The Plan:
The total size of my ecological footprint was 8.2 hectares. After comparing it to a few of my peer’s scores, I found that my score was around 1.03 hectares higher than their average score. Looking back on my scores and habits, I noticed that I gained the most points by owning brand new clothes, travelling a lot in cars, spending too much time on technology, eating farmed fish, eating too many dairy products, producing too much garbage, showering for too long, flushing the toilet too often, not avoiding disposable items, my family owning more than one car, and using too much equipment form my leisure activities. There was a lot of room for improvement in the way I went about my day, so I settled with changing the following 5 things. First of all, Taking showers under 2 minutes. I found that I waste a lot of water taking hot showers over 10 minutes when It is completely unnecessary and could be used for more important purposes. To not waste so much water I took cold to mildly warm showers and timed myself to make sure I didn’t run the water more than 2 minutes. I chose this because it was a simple and effective change to make, and even woke me up more in the morning. Secondly, I tried not to travel in a vehicle when I could walk or bike instead. The fumes produced by cars are extremely harmful to the environment, and we especially do not need to be using cars for a 5-minute drive with 2 people. So instead of driving to the post office to deliver a letter, I rode my skateboard there instead. Next, I spent less than an hour on technology for leisure purposes. Most of my day is spent doing useless and mind-numbing actions online or on my devices, so I decided to put them away and only used them when necessary. Next, I spent more time doing activities that do not require a lot of equipment. For example, instead of painting, I practiced dancing and singing, which doesn’t require any material at all. This saves some waste of materials and provides equal amounts of enjoyment. Finally, I tried to not produce as much garbage as I normally do. Garbage is one of the biggest issues polluting the earth and natural environments. By cutting down on the number of wrappers I unpackage, and other junk I throw away, I easily make a difference in the waste being produced.
The Reflection:
After applying these changes, I can say the easiest changes to adapt to were the length of my shower, spending more time doing activities that don’t require equipment, and not producing as much garbage. These changes were just simple actions that I could easily remember to complete and that didn’t hugely affect my day but affected my environmental footprint greatly. Not much in my routine was different than before, and I easily got into the habit of reminding myself to be mindful of each of these goals. On the other hand, spending less time on technology, and not travelling in cars was a little harder for me. Technology and social media is something that I find myself looking at for long amounts of the day. It was very tempting to grab back my phone and scroll through Instagram, and I did slip up a couple of times, but I tried my hardest to stick to my goal. As for transportation, It is so much more convenient to hop in a car and be anywhere in an instant, but I slowly learned to enjoy the ride to my destination and not just where I am going. Though it took some getting used to, it long skateboard rides or walks grew on me after a while. Some of the obstacles I encountered while applying these changes were breaking the habits I was trying to build or forgetting about the limits I had to set for myself. I only slipped up a couple of times, but it made me realize how much effort I had to put to build a good habit, even for a simple action. Some next steps I will take in the future will be to buy fewer clothes from fast-fashion brands and go more ethical or buy from thrift-shops if I need something that I don’t already have. Turning old clothes into something new is something I enjoy doing anyway, so that will be the next step I take into becoming environmentally friendly.