Hi! My name is Zuzia.
I am 17 years old. I live in Rybnik, Poland.
I think that my carbon footprint is high, but I would to know what do you think about that. My carbon footprint is 7,555kgs of CO2, in Poland it is 6.526 kgs of CO2. Category ‘home’ got highest score – 5,342 kgs.This is much more than in my region. I would like to have lower score in this category. Anything else is good. Can you tell me what can i do to have lower carbon footprint?

Maybe you should try using less electricity or cut down on water usage. There is plenty of ways to lower your home score. One way I am lowering my home score is taking shorter showers. My highest score was transportation because of how much I travel. But your carbon footprint was significantly lower than my score.

Your house carbon usage can be lowered in many ways. One way is by simply turning off the lights in the rooms you are not using to save energy. Another way is by using less water when washing dishes or brushing your teeth.

Your carbon footprint but much lower then mine. You could try to do little things like make sure that turn off light switches before you leave the room and turn off the water while you're brushing your teeth.

my carbon footprint is just about the same as yours! but just try to cut down on the use at home.

Thank you very much for your answers! I try to use it in my daily life! But tell me what type of bulbs should i use? Where can i buy energy-saving bulbs? Please tell me something about the energy consumption of energy-saving light bulbs.

Your carbon footprint is not too bad. I think a great way to reduce your home carbon is to reduce the amount of light usage and the amount of using water. My highest carbon is in transportation do to the fact that i drive around a lot which I am trying to reduce.

Try to reduce the amount of unnecessary water leak from the pipes, driving with public transport instead of cars, also installing styrofoam isolation on your house is a great way to reduce the amount of heat needed to warm up the house, just google something, you'll figure it out

You should replace your lightbulbs if you're still using the ones which produce more heat than light. Also my mothers' trick is to wash all the clothes in the night when (at least in Croatia) electricity costs lesser than during the day. And take care of using your heating system,  you're probably using it a little bit unnecessary which is a problem because people get used to heating the house even in normal temperatures.

My carbon foot print is higher than yours. And I want to do something different to reduce releasing carbon. So I want to share some solution to you. Actually, I did not clearly know where is Rybnik, and I searched that just now. And I feel that is a great country. So I think you can take some public transportation instead of driving your own car. Like, you can ride bikes to go some close place. You also can do some exercises by riding bikes. If you want to go somewhere further, you can take a city bus or something like that. And that is just my personal opinion. I think we can protect the environment together and have a nice day. : )

Here are just a few ways to lower your carbon footprint.  Turn off the lights when natural light is sufficient and when you leave the room. Keep your temperature system on a moderate setting while you're in the room. Use your windows wisely! If your climate control system is on, shut them...if you need a little fresh air, turn off the heat or AC.  Cut down the number of appliances you are running and you will save big on energy. For example, share your minifridge with roomates and minimize the number of printers in your office.  Power your computer down when you're away. A computer turned off uses at least 65% less energy than a computer left on or idle on a screen saver.  Only do full loads of laundry and use the bright colors cycle whenever possible.  Try to take shorter showers. The less hot water you use, the less energy is needed to heat the water.  Switch to CFL bulbs: Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) use 75% less energy than incandescent and last up to 10 times longer.  Good luck!

I think you carbon footprint is not that bad. To be honest, my carbon footprint is high than yours. I think a good way to reduce your carbon footprint is to use less lights and water. For instance, when there's nobody home, remember to turn off the lights. You can  use CFL Light Bulbs instead of incandescent bulbs in order to save energy. Taking a shorter time shower is also a good idea to reduce your carbon footprint. Those are my suggestion. Goog luck and have a nice day!

I think your footprint is actually pretty good. Mine was around 9,000, which is less than average in my community, but still a bit higher than yours. Although, if you want to lower yours, you can use less heating/cooling at home, use less water, and turn lights off when you leave a room or when it's still bright enough outside to use natural light. These are just some basic ideas to help. Good luck!

I find it particularly interesting that your highest category is at home, since mine is actually transportation. I'm curious, do students in high school tend to drive a lot in Poland, because in the Unites States almost all students drive themselves everywhere, which makes my transportation extremely high. However, my home category is my second, so home is still something I need to change as well. I think a good practice to improve one's home carbon footprint is to, as previously mentioned, to use environmentally friendly light bulbs, instead of the generally more harmful and wasteful incandescent light bulbs. Other than that, just make sure you are being conscious of your usage at home, and try to use as little resources as possible. Other than that, I personally think that your shouldn't worry too much about your footprint, since you are only slightly above the average in Poland.

I think despite being high n your region you still have a good footprint because mine was more than 4 times yours. However if you want to lower your footprint you can focus on turning lights off and running less water. Another good idea would be to turn of the AC and open some windows in the cooler months. I'm sure it would be easy to get creative! Good Luck!

I think you footprint is pretty good. It is lower than most in my region. Some ways you can lower the category of your house is by showing for a shorter time, turning off lights when you leave the room, and turn off you AC when you are not home.

Lowering your footprint is pretty simple if you follow 3 simple steps:
1) never leave the water running when you are not using it
2) turn lights off when you are not in the room
3) Reduce reuse recycle

Your footprint seems okay. Yours is way lower than what mine is. I am surprised that the highest category is home, because most of the ones I have seen have been transportation. This should be an easy fix with replacing the lightbulbs to eco-friendly lightbulbs and turning off the lights.

Your footprint is interesting because your home category is higher. My transportation category is higher because I drive myself to and from school. Do students in Poland drive themselves to school? Your footprint is good compared to my footprint. It is lower than most of the people in my region. Some of the ways you can lower your house category is by not taking long showers, turning off the lights when you leave the room, turning off the AC when you are not home, etc.

