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 Carbon Footprint in the Home
I think the best way to reduce carbon footprint in the home is improving upon one big category: reducing emissions from technology in the home. This includes lawnmowers, water heaters, and other technologies that take up carbon. We also use a lot of water in the house from laundry, food, and bathroom usage. Some good ways to reduce carbon in the house essentially involve getting rid of certain technologies and water usage. Grey water system can be used by collecting water and using it in laundry and with the right soap, be used in the garden, or any other water source. Rainwater water usage can reduce household water consumption by 40%. Gas heaters are a huge source of Carbon dioxide. There are better ways to heat a house such as using proper insulation (this can also help keep the house cool). You can also install skylights in order to heat the house (and if you are a light sleeper, the sun could wake you up in the morning instead of an alarm clock). For food, you should use an induction cook top that take less time and energy took cook food. Raw vegetables should be en couraged because it saves energy from having to use the stove or oven. Growing your own food is best, but a good alternative would be purchasing locally grown foods. This reduces carbon emissions from having to transport the food to your area. Worm compost is also great This is an obvious point, but solar panels are really good ways to save energy. They also reduce noise and can save up to $1000. Overall I think that my family should work on these things because we have gas heaters and never think to reuse water, so these methods could really help decrease our carbon emissions.
Hello Olivia, I think your ideas on how to reduce your carbon footprint are very much like mine. I also think that my family uses a lot of water throughout the day and it would be more beneficial for us and the environment would be to collect the water like you were saying. Another thing would be to only wash clothes when needed and to install the skylights because we have four in our home and during the day its so bright we don't even really turn the lights on.