because the engine can’t reach its peak operating temperature.

If you walk or cycle instead you will save 0.25kg of CO2 emissions per km*, not to mention how much healthier you will be! And when you do drive, make sure your tyres are inflated properly. U.S. studies show that under-inflated tyres can lose you around 2 to 3 miles per gallon (which equates to about 51-75 km per 60L petrol tank).

Find out more on transport fuel efficiency

Minimise your waste

Try to buy only what you need and what you will use. In Australia, we waste more than 30% of the food we buy. We throw out around 3.1m tonnes of food each year; of this 2.54m tonnes is from our homes.

When rotting food ends up in our landfill, it turns to methane contributing to our greenhouse gas emissions.

Remember the 4Rs – refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle

Refuse excess packaging and paper – choose products with minimal packaging where possible.
Reduce the amount of single-use and disposable products you buy, and choose products that can be used again. We’ve shown we can adapt quickly – a lot of us now use re-usable bags for shopping. Buying products in bulk can also save money, packaging and multiple trips to the shops!
Reuse – in your bathroom and toilet, reuse existing containers and buy refills, toothbrushes and shavers with replaceable heads. Wash takeaway containers and use again. Give your unwanted clothes and other household items to family, friends or Op Shops.
Recycle – when you can’t avoid throwing things out, dispose of it in a responsible and sustainable way. Use the council supplied recycle bins and services, and follow their instructions. You can recycle your e-waste responsibly, including mobile phones, tablets and modems through MobileMuster.

How to recycle your devices

How to calculate your carbon footprint

The Global Footprint Network's Ecological Footprint calculator – calculates how many tonnes of CO₂ you put in the air, and tells you how many Earths we would need if everyone had your lifestyle.
A carbon footprint calculator from Carbon Footprint Ltd – gives you a CO₂ count and a graphic of what your carbon footprint is versus what it should be, much like your household water usage on your water bill. Carbon Counter shows you much CO₂ you could save and ways to reduce your footprint.

What’s Telstra doing?

Telstra has a carbon footprint because we use energy that relies on burning fossil fuels to provide mobile and internet services for millions of Australians across the nation.

To reduce our carbon footprint and minimise our impact on the environment, we announced three climate change goals in 2020:

Reduce our absolute emissions by at least 50% by 2030.
Enable renewable energy generation equivalent to 100% of our consumption by 2025.
Offset the emissions from our operations.

Telstra’s action on climate change.