Some of the easiest ways to lower your carbon footprint at home would be to remember to turn off lights and electronics, turn off the water when you brush your teeth, and use open windows instead of the air conditioning when appropriate.

My name is Taylor. I am 16 years old and I am from the USA. Although your carbon footprint may seem high for your region, when you compare it to other regions, it’s not that high. Your footprint is much lower than the average in my region, which was 15,918 kgs. Maybe to decrease your home carbon emission, try getting energy efficient light bulbs. Also, maybe remember to turn your lights off when you leave a room, or turn the water off when you’re not using it. It’s great that you’re trying to find new ways to help the environment! Good luck!

Your footprint is very good compared to my regions. Some ways to lower your carbon footprint is to recycle more, use less electricity, and being helpful in your community!

You're foot print may seem high for your region, but would probably be considered low for most other economically developed countries. To help lower your foot print you could turn lights off around the house, open windows at times instead of using air conditions, or even something as easy as turning the faucet off when you brush your teeth.

In your region your carbon footprint is higher than average, but in my region in Florida, you are just about average. So it seems that if you're footprint is higher there then people in your region are better at being environmentally friendly than where I live. I think generally people in the U.S. seem to be worse at damaging the environment.

Hi Zuzia I noticed on my carbon footprint my travel makes up half of my carbon footprint. I don't know if you travel a lot but if you do I found this article on how to reduce a persons travel sustainability http://www.davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can … stainably/ . Its a very good read. The article suggests to take vacations closer to home, use other modes of transportation like trains and buses. For flying purposes to reduce the footprint it is best to fly during the day, take a direct flight and pack light.Like

Hi Zuzia. Your carbon footprint is very low compared to mine and my region’s. My carbon footprint is 13,194 kgs and my region has a carbon footprint of 15,918 kgs. Try recycling more, turning off lights and appliances when your not using them,  and turning off running water when its not in use.

One of the best ways any of us can find out where we can lower our footprint is to look at our answers on the CF Calculator. The information button on each page links to show the amount of carbon that particular choice would produce. We can then look at other choices to see how we could make another choice that could generate less carbon.

Hi, My name is Laura , I am from the US and I have a high carbon foot print as well at 19,838 kgs. My home carbon footprint is 4,702 kgs, which is actually very low compared to students in my classroom and even my entire country.  This is because I try to use little electricity and use less water.

Hey Zuzia! I’m 16 years old, and I live in North Carolina, USA. My carbon footprint is only a little bit lower than the average carbon footprint in my region (13,643 kg compared to 15,918 kg). What was the average carbon footprint for home in your region? My high carbon footprint was transportation use (9,113kg). Although mine is lower comparing to my region, I’m still looking for ways to decrease it. My home use was one of my lowest ones! It’s interesting to see how different others carbon footprints are. Things you are can do around the house (start small) are turning the lights off when you leave the room, recycling, and turning off the water when it’s not in use.

Hi my name is Lexi, it might seem like your footprint is high but compared to other countries such as the US where I live it is actually quite low. But if you really want to lower your home footprint make sure you are turning lights off when you aren't in a room or make sure you don't run the water when you aren't using it. You might also be able to open some windows instead of running the air conditioning in the cooler months. However you do have a good footprint and you don't have much to worry about. Good Luck!

Hi my name is Jacquelyn! I think your carbon footprint is pretty good! My family and I help reduce our carbon footprint by recycling. It helps lower it a whole lot because you are taking something you have already use, and recycling it so it can be made into something new! I would recommend trying that! Also using less water and getting energy saving light bulbs! Your footprint is high for your country but really good compared to the United States!

My home category was also my highest category and it was about the same as my region’s home average of 6,148 kgs in North Carolina, USA. To reduce the home number I think I could consciously turn off running water and lights when I do not need them. The the rest of your carbon footprint was really low though, so if you were able to drop your home footprint then your overall footprint would be pretty good.

Hi my name is Anne, and I am a 17 year old student from California! It is interesting to me that your home was the highest section of the carbon footprint test because for me it was my transportation. I think this is because I have my own car and my school is about 9 miles away so I have to drive everyday to get there. I also do not utilize the public transportation around me because it is always so inconvenient, I do not know if this is different in Poland. Some advice I have about my own home is to install low flow toilets and low flow shower nozzles. California is in a severe drought so my family has really tried hard to reduce our water usage. We even use the idea/phrase "if its yellow, let it mellow, if it is brown flush it down" this has helped our carbon footprint immensely! Also as other people have said above simple things like turning off lights when you leave and turning off water when not using it is crucial in bringing down your carbon footprint. I am interested in how your house is compared to my own! I would love a reply, let me know!

I think you should try to economise on electricity, by what my mean is turn off the light when you don't need it. Also recycling is very important, try to make your garbage useful, it might be gross but it can lower your score.

I think you can turn off the lights when you don't need them and decrease the time of using fans or air conditioning if it's not too hot. Also, economising less water and recycling are the good choice to reduce your carbon footprint.

Hello Zuzia! I'm Tim from China. Comparing to your score, I think I should really be ashamed of my carbon footprint... Because it just too high. My carbon footprint is 12109 kgs of CO2 per year, compared to an average of 2338 kgs for China, and 3791 kg worldwide. The category  Home is also my  highest score---4065 kgs. And I think that's because I take long shower every day. Maybe we both need to make the shower time shorter. And recycle the waste, right?