Many students using our footprint calculator said that they could not pledge to reduce their home footprints because they were not making the decisions for the household. Here is your chance to design your own sustainable virtual household!
If you had your own home, what would you do to make it more energy efficient? Where would you get your electricity from? Where would your house be? Would you live near to your school or work or local transit options? Where would you get your food from?
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My New and Improved Family Footprint!
After calculating my carbon footprint and seeing how high the total was for my home (3,757 kg), I knew that I needed to make some changes to the way that I live. If I could have my own environmentally friendly house, there are many different design choices that I would make.
Firstly, I would want all of the electricity to come from solar panels. I live in California so the fear that I wouldn't get enough sunlight to power my home is non-existent. The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy found that" As a renewable source of power, solar energy has an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change, which is critical to protecting humans, wildlife, and ecosystems. Solar energy can also improve air quality and reduce water use from energy production." This is why I would make this choice for my future family and my future home.https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-energy-wildlife-and-environment#:~:text=As%20a%20renewable%20source%20of,water%20use%20from%20energy%20production.
The second decision that I would make when planning out my environmentally friendly lifestyle in my new home would be to choose sustainable ways to get my produce. Organic food might be more expensive but in the long run, it is better for your body as well as the environment. Non-Organic foods are grown with pesticides that hurt the wildlife and the soil. As the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture states, "Runoff from areas treated with pesticides can pollute streams, ponds, lakes, and wells. Pesticide residues in surface water can harm plants and animals and contaminate groundwater." https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/farmi … icides.pdf
Lastly, I would make sure that my home is close to the facilities that I frequent the most. I currently live 5 minutes away from my school(when driving) which reduces my carbon footprint. I am still young so I won't be making big life changes any time soon but I know that there are small choices that I can make to improve my footprint! I have started composting in my backyard and I also use my space heater less during the night. We were all placed on this earth by God and it is our job to take care of it. What are some ways that you can lessen your carbon footprint?