Ecological Footprint

Click here to see my score!

(the blue highlights are parts that apply to me and the red highlights are parts that applies to my friend and purple is both)

My friend and I scored very high on the survey as the Canadian average is 7.5 hectares. However, after asking some of my peers, I noticed that a lot of people got a number higher than me. I think that our numbers are so high because we never got a proper understanding of the consequences that happen after doing every day things that seem perfectly normal. I think that this number will continue to increase if we don’t let others know about how our actions can influence the earth.

Ten actions that currently increase the size of my footprint

Showering for more than 10 minutes and having a full bathtub
Having garbage that would fit into a shoebox on a typical day
Not recycling plastic bags
Not always turning off the lights and other electrical appliances when I leave a room
Keeping the house temperature cool in winter and wearing a sweater
Spending more than an hour on the computer and/or watching TV per day
Having brand new clothes bought for you
Hardly ever wearing about ½ of the clothes you own
Not avoiding disposable items
Spending more time on a car, not public transit

Actions I will try changing to reduce the size of your footprint

Most of the actions were chosen to fit the current situation. For example, I cannot choose to spend less time in a car because I spend less time in a car without physically trying.

Showering for more than 10 minutes and having a full bathtub

Reduce the time showering
Try to bath less
I tend to shower for a long time because I stand idle in the shower
Can be easily fixed by moving quickly in the shower

Having garbage that would fit into a shoebox on a typical day

This also fits into avoiding disposable items category
I think this can be reduced easily by reusing items and trying to not buy any overly packaged items
Try to replace paper with online programs like word
Store things in a reusable container

Not recycling plastic bags

I was surprised to see plastic bags on the list because our family recycles a lot of items but we just threw plastic bags in the trash
Can reuse plastic bags as garbage bags
Keep plastic bags from stores

Not always turning off the lights and other electrical appliances when I leave a room

I tend to think that I don’t have to turn it off because I will come back
I will unplug electric devices when I am not using them
This might be a little difficult since I am home the majority of the time now
I can turn the lights off during the day and keep my blinds up to let the sunlight replace the fluorescent light

Keeping the house temperature cool in winter and wearing a sweater

Since I am mostly home, this will help reduce my ecological footprint effectively
The climate is becoming warmer
I can wear my layer clothes and take some off if I feel hot and layer more if I feel cold.

Spending more than an hour on the computer and/or watching TV per day

This is possibly the most difficult because technology has taken a huge part of our lives
I will try to reduce the time of watching TV and my phone by setting some screentime
I will use my time effectively when I am on a computer

Some things that were easy for me after a little getting used to is showering for less than 10 minutes. I tried to focus on the main point of showering. I already have a water-saving showerhead to prevent having a lot of water waste. I bathed a lot less and even if I did I kept the water level to a minimum. I also reduced by garbage. I tried to use items that are recyclable. For example, when my dad and I went to the grocery store, instead of buying individually packaged yogurts, we bought one large container. I also reduced the use of plastic bags and one-use items like paper. This leads to my next point, plastic bags. Plastic bags from grocery stores and used plastic bags were kept in a cabinet to use as garbage bags for garbage bins. I think this was definitely reducing my ecological footprint as it also reduces the use of bought garbage bags.

Some difficult tasks were keeping the house temperature cool and wearing more. It was hard to get everyone in my family to agree to this task as my dad hates the cold. The normal temperature we set at our house is 21 degrees in Celcius. Without lowering the temperature immediately, we lowered the temperature by 1 degree every day until it was 18 degrees Celcius. This continued smoothly after. Another difficult task was Spending less than an hour on the computer and/or watching TV per day. I spend a lot of time in front of a device during these times. To reduce the time of device usage, I set up screentime on my phone to limit the device usage to one hour. I tried to play fewer video games and watch tv shows on tv. I rarely turned on the tv the last month and I am actually very proud of myself.

The obstacles I faced were remembering to continue the routines I set for myself. I always rush to leave my room without turning my lights off and run back to my room to turn the lights off. I also kept forgetting to unplug electronics that I am not using. It took me a week to get in the habit of turning off lights, not throwing out everything without thinking, showering quickly and more. I also tended to fight myself to make some decisions. I really just wanted to throw plastic bags in the trash and just stay in the shower for longer. I realized how easy it is to hurt the environment but it takes so long to retrieve it back to normal.

For the future, I would like to continue reducing my ecological footprint with some topics that I did not end up reducing such as hardly ever wearing about ½ of the clothes you own. I think it would also be useful if our family bought reusable grocery bags. I think if we use it often, it will help reduce our ecological footprint. I will also bike and use public transit more often as the scores added from transportation are the highest for me. I will continue looking for ways to reduce my garbage until all my daily garbage can fit in a cup. This was a fun experience for me and I would love to inform people of how the daily things we do in life affect the environment.