The Most Environmentally Friendly Phone Is The One In Your Pocket, The Best Car Is The One In Your Garage

If you care about the state of the world which we will pass on to our children and their children, you're probably looking at the things you buy and use in order to work out how you can live a life which reduces your carbon emissions. 

You'll have no doubt seen many products claim their environmental credentials: greener materials, processes or heavy emphasis on recycling. 

The problem is that none of that makes a blind bit of difference. Any product which is manufactured results in carbon emissions which could be avoided by not making the product. 

Buying things never improves your carbon footprint. Greener products may help to lower the impact of things you buy, but can never eliminate emissions entirely.

The greenest electric car will rarely break even in terms of carbon emissions when compared to the car in your driveway right now. The manufacturing of a car - and an EV's battery pack in particular - are so emissions heavy that they can never be recovered unless you drive for more miles than you should. Keeping the car you have today and making far fewer journeys is a much kinder environmental choice than even the greenest of new cars. Better still, get rid of your car completely, along with all the costs which are associated with it, and commit to a car-free future. 

That smartphone in your hand? Its manufacturing has a carbon footprint too. Not as large as a car, but given the number of smartphones sold every year, the cumulative impact is far larger. By extending the time between replacements you can make a tremendous difference to global warming. For iPhone owners, five years is an entirely reasonable amount of time between replacements. 

Other areas to consider are clothing and fashion. Cheap clothing, discarded after barely any use has a massive climate change impact - the manufacturing, shipping, retailing and disposal are enormous factors in creating pollution and carbon emissions. 

There are other major factors which impact global warming reduction targets (the whole construction industry for example) but as an individual there is little you can do to impact those. However, changing the way you buy and use cars, phones and clothing - by buying less and keeping for longer - can be world changing. And you have complete control over that.