Being Sustainable

I have been adapting to my new habits rather well. It is not easy, especially since there are many I signed up for, to always remember. I am trying something new, I decided that every week I am going to focus on at least three actions. For example last week I focused on taking the stairs, not using the dishwasher, and turning the lights when I exit the room. After a week of practicing what seems to be simple changes, I created a habit. I got used to not turning off the lights constantly, taking the stairs, and washing dishes by hand. It easier for me now to focus more on other changes without worrying about the others too much because they are becoming a habit. Now this week I am focusing on turning off the TV when I am not really watching it, washing only full loads of clothes and I set my computer to automatically hibernate after 3 minutes. My most common problem is I fall asleep watching TV. To avoid this problem I set the TV sleeper for 20 minutes. This has allowed me to keep track of how much TV I watch before going to bed or not falling asleep with the TV on. Now, I don’t wake up with the TV on or even if I am awake when the TV shuts off, I tend to just go to bed instead of turning it back on.

Controlling the TV has not been very challenging; all I have to do is remember to set the timer. Washing full loads of clothes on the other hand, has been a bit more challenging. When I wash my clothes I separate them by color, whites, brights, darks.  When I do laundry I like getting it all out of the ways at once, I do not like having to wait longer to wash a load.  Now I have to wait until I have enough white color clothes to fill a full load, and I must admit it’s a little frustrating.

Lastly , I set my computer to automatically hibernate after 3minutes. This is not so bad, the only frustrating part is when I am concentrated in something for more than three minutes and I don’t realize it, my computer shuts down on me. It is not a big deal, but can get annoying.  Keeping this action up next week will be more challenging that last week’s task because they require more thought. I believe that the one that will be more challenging for me is turning off the TV. I now find myself turning off the lights out of habit, but I still have to keep reminding myself to set the TV timer.

Comparison

I calculated my ecological footprint in different websites to compare how the different results vary. By far the most detailed calculation was from the website www.footprintnetwork.org., which results I presented in my previous post. The survey in order to calculate my footprint went in debt to describe my accurate lifestyle. It did not however provide the amount of CO2 I produce; it just calculated the amount of planets necessary to provide enough resources to support my current lifestyle. On the other end, the most general website calculator was www.nativeenergy.com/ followed by www.climatecrisis.net. These websites asked about 5-8 very general questions not really characterizing my lifestyle. Native Energy in particular calculated my CO2 as 21 tons per year with only four questions from which only two were relevant to me (how many houses I own and how many cars I own). In comparison, Climate crisis calculated my CO2 to be 1.35 tons per year, not nearly close or relevant to Native Energy Results.

Lastly, I also calculated my carbon foot print from www.carbonfootprint.com. This site along with Foot Print Network I believe to be the most accurate projections of my lifestyle. Not only have they begun with general question they also had many sub questions to detail what my lifestyle consists of. The main downside of this was that it was hard to answer some questions. For example: How many miles of public transportation you go through every year? Questions like that even though they are good details to be more accurate, they are also hard to think of an exact answer.

Carbon Foot Print calculated my yearly CO2 consumption as 8.71 metric tons. The average footprint for people in the United States is 20 tons, this leads me to believe that while I still may be under the average, I don’t think my real CO2 consumption is that low. Therefore, my improvement throughout this semester will be mainly based of my initial results from Foot Print Network. I believe this calculation to be the most accurate and therefore a better benchmark. 

The Beginning...

While taking the personal footprint test I started realizing some bad habits have obtained throughout the years. I enjoyed taking the test, it opens your eyes to little details I never thought were truly important or would make a difference if I changed.My ecological footprint is broken downs as 13% of my lifestyle is dedicated to mobility, 7% to shelter, 8% goods and 35% services. 5 to 7 planets would be necessary to support my way of living as well as 25-3 acres of the earth’s productive area.

After taking the test, in the website www.StepGreen.org I committed to a few actions to reduce my consumption. I decided to start with small actions to ease my way into changing. Some of the steps I committed to are: turning of the lights when I exit the house, turning of the TV when I’m not really watching, taking the stairs in my apartment, etc. while I thought this seamless actions would be easy to follow I often catch myself falling asleep with the TV on or  taking longer showers than usual. I am although being more conscious of my actions and it is just the beginning. Beginnings for change are challenging, especially if are habits I’ve had all my life. Hopefully it becomes easier as time goes by.