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 >
My Family Carbon Footprint
I live in a mixed family both at my dads and moms. There are six people who live in one house, and seven people in the other. This calls for a lot of food, water, and electricity. Our family carbon footprint is high, but there are ways we can lower our number.
First off, there are many people taking 15-20 minute showers seven days in a week. I feel like we can reduce our shower times substantially if each person cuts down a small amount of five minutes. This will save at least 30 minutes each day, and about 210 minutes a week.
My family has a habit of leaving our bedroom lights on, TV's on, and other room lights on. I feel like we'd save on electricity by simply shutting off our lights when we leave a room. Another thing we can do is make sure all lights are off when we go to bed and leave for school/work everyday.
For food, we do pretty good because we grow vegetables, fruits, and have chickens for eggs. But I feel we can reduce this more by eating more vegetables, less meat, and lower our fast food intake. I think it would be a good idea if we bought more l ocally grown food, less food with wasteful wrappers, and cut out junk food/ processed food. Another idea I have is one night a week we have a vegan meal. This will reduce the livestock we eat considering it'll save at least six servings of meat in one day.
I agree, these are great ways to reduce your carbon footprint! Some ways I plan to reduce my footprint is by Carpooling more, turning the lights off in rooms no one is in, and taking shorter showers. My family is only 4 people, but we do have a heavy carbon footprint. I intend to use the same things you do, along with what I've written to reduce our footprint.
I also agree. My family only consists of four people, but we also have a large carbon footprint. We leave lights on often so to cut back on our carbon footprint we have began to turn off the lights before we leave and turn off lights in rooms we don't use. It is very easy to cut down on your carbon footprint also by starting to recycle and compost in your house hold. It is simple and free. Half of Americans say they recycle 75% of their recyclable items, and this will cut your carbon footprint down by a lot.