Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Ecological Footprint

I could not believe my results for the Ecological Footprint quiz. If everyone lived like me, we would need 3.8 Earths. It takes 17 global acres of the Earth's productive area to live my lifestyle. The majority comes from services, 52%. Next comes Food, 21%, then Goods, 17%. Shelter is 6% and Mobility is 5%.
Three ways that I'm going to reduce this number is by:

1. Buy products with less packaging. A lot of the items I buy have too much packaging. Of what I buy, I end up throwing half or it away because it's packaging. I want to go to farmer's markets to buy more fresh produce from the local area.

2. Use less electricity. I don't always remember to turn off the lights or unplug my cell phone charger when I'm not using them. Remembering to do this, I hope it can cut down some of my electricity use.

3. Use less water. I'm take shorter showers to save water. I'm also going to use less water when washing the dishes and making sure the dishwasher is completely full when it gets run.

After taking this quiz, it's made me realize that I'm not as environmentally friendly as I thought I was. I'm going to try my hardest to reduce my ecological footprint this quarter.

2 comments:

  1. These are reasonable goals, Kristina, but it would help to make them more specific: how many days a week will you eat local produce? By How much will you reduce your showering time?

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  2. Okay to make it more specific, I'll reduce my showering to 5-10 minutes instead of 15-20. I'll also eat local produce 3 days out of the week.

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Do you use reusable bags when you go grocery shopping?