Hello, my name is Josh and I live in a small town called Mooresville in North Carolina, USA. I’m also 16 and a junior at my high school. My total carbon footprint was 17,124 kgs, the majority of which came from my usage of resources at home (7,309 kgs) and of the food I consume/use/waste (6,538 kgs). This total is actually much larger than the worldwide carbon footprint average and just barely larger than the average of my state, but it is smaller than my class average. After seeing that I was very close to the average carbon footprint for my state and actually lower than my class, I was pretty surprised because I thought I would have a much larger impact on the environment, but it turns out I’m about average. However, seeing how far I was from the average footprint of the world showed me that my carbon footprint isn’t necessarily something to be proud of. The fact is that I still have a ways to go before I can truly help the environment more. In regards to each of the individual categories, I would’ve thought I would use much more energy and resources through my driving , since I tend to drive a lot. However, it was likely lower than my home or food use because I don’t drive very far, although often, and I also drive many of my friends, saving energy. In order to decrease my carbon footprint in the future, I will try to waste less food and really make an attempt to conserve energy at home. My purchases were very low, so I believe I’m good in that category, but since I work it might be hard to lessen my transportation energy usage. Overall, not wasting energy and using only what I need at home, such as taking short showers, turning the lights and water off, running the heat only when I need it if at all, and other slight changes could help my total carbon footprint become less, and hopefully help shape my environmental impact for the better.

I think your idea is good to reduce your carbon footprint. But you should working on more specific. Although your carbon footprint is smaller that the average you classmate, but it is still larger that the worldwide. You can working on transportation energy usage, maybe take some public transportation or walking sometimes can help reducing the carbon footprint.

Its good that you see that your carbon footprint is higher than the rest of the world and it is something you need to improve on. I find it interesting that your home is the place where you expend the most energy as it seems that the majority of the rest of the class expend the most energy on gas, similar to what you were saying as to what you expected your highest category to be.