I'm pretty darn proud of my house

whoa how did you get the smiley face?

oh, okay I see

That's a low Kgs!

nice!

Wow, I am very impressed, one of my categories is 6,000 kgs of Co2.

But not the total.

When my professor asked us to calculate our carbon footprint, I was pretty shocked. I could not believe how big my family's carbon footprint is. So, when we were asked to do this assignment the idea of how my family could reduce their carbon footprint really interested me. I found this article that shows a bunch of different cool ways to reduce our footprint. Such as using less paper, growing our own vegetables and even watching what our thermostat is set at!
https://amerisleep.com/blog/reduce-fami … footprint/

That’s very interesting and I agree that it is startling at first seeing the numbers on paper. I think every one in school should have to do a project that includes calculating your carbon footprint it really puts things in perspective and helps you personally relate to the global issue of climate change. For me it really motivated me to find solutions to lower my carbon footprint. There are lots of ways to lower it, some are expensive and some are equally as effective and cost nothing. I would suggest  to start out find what actions in each category (food, transportation, home energy etc, purchases) have the biggest impact and do what you can to change those. This will help you chose your battles and make the biggest dent in your carbon footprint with the least amount of change. For me one was not knowing I could bring reusable containers to get takeout in. Another one was how and how often I wash my clothes. What ever you chose to do even a small change is a step in the right direction for the whole world.

My family produces 116454 kgs of CO2 a year, which is pretty bad. I would like to change that by turning off the lights more often, and to using less lights in our house.

I would like to reduce this number, but I don't know if turning off lights will work. Does anyone have any other ideas?

My biggest thing on my carbon footprint was transportation. You could try biking and/or walking to more places. If this is kind of hard to do, you could try carpooling more or taking more public transportation. Also, I don't know very much about this, but I think turning off the lights when not in use does something. So make sure to still turn off lights and electronics when not in use.

I feel as though we should turn off lights more often in my household. My brother leaves his light on almost all day! I try my best to remember to turn off the lights, but sometimes I don't remember to, so I think I can change that:)

Well, I already bike to school, but yeah, I think I'll start turning off the lights in my house WAAAYY too much. ...

Well how often do you use a heater? If so in the winter you could layer and put on blankets it works has well a heater hope this helps!

Hey! That's a good idea, thanks!

These are all great ways to lower your carbon footprint.I found that food was a big contributor for mine as well as transportation. For food i think it would be great to make sure you use all the food in your home and if some seems to be rotten, there are some great recipes on the internet for food scrap meals and use them as leftovers. Another great way is to buy locally whenever you have the option, although it is hard to find local shops if you live remotely.It is important to conserve water. Reducing shower times and using more cold water will save you money and not effect your carbon footprint as much.

Yeah! I'll try that!

I would make my home energy efficient by using LED lights, using electric internal heating and cooling, and electric appliances. I would get my energy from hydro electric dams because in BC energy is created with water. I would choose to live near public transit so I can commute to places I would need to go to like school or work in the future. I would get my food from grocery stores that have lower carbon footprints like Whole Foods or Costco.

So I have a large(r) family, there are 6 of us. We try to grow most of our veggies and carpool whenever we can, and I try to walk whenever I can, but I was wondering if there's anything else we can do to try to lower our carbon footprint?

I suggest saving energy at home because most of our electricity and heat is powered by coal, gas, and oil which uses a lot of energy. To reduce your carbon footprint, you should consider lowering your heating and cooling, switching to LED light bulbs, and washing your clothes with cold water instead of hot. Another suggestion is to hang your clothes to dry them instead of the dryer. Food wise, eating less meat and dairy can lower your carbon footprint. It's good that you're growing most of your veggies because producing/growing plant-based foods can result in fewer greenhouse gas emissions and uses less energy. I also highly suggest you throw less food away because it wastes all the energy and resources that was used to grow, package, and transport it. Foods in landfills also produce methane, so consider composting leftover food and using everything you buy.

By carrying out this project i was able to calculate my carbon footprint within the society. I am quite satisfied with the results obtained despite my awareness of being able to improve my impact on the planet. In some areas I'm trying to do my best, while in others I know I can do better: particularly in choosing my food. But how can I do it? I could start by enhancing the products of my territory or organic ones, but what else could I do to reduce the portions of red or white meat?
Advice would be welcome!

