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?
MY Family Footprint >
The Little Things
Although some people are able to only fill one trash bag a year, this is almost impossible for most people. To me, I think the best way to change our carbon footprint is by the little things we do every day. For example, if I had my own home I would make it so the house was located either close to my work/school or close to a bus/bart. Also, the little things inside the house such as using environmentally friendly lights instead of regular lightbulbs and making sure to keep the lights off as often as possible. Even though it doesn't sound like that big of a deal, I think over time this would contribute a huge saving to the carbon footprint of my home. The things like using a toilet bowl that has a smaller amount of water to save water or always bringing reusable bags to the store are some of the little things that in retrospect will help lower my carbon footprint.
I totally agree with what you think and what your point is. In total, a family footprint might be very high and very dangerous for our planet but the little things we can do are the ones that make a change. The little things we do might not seem so big and important but if you think of it, it will make a change. Someone might have a very high carbon footprint and you might have a very low one because you are using all eco-friendly materials so when the scores are put together, they then balance out because one is high and one is low. This is where the little things that we do make a change. A few different examples are using solar energy for electricity and for heating water, change of lightbulbs, recycling and many more.
I believe that will make a big impact but to make a HUGE impact we need to convert coal to solar,wind or tidal power because if we don't change right now there won't be an earth later.
perhaps the personal changes are what get people to see the need (and hence to demand) change from their leaders as well
I agree with you totally Jason! I also think for someone who isn't fully thinking about the big changes we need to make in his or her daily life, it is hard for them to grasp what needs to be done on a big scale. Which is why I believe the small things are better than extreme changes, because although those big changes need to be done, the little things are something that every person around the world can contribute.