The lat­est report by the envi­ron­men­tal organ­i­sa­tion WWF on the ener­gy tran­si­tion gives Ger­many poor marks. Although more than 80 per­cent of the new­ly installed ener­gy pow­er plants world­wide were renew­able in 2020, the con­ver­sion plans in this coun­try are pro­ceed­ing rather slow­ly. The rea­sons for this are the lack of skilled work­ers and the low avail­abil­i­ty of land in Ger­many. If politi­cians have dif­fi­cul­ties in achiev­ing our cli­mate goals, it becomes all the more impor­tant to take action our­selves. Have you ever asked your­self what you per­son­al­ly can con­tribute to the ener­gy tran­si­tion? Does­n’t make any dif­fer­ence, you say? You thought wrong. You can make a big dif­fer­ence through your own efforts. We have put togeth­er 10 tips on how you can make a con­tri­bu­tion — easy, effi­cient and sus­tain­able.

1. Be mobile — bike instead of car

Many every­day jour­neys can be made on a good old-fash­ioned bicy­cle. If your way to work takes you through the city, you are more flex­i­ble if you leave your car behind. This saves fos­sil fuels, costs less and is also sporty. It is also worth switch­ing to pub­lic trans­port such as bus­es and trains. This also applies to longer jour­neys on hol­i­day. If you look out of the train win­dow instead of the aero­plane, you also get to see much more of the land­scape.

2. Use green elec­tric­i­ty

From which sources do you actu­al­ly get your elec­tric­i­ty? If it’s not green elec­tric­i­ty, think about it. Ask your provider about a green elec­tric­i­ty tar­iff. New providers often help you to can­cel your old con­tract. There are also com­par­i­son por­tals on the inter­net that make it eas­i­er for you to switch. When buy­ing green elec­tric­i­ty, pay atten­tion to where it comes from. If your elec­tric­i­ty has to trav­el a long way to get to your sock­et, this reduces the eco-bal­ance. In addi­tion, if you choose near­by elec­tric­i­ty pro­duc­ers, you will also cre­ate jobs in your region!

3. Save ener­gy @home

Those red flash­ing lights on the TV or the cof­fee machine eat up elec­tric­i­ty. You should unplug all appli­ances that are switched off in stand­by mode. A pow­er strip with a tog­gle switch will do the trick. LED instead of halo­gen for your lamps. Put lasagne in the oven with­out pre­heat­ing, only fill the ket­tle as much as nec­es­sary, use the ​“Eco” pro­gramme in the dish­wash­er, and so on and so forth. There are count­less ways to save elec­tric­i­ty, espe­cial­ly with­in your own four walls.

4. Heat up prop­er­ly

71% of your total ener­gy con­sump­tion at home is used for space heat­ing.
That’s why it’s worth pay­ing spe­cial atten­tion to how you heat your home. Low­er­ing the tem­per­a­ture by a few degrees can make a big dif­fer­ence at high­er tem­per­a­tures. Is there a room or rooms in your home where you rarely spend time? Then turn down the heat there. Also look at the time of day. You are less like­ly to get cold feet under the cov­ers at night. Keep doors and shut­ters closed to keep the heat in. And last but not least, ven­ti­late your home in the tra­di­tion­al way, instead of con­stant­ly air­ing it out.

5. Talk to your land­lord or go self-made

If you have a good rela­tion­ship with your land­lord, you could sug­gest an eco­log­i­cal ten­ant elec­tric­i­ty mod­el. Infor­ma­tion on this can be found on the inter­net. And if you like each oth­er very much, think about a pho­to­volta­ic sys­tem togeth­er. If you own your own home, why not gen­er­ate your own elec­tric­i­ty? Install a solar sys­tem on the roof and a heat pump.

6. Help politi­cians along

Take a look at the fly­er that is hand­ed out to you in front of the super­mar­ket every four years. Which par­ty pro­gramme actu­al­ly thinks eco­log­i­cal­ly? Who plans to invest in the ener­gy tran­si­tion? Your vote at the bal­lot box counts. Projects are also ini­ti­at­ed at region­al and munic­i­pal lev­el. Maybe write a let­ter to the may­or.

7. Check your con­sump­tion behav­iour

How long did the avo­ca­dos fly all-inclu­sive before they end­ed up on the super­mar­ket shelf and final­ly in your gua­camole? It makes a big dif­fer­ence if you include local­ly grown and organ­ic prod­ucts in your diet. Eat­ing less meat is already tra­di­tion­al­ly good for the envi­ron­ment. A veg­gie burg­er would go nice­ly with your sec­ond-hand smart­phone.
What we eat, what we buy, what we throw away — our entire con­sump­tion behav­iour has an impact on how many resources are avail­able to us in the future.

8. Sup­port NGOs

Every­one knows Fri­days for Future. But there are also a lot of oth­er organ­i­sa­tions that sup­port the pro­tec­tion of our cli­mate and thus the ener­gy tran­si­tion. Sci­en­tist for Future, for exam­ple, Par­ents for Future, Grand­mas for Future… Guinea Pigs for Future? There are many ways to find and sup­port an NGO. Whether you take to the streets or have a pen­ny to spare to donate, both help!

9. Make a big fuss

You have already looked at some of our tips and start­ed to put them into prac­tice. You can be proud of that. Show off a lit­tle when you help the envi­ron­ment. Tell fam­i­ly and friends about your efforts. Link to this blog so every­one can see it. The more peo­ple who look to you as an exam­ple, the faster the ener­gy tran­si­tion will hap­pen.

10. Invest mon­ey in sus­tain­abil­i­ty

You’ve prob­a­bly already read about the ben­e­fits in our oth­er blog posts. Invest­ing your mon­ey in eco­log­i­cal­ly sus­tain­able projects pro­motes ener­gy pol­i­cy in Ger­many and world­wide while improv­ing your finan­cial future. As always, a good place to do this is Wat­ti­fy. Here you can find the impact projects you like, equipped with a unique cli­mate-neu­tral blockchain. Wat­ti­fy shows you trans­par­ent­ly what impact your invest­ments have, you keep track and con­trol. Start now and get your return — for you and the ener­gy tran­si­tion. But remem­ber: Invest­ments are also always asso­ci­at­ed with risks.