Ecological Footprint

Transportation
1. Vacations
  1. The next time my family is deciding where to go for vacation, I can suggest something close by, so we use less energy when traveling and reducing the amount of pollution released from our plane. Each plane releases 53 pounds of CO2 per mile that it flies, so I could save tonnes of pollution from happening by just suggesting a close but fun destination.
  2. I will take less things with me when I travel, because extra weight make the car/plane use more fuel which increases my ecological footprint.
2. Carpooling
  1. When I travel to places that are too far to walk, I can catch a ride with one of my friends, or give a friend a ride there. This will reduce the amount of cars driving and emitied pollution, which makes my ecological footprint smaller. Doing this once a week, saves 20% fuel.
  2. When driving with someone else, I will bring less stuff with me, as it weighs down the car more which increases the amount of fuel used.
3. Bike/jog
  1. Since I live close by to school, I can bike there instead of getting driven. I already usually do this but when it's cold my parents drive me, but instead I can wear a winter coat and walk there. This is very simple due to the easy paths leading straight to the school from my house.
  2. Additionally, I will try to avoid being driven often during the winter, as the car needs to heat up for several minutes which expends gas. The trip can be slippery which requires the car to go slower and use lots of gasonline. The better alterniative is to walk.
4. What to do when gone
  1. Unplug all electronic devices like computers, because they still take up energy even if turned off. This will save lots of energy, and will greatly impact my ecological footprint. This is a good idea every time I travel, if I go on vacation I would do this since I'll be gone for a while.
  2. I should also remmeber to turn off the heating and internet whenever I travel, since it can be a massive waste of energy for each day that I'm gone.
Housing
1. Temperature
  1. Decreasing the temperature on the thermostat by just a few degrees, can make a huge difference. In the winter we can lower the heat and wear sweaters for a comfier, and more eco-friendly way to keep warm.
  2. I have a fan in the garage which I can use in the summer instead of an air conditioner. Fans are much less energy costing, while providing a nice breeze in the room. This is a better alternative to air conditioning, and keeping windows closed on hot days will help keep the heat out, while cooling the home.
2. Paper
  1. People in North America use an average of 340 kg of paper per year! Very often I print things unnecessarily, when I could easily email it, or put it on a flash drive. I could reduce my paper usage a lot, and it takes even less effort than printing. I would reduce the amount of trees chopped for my paper, and lower my ecological footprint.
  2. Double-side printing is actually quite simple once I learned it. When I need to print something, printing it on both sides of a paper can cut most of my paper usage in half!
3. Lights
  1. I can tell my parents about florescent light bulbs, and convince them to buy them for the house. My room will have more efficient light bulbs, which allows me to reduce my ecological footprint. These light bulbs save 2/3 of the energy compared to regular bulbs, and will save about $40 in the time that they operate compared to a normal light bulb.
  2. Use daylight: If I use the natural sunlight to light up my room, I could save quite a lot of energy. I wake up at around 10 am on weekends, and the sun usually goes down at around 5 pm. I have 7 hours of daylight which I can use to light up my room instead of the light switch. My light bulb uses about 60 watts per hour, so 60 x 7 = 420 watts per day saved. I would reduce my ecological footprint since I use much less electricity, and use the eco-friendly alternative.
4. Water
  1. Adding a few stones inside the toilet refill box, so the toilet uses less water every time it flushes. This will save tons of water, by just adding a couple of rocks into the toilet and my ecological footprint will be reduced!
  2. Shorter showers are much better, and being 5 minutes faster with my shower can save about 12.5 gallons of water. Additionally, I will also take less baths, since they can waste dozens of gallons each time. Short showers are the cleaner, and less costly while reducing my ecological footprint.
Food Choice
1. Saving food
  1. Eating more food at meals let me snack less so I do not consume as much food, and lower my ecological footprint. I'd also snack less so there are less packages.
  2. Reducing the amount of food left on my plate, will allow for a smaller ecological footprint, since less food is used to feed me. In 2005, 37% of vegetables in stores would spoil and be wasted.
2. Food in season
  1. I can ask my parents to buy foods in season, since they are grown locally and create less pollution when they reach us because they don't have to be imported. Five pounds of a product being shipped across the country creates 12 pounds of CO2.
  2. Instead of requesting foods not in season, I will eat more local foods and wait for other seasons to eat them (e.g. wait until Autumn to eat apples).
3. Types of food
  1. Eating less processed food will reduce my ecological footprint. Not as many packages are wasted, and less room is required to make my food. I should try to eat less food from cans, plastic packages, vacuum seals, or frozen foods, while instead eating fresh food.
  2. Eat more vegetables, so then I require less meat. Cows need to eat entire fields before they are ready to be eaten. This also takes up lots of space, and further raises my ecological footprint. It is estimated that people's food section of their ecological footprint could be reduced 25% if they didn't eat meat
4. Drinks
  1. Drinking tap water instead of bottled water can have a tremendous impact on my ecological footprint. Since I have reusable water bottles at home, it would quite easy to swap bottled water with filling up a reusable one. 50 billion plastic water bottles were drunk in the USA last year, I don't want to contribute to it the number
  2. When I buy myself pop, I should only get as much as I can drink because I might waste some. An average of 15% of all drinks were wasted from spoilage in the US, which means that I should buy my pop in small amounts.
5. Gardening
  1. Planting a garden (I love gardening) is a good way to reduce my ecological footprint, since I make use of my home space. This allows for less land being used to produce my food, and more vegetables being made at home. Since I already enjoy gardening, this would be a fun and healthy way to get food while reducing my ecological footprint.
  2. I can use organic waste as a fertilizer for the food in my garden! This will reduce the amount of compost that sits in my garage, and will also benefit my plants because of the nutrients contained in the compost.
J. Encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions: This can benefit our community greatly because if people get to give their opinions on development decisions, new buildings will be built closer to the majority of people. For example, if 75% of people in the community live in a certain area, than most people will vote/ ask for the new building to be built close to there. This will reduce the required gas/ energy to get to the places, since the majority of people live close by. Stores, day cares, and places of worship can all be built where the people of the community want, so that it is easier and more efficient to reach those places. An example of this in my community is a street called Jubilee Garden, which has many Muslims. They would all vote for a Mosque to be built close by so they wouldn't have to travel far, and so it instead wouldn't be built far away where little people have interest in it.

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Ecological Footprint

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	Created by David Manukian over 8 years ago