Good afternoon! Thank you so much for your post and working on this carbon footprint project! One part of my carbon footprint project that I was surprised the most by is that my food footprint was on the lower scale compared to the rest of my categories. Pertaining to your question, about how to reduce red or white meat, depending on where you live you could try to consume more fish or vegetable options. Luckily, I live near seafood shops and places where high quality seafood is so I tend to eat lots of salmon or shrimp. I would suggest you to try that as one option in order to eat less meat like steak or chicken. Another way to decrease meat consumption could be finding high calorie vegetable meanings. For example, sometimes I will eat "cauliflower steaks" or other high calorie meals that can be just as delicious as meat. Some people even eat "Beefsteak Mushrooms" and put sauce on it because it has a similar steak texture and will use that to eat instead of regular steak. I will attach a picture and a link to show you what I am talking about. Thank you so much and have a great rest of your day!

hello

I know I can definitely change my carbon foot print because my transportation level is 8359 kgs. the way I can reduce this is by using public transportation,biking,and carpooling.

         !IF ANYONE ELSE HAS IDEAS TO HELP PLEASE PUT THEM IN THE COMMENTS!

If you have friends that bike then go with them. If you have friends that have a medium car or you do use that to carpool in.

Those ideas are very good ones you can try using those ideas as many times as you can and very often.:D

I think air travel is a real problem and we should do our best to find other ways to travel.

Yes, I also agree with that. But you can also see if you can walk more and bike because it's good exercise and you can get places.

But still even w/o air travel your travel on ground could be very high.

Well, an airplane uses way much more gas than your car does, so it's better to use your car.    At least 100g vs. At least 10g   (g=gallons)

If you live next to any of your friends offer to carpool or ask to ride a bike with them this will motivate them by not using a extra car while having fun at the same time.

I've just completed the questionnaire and i discovered my carbon footprint is 5152 kgs.
More specifically, i got: 2869 kgs in "Home", 1462 kgs in "Food", 261 kgs in "Purchases" and 560 kgs in "Transports".
i think that's a good score, considering that avarage, in my region, is about 8000 kgs.

However, I'd like to reduce it in some way.
Respect for nature is something that my parents have taught me since I was younger, and now I'm used to pay attention to everything related to the environment.

Most kgs of my footprint comes form the "Home" section, i wanted to ask you some tips, advise and green alternatives to reduce my carbon footprint.

To lower your carbon footprint in the home section, I think you could install solar panels to lower the carbon from heating your home.

To lower your carbon footprint you can turn off lights when you are not using them and you can also use blankets instead of using a heating system.

Here is my answer to this question:
To lower your carbon footprint in the "Home Section", you can use less heat in your home (use blankets instead of a heater), use fans instead of air-conditioning, use less incandescent light-bulbs and more LEDs and florescent bulbs, turn off the light when you don't need it, turn off the water until you need it, take shorter showers, use cold instead of warm/hot water to wash your clothes, compost leaves or yard waste, and put less things in the trash; recycle and compost more.:D:D:D:D:D

you can use LED lights, and an electric heater/AC like a heat pump

You could use air conditioning as sparingly as possible.( if you have it).

To reduce the carbon in "foods" you can make sure to buy foods that you absolutely need, and eat food before the expiration date so you don't waste it.

You could also use reusable bags for groceries

Reduce car use??

Maybe you could bike or walk more to nearby places and if its cold maybe layer and use blankets instead of using a heater? I hope this helps!

I m at 9457 in my carbon footprint is that good

9457 is about average.

9457 kgs is the average and I think if you want to decrease it, you may turn off the light when you not use, eat well, if you house near the school and you should walk(use car when your home is far away).

The average amount of CO2 a person produces a year from GAS is 4.6 metric tons. Can YOU do less?

yes with me I think that I should turn off the light,walk, waste less and eat healthy.

my transportation is very high it is double all of my other subjects like home energy,food,and purchases.

same. Mine was going to be average but then I put down the amount of round-trips I take per year and doubled my carbon footprint.

OK I may have lied with that title because I wont be talking about what the numbers for my carbon footprint are. just.. other stuff. OK so thank you for reading this things lets get started.
My parents LOVEEE keeping our lights on. I will walk into an empty room with literally no one in it and the lights will ALWAYS be on, unless I was there recently, because I always turn off the lights. also I'm not sure if this is on topic or whatever, but my parents didn't have a compost bin for practically a YEAR. It honestly took a lot of convincing, and they still don't use it! My dad also throws everything in the trash. He never gives anything away. OK, now I'm REALLY off topic. than you if you've made it this far. my point is, I wish I could reduce my carbon footprint and have my parents care more about the environment, because I really do and I hate polluting the lovely earth.

oop I had a bit of a typo there-

Maybe I could power my entire my house using electricty, and then use led light bulbs so that it doesn't harm the environment.

