Footprint Post Quarter Results

At the beginning of the quarter, we were asked to take surveys to see our ecological footprint and make goals for ourselves to improve on throughout the quarter. These surveys were broken down into 4 categories: ecological footprint, carbon footprint, water footprint, and slavery footprint. The surveys actually gave good insights into how much I contribute to the world's degradation. My past goals and results are as followed.

Past Goals 

1) I feel driving is one of the largest contributors to my ecological and carbon footprint. I already know that I can reduce this a significant amount. I just enjoy driving, it's almost one of my hobbies. It's relaxing for me and lets me think clearly for a short period of time, so I tend to drive anywhere I can. My goal is to reduce driving outside of driving to work and school each day, those are pretty mandatory and I don't see that changing but pleasure driving can defiantly be reduced.

2) The second biggest factor is that my diet directly relates to increases in both carbon and water consumption categories. I tend to eat more meat and seafood and processed grains that can be cut out of my diet. My goal is to reduce the amount of meat I eat during the week and focus on eating produce and whole-grain foods.

3) The third goal is to be more conscious about companies and where they source their products from. I understand a lot of companies source their product from foreign companies with bad labor laws to maximize profits. I would like to refrain from buying from companies like that to not only limit my carbon footprint overall but limit the human labor that my lifestyle requires daily.

Ecological Footprint Results

The ecological footprint is the impact someone has on the community or environment. In this case, we are expressing our ecological footprint as the amount of land required for me to sustain my lifestyle based on my use of the earth's natural resources. At the beginning of the quarter, the survey concluded that if everyone lived like me it would take 4.5 piles of earth to sustain my current lifestyle.

Over the course of the quarter through more sustainable practices I have managed to get that score down to 3.7 Earths. This isn't great but it's still an improvement. The biggest thing that has contributed to this was working to achieve goal number one which was to reduce the amount I drive each day. This not only helped improve my ecological footprint but also lowered my carbon footprint.

Carbon Footprint Results

The second calculator that was used was my carbon footprint. I knew that the car that I drive and how much I drive directly influences this score. What I didn't know going into this quarter was also how much of what we eat plays into this score. My previous score was 21 tons CO2/year which was better than average.

After working to achieve goal number one this helped reduce the tons of CO2 produced per year to 19 tons which is 46% better than average. Along with reducing the amount I drive, the food I eat also played a large role in how much carbon I produced. My goal #2 was to change my eating habits and slightly cut down on red meat which defiantly helped lower my carbon and water footprint. I do think there is still room for improvement as my house was built pre-1950, and the insulation is actually terrible and doesn't hold in the heat in the winter months, which causes my electricity usage to go up. With 90% of our power in the pacific northwest coming from hydro dams. By using electricity over other power sources I am choosing the greenest option in the area.

Water Footprint Results

The water footprint calculator measures all the water needed to maintain my lifestyle based on what I buy, how much water I use at my home and how much water is required to grow the food I eat every day. This one was interesting because, again, it calculated different things that I didn't know utilized so much water. The survey concluded that at the beginning of the quarter I was using 1,431 gallons of water every day. 

After the survey to my surprise, my water consumption went up to 1540 gallons of water a day. Even though I did slightly change my diet, water consumption went up because of the small garden I have and the amount of water I and my friends spend washing cars on sunny days. It didn't go up a huge amount but using more water every day is defiantly a concern and could be improved upon.

Slavery Footprint Results

This calculator is different from the rest and instead of calculating carbon, water, or ecological footprint, it calculates how many humans were 'enslaved' to create the things I use on a daily basis.  

Before the quarter started the calculator showed that I have "36" slaves working for me, which kind of surprised me because I live a relatively simple life. But I also realize that my heavy reliance on technology probably plays a large role in my calculation. I assume that the amount of labor that it takes to harvest the materials, assemble them and produce a working product for me to use is great. 

After the quarter I retook the test and it did show some improvements. My results went from 36 to 33. I tried to be more conscious about the things I was buying. To be honest I think the biggest reason for this decrease was that I just want to purchase really much of anything in general. Like I said before I live a minimalist life and didn't need anything new this past 3 months. The only things I bought besides food and gas were a few different books, a couple parts for my car, a hat, and a few shirts. I defiantly think that this number will tend to rise in the summer when I am going places and spending more. 

Conclusion

There are many different things that I can change in my day-to-day life to lower all levels of ecological, carbon, and water footprints as well as the 'slaves' working for me. After breaking down each of my goals throughout the quarter I think I was relatively successful in reaching my goals. I think there were some areas that I could have done better like my water consumption and carbon footprint, but in some cases, things like driving and water consumption cannot be avoided without losing a lot of time and being very uncomfortable. I reduced my driving as much as possible and changed my diet to eat less meat and more local whole foods. I did feel good reducing my carbon footprint and water consumption, but I also like to eat meat. Throughout the last couple of months, I did see less energy and creativity. I think moving past this I will be eating more meat again just to see if this energy and creativity is restored. My third goal was to be more conscious about companies and where they source their products from. I do feel that with the couple of purchases I did make this month I was much more conscious about where the products were coming from and who I was or wasn't supporting by making the purchasing decision.

Overall, I think this quarter was a success and it was fun creating goals for sustainability and following through with them as much as I could. although I made progress I still think there is always room for improvement moving forward and will be creating personal goals to minimize my ecological footprint.