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 >
Family Time is Good for the Environment
After looking at my carbon footprint data, I realized that my family's transportation and home energy footprints are higher than average. My brother is a senior at the all boys high school next to mine. Therefore, he takes me to school most days. The days he doesn't take me to school, my mom or my friends mother will take me. The reasons why I don't always go with my brother are: I have a late start, but he doesn't and I want to sleep in, he has morning basketball practice and I want to sleep in, or he has a late start but I don't and he wants to sleep in. All of these excuses result in two extra car trips to the same place, while it could have been in one, resulting in the unnecessary release of extra Carbon into the environment. My home footprint was high as well. Because everyone in my house is so busy, we will find ourselves in different rooms and on different schedules. Often times, three of us will be watching the same television show in three different rooms, using extra energy. Another thing my family does is use the same appliances at different times. I wash my clothes two times during a school week to to sports, my brother also washes his clothes during the week. But, we never wash our clothes together, at the same time -in fact I am doing that right now! In reference to @brennawusa's post, one year of washing emits 72 kgs. of carbon dioxide into the air. Washing in total six times a week is far too much and unhealthy for society. Lastly, eating schedules do indeed matter. if my whole family was to eat all at the same time, we would cut having to use the microwave five or six times a night to two or three. Being aware of what the other members in your household are doing doesn't only make you closer, it helps the environment.
Your family seems very busy. Watching television together would reduce you carbon footprint. Washing your clothes together would also. Washing your clothes in cold water will reduce your carbon footprint also because the machine doesn't have to use energy to heat the water. You and your brother could try to carpool with individuals that attend your school, when one sleeps in more than the other. This will reduce the multiple trips to the same place.