You could use Solar Panels and use Electric or fuel efficient cars

you can also reuse the trash in your house

take shorter showers

go GREEN!!!!

you can try biking,walking, and taking public transportations

smiley face lol

you could bike, walk, or take the bus to school if you live to far.

Thamk you

you could use your car less and eat more healthy like greens and eat more proteen you could make sure you sort right and you can take other forms of travle like bike's skate boards or anything you like to ride you can do carpool or ride public transe port to.

not go on as many plane trips

My family's footprint is pretty good for the food and the home, but the transportation is alarming. It literally doubled the home and food combined!

Maybe you can ask if you can carpool with people and try biking or another way of transportation like walking? I know my food is not that great because I am not vegetarian but something I do know is how you can try helping your transportation.(:

Another idea is to start using public transportation to get to places.

you can also try biking instead of public transport like cars and busses

mine isn't good either but that's because me and my family took a trip to Europe and the flight was like 16 hours.

You can walk or bike to places instead of using a car.

I think one way to fix it is to use other kinds of transportation like public or bike and stuff like that.but you could also plan less vacations or go out less. you could cut on the amount of times you use the car and maybe use a bike or a skate board if its a short distance.

maybe you can start riding a bike and being less in cars

Riding bikes to school or work will make the world a whole lot cleaner. You could also take public transport or carpool with a friend.

My home, transportation, and my purchases were all under average. My food category was pretty high above the average where I live. I think this is because I don't eat enough vegetarian meals

I don't eat any either and I have mine under the average for where I live.

I checked today and my foot print in travel alone is 6,143 and my regions is only 2,557, now to be fair I have bean traveling a lot lately but I would still like some tips on how to refuse it, wile traveling

It is super cool that you are traveling a lot! Maybe try doing some road trips, maybe staying closer to home!

I think road trips would still waste energy, but that's a good idea! I like road trips. anyways, you could try biking places with your family too! you can buy a wagon thing that I used to have as a kid that connects to the parents bike and you can just ride around.It won't be able to get you places far, but it works!

My carbon footprint for food is 2 times a average person and I don't eat a lot. I should eat less.

I wouldn't say that you should eat less, eat the average amount of calories for your age and you should be good. Maybe try to eat more vegan/vegetarian meals and order groceries when you're almost out of food in the fridge. I don't recommend eating less if you already don't eat a lot since that's unhealthy, I hope this helped.

Maybe the average person just eats not enough?

I think that eating less is not the most healthy option, you could always try more vegetarian meals, maybe eat less meat in one day.

Me and my family try to bike whenever we can to save energy also we enjoy biking.

sorry not "also" "mainly because"

nice job unanimous person, I like to bike as well, but I mostly walk

Me to!

I also ride my bike a lot

i do bmx and bike to school and back every day me and my family bike a lot but its hard to go everywhere on a bike i also go to the park with my friends and we try to do wheelies we all fail though

my family's carbon footprint is pretty low except for the transportation and food, I think that my family should eat more plant based meals and that I should ride a bike to school more often and that my family should a more energy efficient car.

Plant a garden in your backyard and/or find an easier way to get to school also.

I think eating more plant-based meals is a great way to start. Maybe experiment with different ways to go/bike to school.

I hope this is helpful!

Something you can do to reduce the amount of time your lights are on is to always make sure to turn off the lights when you leave the room or if you see a light(s) is on and no one is in the room also turn it off (I do the second one almost every day).

I looked back at my carbon footprint sheet and noticed that my family turns on our lights many hours a day, so I can make sure we turn off devices, light, and water when not needed to reduce our footprint.

with me I think that if you turn off the light it is good .Also you may walk or bike to school.With me I think that eat well can make you produce less carbon dioxide.

With me I think that my family need to decrease carbon dioxide because temperature of the earth get high and this make me that I need to protect the earth.

You can do this by replacing your light bulbs with LED bulbs and turning off lights when your not using them, you can also reduce your carbon dioxide by turning off the water when your not using it and turning off electronics when your not using them. Bike to school if you can or walk if you don't have a bike. It's awesome that you want to protect the earth since its a very important thing.

you can also use a bike instead of cars

With my family I think that my mom told me that I need to turn off the light when I'm not using it.Also I walk to home every week.

