Reduce my ecological footprint

happens to be the environment (: I’m studying criminal justice right now in uni and then I’m heading off to law school in hopes of becoming an environmental lawyer so this goal is EXTREMELY important to me.

I’m not doing too bad on this, but I know there are things I can improve on.

Things I’m already doing:
- Recycling: Bottles, Cans, Plastic (even plastic bags), and Paper
- Take short showers (mine are down to 5 minutes! :))
- Not using plastic bags (I use cloth bags for grocery shopping)
- Using environmentally friendly cleaning products (I use the brand Green Works for all my cleaning)
- I always use cold water when I do laundry (uses less energy)
- Trying to reduce my meat intake

Things I can start doing:
- Reducing the amount of waste I have
- Use more environmental friendly products (makeup, hair stuff, etc)
- Buy environmentally friendly laundry detergent
- Get more environmentally friendly things for my pets
- Get better with switching off the lights (even at night)
- Start composting
- Go back to vegetarianism

I shall first focus on actions I can take linked to food. I’m a vegetarian, so this has already reduced my footprint significantly, but there is still more I can do. I feel however that some things may have to wait until I live in my own place. I don’t buy the food in my house, but I will take these factors into account when buying out…

I aim to achieve each of these actions across the next month, and then I will focus on another area.

1. Drink tap water rather than bottled water. – Bottled water industry emits thousands of tonnes of CO2 every year. Drinking tap water is greener because no materials are used in its individual packaging, and it is generally sourced locally. A friend recently bought me a drinking bottle which I am to make sure I always renember to take out with me.
2. Reduce food miles and avoid food air flown into UK. – Per mile, air freighting releases 10 times more CO2 than goods transported by road and 50 times more than sea freighted goods. I will read labels to find the country of origin of food. Must think about about the distance food has travelled before I buy it.
3. Buy more seasonal food. – Although we could meet over 70% of our eating needs from food grown in the UK, we import more than half of the food we consume! Buying seasonal food will mean I reduce food miles and use less packaging to preserve fresh produce. I must find out what foods are this season.
4. Avoid heavily-processed food and go for healthier alternatives – Eating fresh unprocessed food helps maintain a healthy diet. Manufacturing processed foods uses large amounts of energy, water and materials in production, chilling, packaging and transport and produces large amounts of waste. I should try to buy more veg rather than packaged pasta when in go into supermarkets!
5. Wate less food – Over half the food thrown straight into our rubbish bins is edible. This means finishing my meal or saving it for the next meal.
6. Buy fairly traded food and drink. Products certified by Fairtrade encourage investment in people, promoting social justice, local economic development and fair prices.
7. Visit Occombe Farm. Here they sell locally produced and organic foods and drinks. We can have a green lunch in the cafe and then a nose around the shop.
8. Reduce the amount of fast foods that I consume. Fast food restaurants rely on high temperatures to cook meat quickly, and they generate large amounts of smoke and odorous volatile organic compounds. They’ve been described as “worse for air than all the trucks on the road.” Immense shipping programs emit harmful gases, and there is millions of tons of waste generated annually.
9. For times I do give in to fast food, at least be green while I’m at it. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/03/fast-food-trash.php No straw/drink, no napkins, no tray liner, and park up and walk rather than drive through and leave car idling.
10. Stop using napkins and paper towels. Even just one roll per weekof paper towels is hundreds of sheets that used to be a tree. I must use the tea towel instead.
11. Pack a lunch to take out with me. This is cheaper and saves on all the packaging from food I buy out.
12. Cook my smaller snack foods in the microwave. Something cooked in the microwave on high for fifteen minutes burns a little over a third of a kilowatt hour whereas to cook in an electric oven at a 325-degree temperature for forty-five minutes uses nearly 1.4 kwh.

It’s been 12 months since I aimed to reduce my ecological footprint, so I thought I’d check to see how I’ve done.

Last year WWF said my carbon footprint was 10.59 tonnes!! And I’m really really disappointed in myself as I have to say it hasn’t changed much. It’s now 9.25 tonnes.

For food my footprint stayed at 22%.
Travel reduced by 2 to 18%.
Home apparently increased by 10!! to 28%.
And stuff reduced by 8 to 32%.

Admitedly, I guessed most of the stuff for home, and didn’t say that we have insulated walls etc which we actually might. But still. I’m now going to come up with a list of actions I can take to actually reduce it. I’m living as if we had 2.39 planets!! So I need to get this down to 1 and FAST!

I like what Sassy2007 did, so I may use her list to try and reduce my footprint.

It has been over three years since I put up this goal. A lot has changed since then….One thing has not- my attempts at being greener.

Plastic bag usage is perhaps one bag in a couple of months. All the bulbs in the house are CFL’s.

I need to read up a bit on composting and get together a home composting bin.

I’m not sure how long I will last, but it feels like the right thing to do for now. Aside from being the healthierst option, it’s also the best for the environment.

Starting off as a vegan, eating no animal bi-products, but just for now. Later i’ll start eating dairy again, and gradually maybe seafood. Who knows how long i’ll last.

Since I grew up on tank water I knew how important water was from a young age, but there’s always more I could be doing to save water…

• Fill the toilet tank with a pet bottle filled with rocks
• Take shorter showers
• Rarely take baths

I don’t use much paper, but I could use less. These are some ways i’ve found I can reduce my paper consumption, so i’ll give this a go first…

• Use less toilet paper
• Re-use work fax sheets for personal notes and lesson plans
• Re-use envelopes
• Sign up for electronic bank statements
• Use an electronic diary
• Record memos on your cell phone
• Read Metropolis online, instead of taking the magazine

If everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle we would need: 2.56 earths. Total footprint 40.21... which for Japan was lower an all scales except carbons, because I fly so often. I should buy carbon offsets but it’s hard enough finding the cash for the flights, let alone the offsets.

It’s hard to reduce packaging in Japan since everything is wrapped a million times, but i’ll find ways to reduce it.

I need to find out about recycling in our area. This will be the easiest part of reducing my footprint, and will also have the biggest impact I think.

Your footprint is 16.64 tonnes per year
The average footprint for people in United States is 20.40 tonnes
The average for the industrial nations is about 11 tonnes
The average worldwide carbon footprint is about 4 tonnes
The worldwide target to combat climate change is 2 tonnes