Today I calculated my household carbon footprint on www.carbonfootprint.com. While it turned out a little lower than the national average, I’m not patting myself on the back. According to the website our footprint is still 5 times higher than the average worldwide carbon footprint. It opened my eyes to the fact that there are so many ways that we could be doing a better job of taking care of our environment. In addition to providing resources on how you as an individual or a business can reduce your carbon footprint, it also had links to various carbon offsetting initiatives. For example, you can offset the annual metric tons of CO2 produced by your vehicle, by paying $40 to an organization that plants trees in Kenya.
Now, I have to be honest, to me this sounds a little like going to confession and saying “bless me Father for I have sinned” the priest tells you to say three Hail Marys and all is forgiven. In this instance, the person writes a check and goes away with a clear conscience. If the person doesn’t make real changes to their energy consumption behavior and depends upon the supposed offset sustainable progress is never really achieved. Also, what guarantees do you have that the organization is actually spending the funds to plant Mayan Nut trees in Central and South America or investing in Mongolian wind power projects. And why are these projects so far away? There must be projects in which one can invest in their own community.
In the process of calculating our carbon footprint, I learned that we spent over $1200 last year on water and electricity and over $500 on gas. I’m curious how much we can reduce these numbers by making some of the suggested changes that I’ve, frankly, resisted until now.
So our carbon footprint score was 19. I’m curious….what’s yours? Post it in the comments, and tell the truth!
–Mick
Hey Mickie, Cool stuff, I will check my footprint. Put the word out that I am planting trees for $40.00
Marty, the fact that you got rid of all your vehicles should put you ahead of the game. Yesterday I ran 2 miles to the bank and back – an errand I would normally use the car to drive. Got my exercise in and did my banking. It felt good.
I do what I can for Mother Earth, it help nourish my YIN energy.
That was cool. For a household of 1 plus 2 dogs, my Carbon Footprint is 11.06