I saw that my data of the carbon dioxide is 4777 kgs and the average in my region  is 9727 kgs .

my family produces a very large carbon foot print

my family also has a very large carbon footprint due to our flights and numerous trips to Tahoe.

My carbon footprint is really high in transportation because I go on lots of flights throughout the year so I think I should try to go on less trips and not fly in an airplane as often.

My carbon footprint is lower than the average American exepct it is a bit high in food  so I think I should start eating more plant based meals. And it is a bit high in transportation so I should start riding my bike more.

We mostly ride our bikes to school but it takes up half of my energy but it saves energy and gas but we carpool with our friends with their car and my mom's car when she's not working. But riding your bike is fun when you do it with your friends!

I thought that my carbon footprint was high because my transportation column was very high. Since I visited the East Coast (NYC, DC, Boston), my flight there and back were much higher than the average. Even though I love to visit places like New York City, I  believe that without a trip there my carbon footprint would be much lower.

we have been driving to places which it would only take a little bit longer to bike. It's not needed and we should start biking instead of wasting gas.

I also recommend maybe scooters too, they are honestly easier for me less leg work

My carbon foot print was only about 300 above average(9,700) even though I flew in a plane for over 25 hours, and in a car for about 50 which I think is really good, I would still like some tips on how to reduce my foorprint.

My family's footprint is pretty good for the food and the home, but the transportation is alarming. It literally doubled the home and food combined!

My answer:
I think you can use more public transportation to get to places and walk or bike to school. You could also get a car that has good fuel efficiency.

My family's footprint is pretty big. we have a large house and we keep it heated with gas. There are also 5 of us so the environmental costs add up. I was wondering for some tips for things to ask my family to do to lower our carbon footprint as a family?

You and your family could try to turn things off when you're using them, and can try to use public transportation, biking more often, and using blankets instead of heating at night.

You can turn off more lights, take shorter showers, or bike scooter walk or skatebord more.

I think you could get solar panels. It would be expensive, but if you heated your house with solar panels, it would be much more sustainable.

You could maybe turn off the water while brushing your teeth and taking shorter showers and baths--- and maybe on hot days just take cold showers? Just a thought.

You could try carpooling and/or taking public transportation. Another idea (if possible depending on how far you live from day to day activities) is biking and/or walking. I really enjoy biking because it gets you to places pretty fast and is a good source of exercise.

for thelok I try to turn off things but my ADD makes it really hard to stay focus and remember things so some times I leave things on.

you could try to turn off lights when you leave rooms and not us heating and cooling as much.

You can try to turn off thing when you're not using them and to bike to school.

In addition you could also try to be more conscious of your water use and also start to make it a daily habit to place trash in the right bins.

I should not eat as much snacks when I get home from school and not break all the plants when I am walking to school.

After calculating my carbon footprint, my family's carbon emission is roughly 10+ kg. Over half of that is from transportation, since my high school is 6 miles away from me. My parent's car model is a decade or two old and may emit more carbon dioxide than most other vehicles, and it'll be passed down to me. It is very possible I could save the environment by purchasing an electric vehicle as soon as I can, or deciding to bike the 6 miles to go to school and then another 6 to get home, but I would be saving myself time and money (and even my own energy if I don't bike 12 miles a day) by continuing what I do. What do you guys think are some ways I could somehow reduce my carbon emission from transportation?

I think some ways to reduce your carbon emissions from transportation is use public transportation like the bus or to carpool whenever you can with friends to school. Another way is since you said the car would be pass down to you is to keep you tires filled becauseY ou can reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by about 275 pounds per year by making sure your tires are filled to the recommended pressure. You will also save up to 5 percent on your gasoline expenses and your car will ride smoother.

I think that in order to reduce your footprint you could consider to use public means of transports such as buses or even trains, which produce almost 0 pollution. Another way could be to save some money and contribute with your parents to buy an electric vehicle.

even if something like biking sounds hard, over time, you would get used to it.

Biking is hard but when you do it a lot you build muscles,you may be sore like taking a hike but one way to build up your muscles for biking is going to 1 mile bike ride bit by bit and slowing move up until your ready.

You can try biking if you want to. But since it could be hard to bike twelve miles everyday to your high school you could try public transportation or carpooling with a friend it could help a lot!

That sounds hard, you could try taking the bus or biking. It might sound hard but it isn't that hard and you will get used to it over time.

no more planes

I disagree because how would we get from another far place to another some people won't want to use boats because they have sea sickness

I disagree,because how can we can get to one place to another if we can't drive.

