THE PLAN
My Ecological Footprint:
My current ecological footprint is 7.20 hectares.
How does it compare to others?
After looking at my other classmates’ numbers I noticed that my score falls close to the middle. I am not doing the best because there are still lots of things that need improving but, I am not doing the worst because I have taken actions to reduce it in the past. People’s scores are all pretty different and I think this is because everyone has different opportunities to be environmentally friendly.
Ten Things to Change:
- Produce less garbage in a day
- Take shorter showers
- Wash clothes with cold water
- Flush the toilet only when needed
- Eat more organic foods
- Only wash clothes when necessary
- Eat less meat when possible
- Get more environmentally friendly cleaners
- Purchase more energy-saving lightbulbs
- Eat more foods that were grown in BC
Five Things Changed and How they were Changed:
- Reduce the amount of garbage produced by always bring a reusable drink container, masks and reusable bags. I can do this by keeping them in your bags so that you always have them with you.
- Take showers that are under ten minutes to help with water usage. Setting timers are not listening to music while in the shower could help me take shorter showers.
- Wash clothes in cold water to help with water usage. This one is easy I only must remember to change the settings on the washing machine when I am doing a load of laundry.
- Trying eating more organic foods when possible to help with the number of pollution chemicals. I will do this by trying to ask for more organic snacks if my parents ask and trying t eat less processed foods when there are other things in the house.
- Only wash clothes when they are dirty not every time you wear them to help with water usage. I will do this by making sure to hang up or put away clothes that haven’t gotten dirty so that they don’t get put in the wash. Also, just making sure I am checking to see if clothing really needs to be washed yet when I am putting it in my laundry basket.
Why?
I chose these ones because they were changes that were possible for me that would still make a change. I expect some of these won’t be as easy as others, but I know all of them are achievable for me right now. I wanted to focus a little bit on the water usage section because that was something that I could change by myself. Though I did have a high number in the food section that was something I couldn’t change as much because my parents choose what we eat. I also wanted to choose things that weren’t the easiest things to change so that they would help me start having better habits. For example, I was super used to having long showers but after trying to take shorter ones it will be easier to keep decreasing my shower time. Since I have lots that have that are focused around water usage, I think that part of my footprint will improve lots which is a good thing because it was one of my highest scores.
THE REFLECTION:
What was easy?
The easiest change for me was using cold water when I washed my clothes. This was a very simple change and it didn’t have any negative effect on me. All I had to do for this was to make sure I remembered to change the setting on the machine, so this was a very simple switch to help the environment. Another change that was easy for me was reducing my garbage created in a day. Since we are in a pandemic, I don’t go to many places, so I don’t have to worry about getting single-use plastic while I am out. For the places I do go like school I remembered to bring my reusable water bottle and would pack my lunch with reusable containers. The last change that I made that I found easy was only washing clothes when needed. I found that before I would wear a sweater once and then throw it in the laundry because I wasn’t thinking. I found that when I was thinking about it more, I would remember to hang them back up and I wasn’t doing laundry as much.
What was hard?
The hardest thing for me was trying to eat more organic foods. My family usually gets a mix of organic and non-organic food, so I couldn’t eat a completely organic diet during the two weeks. This was mainly hard because I don’t shop all for myself, but I mentioned it to my parents, and they bought more organic produce. It was also difficult because sometimes processed food can be more tempting when you are choosing a snack. The other change that I found more difficult was reducing shower time. One of my worst habits is taking showers that are much too long so this one was a bigger adjustment for me. I tried setting timers to help remind me when I should be finishing up in the shower which helped a bit. I found that listening to music in the shower made me want to stay in the shower longer, so I started showering without music as well. Something else I could have tried is taking showers that were a bit colder because that would likely make me not want to stay in as long. Though some parts of these changes were hard there are strategies I could use to make them a bit easier.
Obstacles:
One obstacle that I found with all the changes was memory. All the changes include having to remember to change a certain behaviour. For example, switching to washing my clothes with cold is a very easy thing to do but remembering to change it was a little more challenging. Some ways I overcame this obstacle was leaving reminders for myself. The best way for me to remember something is to write it down on the whiteboard in my room. Though I still did have trouble remembering all the new changes I was implementing.
What will I do in the future?
In the near future, I want to continue to reduce the garbage I produce in a day by trying to switch to products that are more ecofriendly. An example of that is bamboo toothbrushes because these are something I have been wanting to try and they would reduce my plastic consumption. Another thing to do in the present time is trying to buy more second-hand clothes. Something else that I would want to change in the future is spending less time on technology. I can’t really change that much right now because of online school but I do want to reduce the time spent on electronics after we are back to normal. Fast fashion is a big impact on the climate and buying second-hand clothing would help me not contribute. Something I want to do that would be a while from now is to stop eating meat. This is hard to do right now because I can’t really cook for myself and my family isn’t vegetarian. I think that once I am older and I do cook for myself I could move towards a vegetarian. This would be something simple that could really help with my ecological footprint.