If you hold a family meeting, you could consider each idea in the chart below, and mark the year when you think you could make it happen. To download a PDF copy of the chart, click here (and see below for another great check-list, from Squamish)
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
| Your Travel | |||||
| More cycling or walking | |||||
| Buy an electric vehicle | |||||
| Share a ride. Car pool to meetings and events | |||||
| Use more transit | |||||
| Green travel bag – reusable travel mug, cutlery, take out containers | |||||
| Reduce flights: buy carbon offsets if flying | |||||
| Your Home | |||||
| Switch to LED lightbulbs | |||||
| Upgrade to more efficient appliances | |||||
| Improve your home insulation https://betterhomesbc.ca | |||||
| Hire a City Green Home Energy Auditor www.citygreen.ca | |||||
| Replace an oil or gas heater or dependence on base-board heaters with a heat-pump https://betterhomesbc.ca | |||||
| Upgrade your windows https://betterhomesbc.ca | |||||
| Your Finances | |||||
| Switch to a climate-friendly bank or credit union. Avoid RBC, TD, Scotia, BMO, CIBC, Montreal. https://www.ran.org/bankingonclimatechaos2021/ | |||||
| Switch to climate-friendly investments. www.riacanada.ca/ri-marketplace/service-providers/consultants/ | |||||
| Your Business | |||||
| Become Vancouver Green Business Certified www.vigbc.ca | |||||
| Become a Certified B Corporation www.bcorporation.net | |||||
| Your Land | |||||
| Place a Conservation Covenant on your forest or farm | |||||
| Use the ecoforestry approach to timber management | |||||
| Safeguard your home against forest fires | |||||
| Your Garden | |||||
| Grow your own food organically | |||||
| Save your own food by drying, canning and freezing | |||||
| Harvest rainwater in tanks, swales and ponds | |||||
| Save water by cover crops, mulching, drip irrigation | |||||
| Create habitat for birds, bats, bees, native plants and wildlife | |||||
| Save your own seeds | |||||
| Switch to an electric mower, weed-eater, chainsaw | |||||
| Your Shopping | |||||
| Use re-useable shopping bags, re-fillable containers | |||||
| Buy organic products | |||||
| Eliminate or reduce meat/fish to once a week | |||||
| Eliminate non-sustainable/conflict palm oil products | |||||
| Buy tree-free or 100% recycled paper, tissues, toilet-paper | |||||
| Buy safe personal care products – toothpaste, lotions, cosmetics | |||||
| Buy Fair Trade chocolate and other products | |||||
| Buy safe green household cleaning products | |||||
| Buy nature-friendly clothing | |||||
| Learn how to knit, sew and repair clothing | |||||
| Buy clothes from a charity store or second-hand shop | |||||
| Upcycle or creatively re-use clothing and other items | |||||
| Your Wastes | |||||
| Practice zero-waste shopping | |||||
| Compost your food and garden wastes | |||||
| Try to achieve zero waste to the landfill | |||||
| Donate unwanted items to charity stores or Habitat for Humanity | |||||
| Your End | |||||
| Leave a legacy for climate and nature in your will | |||||
| Plan a green burial |
The District of Squamish has also developed this great checklist, which you can print: https://squamish.ca/assets/CCAP/site/Checklist-book.pdf