I agree, how are we going to get to a far place??

I disagree with no more planes because it would release even more unhealthy gases for the environment if you drive to a far place instead of using a plane.

me and my family went on a tour of Europe so that means that we took up a lot of transportation CO2.

so I think that we could only go to Italy or France.

sometimes I feel bad that I'm not contributing, but in reality,even just recycling and  reducing waste helps the world.:)

That makes sense I also agree that sometimes contributing can be hard but that little effort can help the world.One thing that you could do is riding your bike more often instead of driving it is also a good workout.

Global warming is a really big issue that is vital to learn about and we can stop it from getting worse for our planet. I did a carbon footprint form and my carbon and was surprised that my food and transportation was pretty high. I then thought that what makes my transportation so high was that I go on a decent amount of vacations that require planes to get there. Another thing was that my food was high because of red meat. We can help the earth be a better place by eating vegetarian on some days and not use planes as often.

I relate to this. Whenever I take vacations I usually fly. It's kind of hard to control this since I don't choose how many flights I take. The best thing I can do is alter things in my life that are under my control.

which is better driving or flights?

I was very surprised to see how My Carbon Footprint was very high I traveled a lot through the year and used my phone a lot and also had the heat and AC on through the year we also have lights on in our house all the time.

your family could turn off lights to save energy and you could carpool when traveling with friends

If I had my own home, something I would do to make it more energy efficient would be remembering to turn the lights off every time I leave the house and I won't be back for a significant amount of time.  I would get my electricity from solar panels that I would put up myself attached to the roof, and make sure to put up just enough so that I would solely need the energy produced by the solar panels to survive successfully in my home.
My house would be located somewhere near a city, so it would take less carbon emission to go places every time I had to go somewhere. I would also live somewhere by public transit so that it would be more eco-friendly to take the bus or the bart train once in a while. I would grow my own food in a garden in my backyard, so I wouldn't be wasting food or money.

very good

Reflecting on my family's footprint, I did not realize that the contributors to carbon were either extreme or did not make much of a difference. Throughout the test I would take note on how much that certain category would contribute, and most times it would be shocking. Most of the time, I had previous knowledge from others such as teachers and my dad, but I never knew it would be that much. For example, I never thought water usage in showers would count for so much. I always had knowledge that the amount of water one uses wastes clean water, but I never thought it would be so huge in regards to carbon. Another question I was shocked at was my diet, not being vegetarian. I never knew that what you eat contributed to over a fifth of my footprint. I would like to know why/what causes it to be so high.

While calculating my family footprint I noticed how small my carbon emissions for my house are compared to the average. This led me to believe my total carbon emissions would be low. But when I got to the transportation section I realized that when my family travels we admit much more carbon than the average family even with having an electric car. For my calculation, I was way over the normal transportation average because of how many plane flights I have been on this year. When you add that total for each one of my family members, that is a lot of carbon emissions. It is interesting to see in other posts in this discussion how other families have most of their carbon emissions coming from either their food or their home. This just shows how different lifestyles cause different types of emissions. The most effective thing to reduce my household carbon emissions it to either not travel as much or find alternatives to planes when traveling. However, for transportation, my family will often try and carpool to reduce our emissions.

I definitely relate to this. I thought that my family's carbon emissions would be a lot lower than other people. When I got my results back, I noticed that most of my carbon emissions came from my home and transportation. My family travels a lot, which I love, but the amount of carbon used when we fly is a little concerning. We went on a lot of plane trips this past year, which really added up. I also noticed that my home carbon use was higher than average. I hate that these two categories are completely out of my control, because although my carbon use for food and purchases was below average, home and transportation, which are typically not controlled by me, were way above normal. I also agree that it is very interesting to see just how different people’s lifestyles translate to carbon use. I have noticed that everyone is very different when it comes to how much carbon we produce, but what is the most devastating is that we are all to blame for excess carbon emissions. I have noticed around my home town that people in poverty are more likely to produce more carbon from food and home than an upper middle class person, and a rich person is more likely to produce more carbon from purchases and transportation than someone in poverty. I hope to be able to limit the amount of carbon I use from transportation when I live alone in the future, but I also hope we find a way to make airplanes and cars more eco-friendly and create less carbon emissions (because I hate the idea of never being able to travel to see different countries or to see my family).
- Mason B

I agree because especially in the US families have very large contributions  to carbons effects on global warming and climate change. This happens because of greenhouse gas emissions that traps heat in the atmosphere. The world is warming faster and families especially in the US contribute to large carbon footprints. Families cause large carbon emissions and a lot of energy consumptions. According to statistics household consumption accounts for 30–80% of the national carbon emissions. The average US household produces 7.5 tons of CO2 equivalents per year.

