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 >
Reducing My Family's Carbon Footprint
My family has a large carbon footprint due to how much we drive places and travel. This summer I went on a couple trips that I normally don't go on and that raised my carbon footprint by a lot. My dad travels for work and he often drives or flies to different places across the country a few times a year, My mom drives me to sporting events on the weekends, to meet my friends, to go to the grocery store, to run errands, etc. We spend a lot of our time driving to many different places during the week and the weekend. I know an obvious way we could reduce our carbon footprint would be to drive less, but I think the most reasonable way we could reduce our carbon emissions would be to purchase an eco-friendly car that is able to get better gas mileage.
Hey Caroline, our Carbon Footprints are in contrast because transportation was my lowest category. I like that you strive to purchase an eco-friendly car one day, that helps a lot. My Home life was the highest category and that is due to the amount of time that I use A/C. People use a lot more than they actually need and this project is really helping people realize that.
I also fall into the same category as Caroline. My biggest section is transportation because of where I live. I live in the middle of no where and it takes a good 25-30 minutes to get to school, go shopping, or even visit friends. I also do not drive the most fuel efficient car out there so if I could invest in a more fuel efficient car that would be a plus. My family also travels to Colorado every year where we guide hunts, so that is also a big part of my carbon footprint.
I'm the same, in that, my largest category was transportation as well because I drive everywhere, even though there is a decent public transport system where I live. As this is just a matter of preference, I should change my habits and get used to relying on public transportation more. The largest chunk of my transportation-based footprint came from airline travel as, for work and vacation, my family travels to different countries a lot. We could probably cut down on vacation-time spent outside of the US, but the travel required for my parents to do their jobs might be harder to cut back on or make more efficient.