Students from around the world calculated their class mean and standard deviations for their footprints and posted them on our world map.
Do you see differences across the globe? If so, why do you think those differences exist?
Did you use the calculator to try to reduce your footprint down to the average from a citizen of another country? What changes would you have to make to lower your footprint in this way? Are you going to try and take some of these actions in your daily life?
Student Footprints >
Student Footprint (USA)
My footprint was just over the average in my region. Mine being 10281 and the average being 9727. This is largely due to the transportation, this past year I've taken 4 flights two of those to Europe and back and the others to San Diego, CA and back. In other cases my footprint was less than the average.
In the Home my footprint was 2016 compared to 3757 this is probably becuase my family doesn't use our heater or air conditonor as much because it is expensive and it is a gas powered system. We usually turn the air conditionor or heater on for an hour or so then turn it off and close the windows just to cool off or heat down the house.
In the Food portion mine was 1128 compared to 2223. In the area I live stores have just now banned plastic bags and are "forcing" people to bring their own reusable bags. My family has embraced for a while now and we almost always buy organic and locally-grown when we can.
Lastly Purchases I got 446 compared to the average of 1191 this is probably becuase I don't usually buy a lot of new clothes at once I like to buy few things every once in a while and I also thrift some of my clothing. Also my family almost always reuses plastics and containers.
One thing that my family could try to fix is how much gas we use from school and work since we drive a lot.