Unfortunately, I think that the conflict between wanting to help the environment while still wanting to visit your loved ones is a complicated matter that isn't discussed very often. For some context, I have a pretty tight-knit extended family that I have visited quite often recently, especially as my older relatives have been dealing with medical issues. Although I was aware that I have been traveling by air more than usual recently, I was pretty surprised to see that transportation was by far my largest area of carbon emissions (I emitted approximately 4,000 kgs while the average person in my area emits 2,557 kgs) . I already expected my transportation score to be relatively high from the 2-3 days a week when I drive to school instead of taking the bus or need to drive to after school activities but my emissions from airplanes were by far the highest of the entire survey. This made me question what side to take when deciding whether to spend time with my family as I still care about the environment and don’t want to be responsible for emitting such a large amount of carbon dioxide for what some might consider a “want” instead of a “necessity”.

I also started to wonder whether the carbon I emit through transportation could be balanced out if my home, food and purchases emissions could remain relatively low. According to the survey, my food (744 kgs) and purchase (309 kgs) emissions were substantially lower than the average citizen in my region. I think that this is because I have a mostly vegetarian diet and no longer make as many clothes purchases due to my school uniform.

In your opinion, do you think that missing out on family memories is a price we need to pay in order to combat climate change or do you think that there are alternative methods to balance out/limit our carbon emissions?

From my experience, a large contributor to most family’s carbon footprint is food. In a time when we have every food imaginable at our fingertips, we tend to stop considering the environmental impacts of different foods. One thing to think about is if the fruits or vegetables you are buying are in season. If they aren’t, the food can have an exponentially larger carbon footprint than if you had bought it when it was in season as now the food has to be shipped in from somewhere else in the world. Because of the long journey the food has to take, it is also usually covered in pesticides which contribute immensely to greenhouse gas emissions.

My overall takeaway from my personal footprint was that I am overshooting my footprint with regards to transportation astronomically. This is unacceptable as someone who prides themself as a devoted climate change advocate. Most of my transportation kg came from traveling: I traveled internationally twice this year, across country once, and across the state twice. As I discovered from answering the survey questions, these airplane flights contributed exorbitant amounts of kg to my footprint. I can cut back on this, not only for myself, but for my family as well, by limiting the amounts of vacations and other trips we go on. For example, if my family is considering go on vacation for a holiday, I will advocate that we instead stay at home, or at least travel somewhere closer to our home (rather than across the pond!).

My total carbon footprint was abit above ther average. I think that I am doing ok to keeping the carbon emissions low but i could be doing more. The things thaat really pushed up my total number was the flights and transportation. I think I should take public transport more then getting a ride everytime I need to get somewhere. If I start doing that regulary my carbon emissions will lower and be around average. Another thing that vi can do is lower the amount of lights I have on at a time. If everybody did that the carbon footprint will be lower and climate change will be less of a serious problem.

I thought about this a lot as well when I took the survey. Flights and transportation were the biggest factor for me too, but it's hard to understand exactly what to do since most of this is determined by my families behavior that I have less of a say in. Since certain actions aren't fully my decision to change, it's really important for me to find ways that I can lower my family's carbon footprint otherwise. This website attached below was really helpful in giving strategies that kids can implement when wanting to make a difference. While its intended audience is younger children, it's definitely applicable for anyone who doesn't have total agency around environmental decisions they take part in. Some of the ideas it offers include changing what type of light bulb your family uses, always turning off lights and electronics, using fans when you're hot, walk or ride your bike if you're able, or carpool! While these things feel small, they almost make me feel that until I'm my own independent, I can still make a bit of a difference.

the link I used above was https://climatekids.nasa.gov/how-to-help/

Lots of family households have a noteably high carbon footprint. lots of this carbon you are producing are from two things; food, and transportation. Specifically in my household the majority of our carbon footprint comes from the intake of different meats. Ideas to reduce this number could be making an effort to regularily eat more plant based meals during your week. Planning out your meals in advance so you know the ingredients you need and then making sure they are in your refrigerator. This will help reduce your carbon footprint signifigantly. Now, when it comes to transportation, families will drive to work or drive their kids to school on the daily. You can lessan your transportation numbers simply by biking or taking public transport to school/work. Or just plain old walking. You may say that you dont have time in the mornings to take public transit or walk, and that may be true on certain mornings. But saying that you also can make an effort to wake up earlier to catch the bus. This may require your bedtime to get earlier aswell. so you are still getting enough sleep. These are just a few things that can help reduce your carbon footprint; while also giving you insights on what causes your carbon footprint to be so high in the first place.

