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 Famil Footprint
I do agree that reducing my carbon footprint would be quite difficult if I were not making the decisions in the house. So if I had my own house and was in charge, I would try growing food right from my backyard and make sure the house is powered by solar energy. I would also love to have my home near my school and the skytrain/bus. Sometimes little things can make a huge diffrence.
I agree that it's not easy to reduce your family's carbon footprint because you cannot control what they use and the usage amount. Besides traveling on planes a lot, I think my family has done a reasonably good job.
Encouraging your family to recycle, eat locally grown foods is a good way to reduce there carbon footprint. But just like @azl28 said it is not easy to reduce. I live in a family of four including myself and when I put in my information, my footprint was way over average. I have noticed at home my mom goes to our local Safeway almost everyday. They have fresh fruits but the better option, is to make a small garden in the back or go to Berkeley Bowl (our local produce store). These are just a few suggestions from my experience that I intend to change.