Living Solutions: Carol’s Decarbonization Journey as a Renter

Across North America, more than a third of households are renters. Here in Austin, TX where I live, more than 56% of households are renters, a percentage which has been growing in recent years. Building operations are responsible for about half of Austin’s overall greenhouse gas emissions. Austin’s Climate Equity Plan has a goal to reduce emissions from existing buildings by 25%, and natural gas-related emissions by 30%.

As a climate action consultant and advocate, I take these challenges personally! Unfortunately, as a renter, it can feel difficult to find ways to contribute to reducing emissions in the building I live in. What follows is hopefully inspirational to others who don’t own their home but still want to be part of the solution.

Portable Solar Array and Battery

Speaking of portability, my partner and I invested in a portable solar array and battery after unexpectedly lost power for 5 days in frigid temperatures during the great Texas freeze of 2021. We wanted to find an affordable backup power solution that would provide us with increased resilience for similar extreme weather events.

Many of my colleagues at SSG who own their homes have installed solar panels on their rooftops, and are slowly recouping the cost over years of reduced utility costs. Although I’m not able to make a similar installation on my rental home, my solar array provides enough energy to charge my laptop, cellphone, e-bike, and other electronic devices. I recently used it to keep our wifi router going during an hours-long power outage! (The fiber internet cable was not affected by the outage.) By using renewable energy to power the machines necessary for me to do my work, I’m able to reduce my demand on the grid, resulting in a reduction of 155kg of CO2 annually.

Replacing Windows in a 1940s Era House

I love being in a character home on Austin’s East Side, but the downside is having to deal with “character” features like drafty windows. After living through the Great Texas Freeze of 2021, when temperatures in my home went down to 3ºC (38ºF) for multiple days I became acutely aware of the importance of home insulation for keeping safe in extreme weather.

Windows represent 45% of the heat transfer of a building and can influence over 40% of a building’s energy use, especially in places like Austin where the temperature fluctuates dramatically. Luckily, my landlord appreciates the value of energy efficiency. When he started working on renovating another house for his own family, he offered to replace the windows in my home.

Though we experienced a couple disruptive weeks while the windows were being replaced, the result is a house that stays warmer in the winter and much cooler in the summer. We can even open the windows now to let in fresh air—a major upgrade. By reducing the amount of energy required for heating and cooling, I’m also saving on utility costs.

Moving House by E-Cargo Bike

When I decided to move to my current home, I thought it would be a fun project to try to do the whole thing on my handy dandy e-cargo bike. (Convincing my partner that it was “fun” was perhaps the bigger challenge.) With the help of a friend who had an extra-long bike trailer from Bikes at Work, my partner and I loaded up our reusable moving boxes and made approximately 15 round-trip journeys between our old home and our new one over the course of a month. The move was made easier by the fact that we moved within the neighborhood, making each trip relatively flat and short (less than half a mile).

Emissions from transportation in Austin were approximately 6 million metric tons of CO2 in 2019. By doing my move by bike, I prevent 4 kg of CO2 emissions for the move itself, and even more if you account for the journey I would have to take to pick up and return a rental vehicle (since I do not own one). Moving by bike also allowed me to be creative, have fun, and get some exercise in the process.

When renting property, it is hard to make investments into our living spaces because we can’t be sure how long we’ll be living in that location. However, with these types of portable solutions, I feel at ease knowing that I can take these improvements with me to my next home.