After calculating my carbon footprint, I realized the main contributor to my carbon footprint (9368 KGS) was my food (being around 5000 KGS). Other factors were lower than the average, since my family doesn't waste money on unnecessary new items and inform us to turn off any electronics we don't use. I also do live in a smaller house were I share a room, this would lower my carbon footprint since we are saving space. I also do take public transportation %70 percent of the time to get to and from school. There are some occasions I get a ride, but we don't live too far. One thing that was way out of the average though was our food consumption. We are a family of 6, we require more food and most of my siblings are in the teenage stage, growing kids require more food. Me, especially, this had made me reflect on my food consumption and my recycling practices. My family sometimes use disposable utensils and plates which I think we should cut back on and consume less snacks as a family to reduce our carbon footprint.

Personally, I don’t  want to change much about what we do, as there isn’t really much that we’d have to change, but there are some things that could be changed to lower our impact on the environment. The biggest thing that we could change would easily be our food consumption. We go on shopping sprees practically every week and eat outside every Thursday and Saturday. I feel it as kind of an addiction as we really don’t need to buy so much stuff every single week. Therefore, the main thing I would change about our actions is to not go out as much for food or resources unless we’d really need to. A way to do this would be to start a small vegetable garden, which we have already begun. For us, solar panels are a very expensive option, so there is a very slim chance that any part of our house, let alone all of it would be powered by solar panels. If it were possible, though, that would be a change I’m also willing to make. Our transportation and home kgs are lower than average otherwise.

Having your own home gives you freedom to be creative, to have your own systems within your home, and to essentially do what you want with it. Looking at my calculated home carbon footprint it definitely could be lower. One big factor that could be worked on is the location by home is and since I have to drive to school everyday, the distance between home and school effects how much carbon footprint I’m contributing to. If I could change this I would move a lot closer to school to prevent that, if that wasn’t possible even taking things like the bus would also be a lot better.
Where you get your food is also a huge deal. If possible making a little garden or even just buying groceries locally could help shave down carbon footprint. On top of that taking little steps to notice if I’m not using electricity in the moment to turn it off or when I’m using water to make sure I turn the faucet off when not being used too.

My own personal house design would be energy efficient by use of motion sensor lights, low flow toilets and showers. I would use solar to power my house. I would live near my school so there would be little carbon emissions on my commute to school. I would buy organic food that is locally sourced to support agriculture in California. These revisions should bring my family's carbon footprint now. I would also address my biggest carbon waste, travel. I would travel less and not as far to reduce that section.

When I calculated my carbon footprint(4,727 kg), I was very surprised to find out that even though my footprint was one of the lowest in the class, a little over half of my total carbon footprint was home related. It made me realize how simple steps like turning off the light when you leave a room, or shortening time in the shower could make a positive impact on my carbon footprint.

After closely looking into my carbon footprint, I realized that the carbon footprint that I had was very low compared to the average in my area, my carbon footprint was 6,933 kgs, but the average was some 9,000 kgs. I realized the biggest thing that was affecting my carbon footprint was my traveling. Although I thought I didn't travel that much ( I traveled only two times the past year), surprisingly it was the biggest intake of my carbon footprint. my transportation came out to 3,749 kgs, which to my surprise was astonishing if i say the least. However, my lowest was definitely the purchases, which came out to 353 Kgs. My Home kgs was roughly 1629 kgs, which was also weird, but then my food was roughly at 1,203 kgs. Apparently The amount you're supposed to have is only 1000, which was the most surprising, because no one had anything under 4000 in my class. In conclusion, this survey allowed me to see how much we could cut down on our energy consumption throughout all aspects of our life, especially in our home life.

Whenever my family wants to get somewhere, walking or biking is always our first choice. If we want to go get dinner somewhere, there are many places within walking or biking distance. Exercise is also a factor, as walking somewhere is better for you and the environment.

