kind classics: calculate your carbon footprint
There's a lot of lingo that goes with being green and eco-friendly. The term 'carbon footprint' gets thrown around a lot, but many of us don't really know exactly what it means so I wanted to share some information with you.
Your 'carbon footprint' is a measure of the impact your day to day activities have on the environment and climate change. I recently found this handy Carbon Footprint calculator online. All you have to do is answer a few simple questions and you'll have an estimate on your 'carbon footprint' in minutes.
If you don't like the estimate you get and want to reduce your 'carbon footprint', here are a few easy tips to reduce it:
-Avoid using the dryer and air dry your clothes if possible
-Wash your clothing in cold water
-Replace light bulbs around your home and office with Compact Fluourescent or LED bulbs
-Turn off lights when you're not in a room or even if you're going somewhere for a short amount of time
-Regulate the temperature in your house - even 2 degrees can make a huge difference!
-Clean and replace your air filters on a regular basis so they work more efficiently
-Turn off the faucet while you're brushing your teeth - this will save 25 gallons of water per month!
-Carpool!
-Unplug and turn off all electronics when you're not using them
What is your 'carbon footprint'? And what are you doing around your home or office to reduce it?
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5 comments
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Boy I really am on the right track. I can see from this and the post about water conservation that I'm doing pretty good at minimizing my carbon footprint. This is really great news to me because I was concerned that I was doing very little to help the environment. But there is always room for improvement and I am so grateful for all the useful information provided here. I'm going to use the calculator and have my friends and family use it to. Can't wait to share this!
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Awesome resource! It says mine is 2.74 metric tons of CO2, although some of my estimates may not have been exact. Still, it's good to have a way to get an idea of where you're at and I feel good knowing my carbon footprint is small. :)
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I often think about my carbon footprint and until recently always thought that going to live in the country or mountains you would have less of one.
Any interesting blog changed my mind. I read a blog on the NYT website that is about a family that is living in Maine for a year in a Cabin. The recent one they did talks about the difference between city life and living in the woods for your Carbon footprint. If anyone is interested it is http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/a-year-in-the-woods/
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I often get frustrated when people talk about changing out light bulbs to Compact Fluourescent bulbs. CF contain mercury and although they should be recycled properly, nearly everyone I remind has no idea that's the case. Had we pushed the idea of dimmers to reduce energy consumption, we could have saved more money, had a greater impact on the environment and all looked a lot prettier as the Color Rendering is better using incandescent light sources. Compact Fluor. are difficult to dim and require specific dimming ballasts that aren't really practical for the residential buyer. Now we have an issue in the industry because of the rare earth materials used in producing compact fluor. making them rise in cost and lower in availability. Anyway...just my two cents.
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It's funny that the vegan and lifestyle questions fall under the Secondary tab when the meat, egg, and dairy industries produce more greenhouse gases than all forms of transportation combined!
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