Ecological Footprint

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:

  1. Produce less garbage in a day
  2. Take shorter showers
  3. Wash clothes with cold water
  4. Flush the toilet only when needed
  5. Eat more organic foods
  6. Only wash clothes when necessary
  7. Eat less meat when possible
  8. Get more environmentally friendly cleaners
  9. Purchase more energy-saving lightbulbs
  10. Eat more foods that were grown in BC

Five Things Changed and How they were Changed:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

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