Another way my family saves energy is by taking trains if we need to go far, we have taken only 2 planes in 15 years. Some days I ride in the car to school with my brother on the way up to one of my parents' work, this means we drop off my brother, then me, and then my mom or dad drives to work. This is a really efficient way of getting to two schools and a workplace. Another way we get to school is by taking the bus, which produces 33% lower greenhouse gasses per passenger mile than a car, and is a little more fun

My family has also developed a habit of turning things that we don’t need in the moment off In the summer, we run the air conditioner in the morning when it’s cold and it keeps the house warm for the rest of the day, as opposed to running the air conditioner for the entire day and having the same result. If it gets really hot we can just walk down to the river and swim for a bit there. Even when we shower or brush our teeth we save by turning off the water when it’s not needed.

I hope this helps anyone who wants to know how to save energy and reduce their carbon footprint, as it has certainly helped me.

https://www.transit.dot.gov/sites/fta.d … ge2010.pdf

After completing the survey provided by this site for school, I discovered something weird. My family's purchase and transport footprint is lower than the average, but our home footprint is MUCH higher than the average. Our purchase footprint is shallow, resting at only 425 kgs which surprised me due to the quantity of clothing and technology we buy. In addition, our transport footprint was only slightly lower than the average (personal transport) standing at 3,655 kgs. But the real kicker was our home footprint. Standing at an astonishing 4,769 kgs, I realized how much energy we use/waste. I live in a single-family home with 3 others, so naturally, our energy consumption would be high. However, after answering all the questions, I realized we simply have too much stuff. 91 LED lightbulbs, natural gas heating for our water and home (for 7 months a year!) and air conditioning running for around 4 months a year during the summer; we truly do use a LOT of energy! In conclusion, this survey allowed me to see how much we could cut down on our energy consumption throughout all aspects of our life, especially in our home life.

This assignment has led to a great revelation as to how much is used/wasted! One thing I do personally is not put all the bulbs in a light fixture; as they sometimes hold more than one! I currently have a chandelier fixture in my dining room with 14 bulb placements, however, I currently only have the top part (three) placed with bulbs. It makes the room a little dimmer, but still provides light to be able to see. Maybe try unplugging a few around your house! This experience puts into perspective how little things can add up to conserve a lot!

My mother always harped on us for leaving the lights on in the room while we were not in there; As I have now do with my children! Small instances such as shutting off the water while brushing your teeth aid in the conservation of consumption of water. Riding a bike versus taking the car, or even carpooling helps eliminate the CO2 emissions into the air. It takes being aware of the little things that one can do to minimize their footprint. How do you get people to care?  "Research in psychology offers clues as to why people engage in
unsustainable behaviors despite their concern about the broader consequences," is a quote from a study done by
Christie Manning, PhD, on "The Psychology of Sustainable Behavior."
Here is the website that includes her research:
https://www.pca.state.mn.us/sites/defau … ee1-01.pdf

My mother always harped on us for leaving the lights on in the room while we were not in there; As I have now do with my children! Small instances such as shutting off the water while brushing your teeth aid in the conservation of consumption of water. Riding a bike versus taking the car, or even carpooling helps eliminate the CO2 emissions into the air. It takes being aware of the little things that one can do to minimize their footprint. How do you get people to care?  "Research in psychology offers clues as to why people engage in
unsustainable behaviors despite their concern about the broader consequences," is a quote from a study done by
Christie Manning, PhD, on "The Psychology of Sustainable Behavior."
Here is the website that includes her research:
https://www.pca.state.mn.us/sites/defau … ee1-01.pdf

My carbon foot print was extremely high because this summer my family took a huge vacation, which we have never done before. I dismissed it as a one time thing, and that it wasn't that big of a deal, until I realized that maybe 10 other people have thought the same thing. Then I started wondering about ways to have more environmentally friendly modes of long distance travel. Thoughts?

My family has a footprint less than half of the average size. I was surprised because I went on 2 flights this year but because I walk everywhere it offset its self. My house is also new so all of my lights are LED and all of my heat and stuff is electric

One thing I can do better to help planet earth is buy using electric cars or more environmentally healthy forms of transportation. Electric cars will help the world severely because you are cutting carbon emissions almost all the way down. Or at least using a hybrid to help with cutting the co2 emissions in half.

Another way I can help is carpooling to school and sports I have friends that I do school and sports with if we carpool often that will take away one car which is a day worth of co2 away just by carpooling. And if other people not only in my school but across America can do it too we can make the roads less populated and cut co2 emissions like crazy.

I agree, carpooling or using electric cars would cut down carbon emissions

My family's carbon footprint was a little less than double the average. I will work on making it smaller.