Sinu’s Carbon Footprint Blog
Comparing Carbon Footprints
Mine: 8.05 hectares
Bana: 8.7 hectares
Ben: 7.9 hectares
Draedon: 6.8 hectares
Dylan: 12 hectares
Justin Q: 7.45 hectares
Kavyan: 7.45 hectares
Colin: 11.3 hectares
Makenna: 9.1 hectares
Things that are increasing my carbon footprint
- Buying new clothes
- Wasting and having too much trash
- Riding the bus or taking public transit
- Spending too much time on electronics
- Not always using reusable bags when shopping
- Showering for an extended amount of time
- Always flushing the toilet after using it
- Spending too much time in a vehicle
- Eating non-organic foods
- Keeping electronics charged when not in use
Five things that I will try and change to reduce the size of my carbon footprint
- Wasting and having too much trash
- Spending too much time on electronics
- Not always using reusable bags when shopping
- Showering for an extended amount of time
- Keeping electronics charged when not in use
The reason why I chose to change these specific things is because I think that these will be the easiest to change which means that I am the most likely to actually change them. Starting out by changing only a little bit is the best way of lowering my carbon footprint, even if it isn’t by that much.
The way I will be reducing my carbon footprint is to minimize my trash. To do this, I will try and reduce buying things that have a lot of trash. I will get takeout less in order to reduce the non-reusable dishes and instead create more homemade meals. I will also try to only buy things that don’t have a lot of packaging and only buy reusable items. To spend less time on my electronics, I will try and find other things to do. If I find other ways of entertaining myself, like reading, that will reduce my temptation to spend time on my electronics and also reduce my carbon footprint. I will also try and go outside more like go on walks so that I am not stuck in a room with just my phone. When I do go shopping, I will always make sure to bring a reusable bag. To also help with not forgetting to bring one, I will make sure that I keep some in the car as extra. To shower for a shorter amount of time, I will use colder water as a way of killing two birds with one stone. Using cold water doesn’t feel as nice as hot water and will make me want to get out of the shower instead of staying in it. Another way I will try and reduce the time I spend in the shower is to time myself. If I set a timer and it rings before I finish it, it will be annoying and make me want to come out to turn it off. Finally, in order to reduce my carbon footprint, instead of keeping my electronics plugged in while I am not using it, I will just wait until my laptop is dead or has low battery. Using low power mode or darker brightness will also make my devices run out of battery less which means I don’t have to charge it as much as if I didn’t have the low power mode on.
Changes that were easier to make
- Switching to using reusable bags
The reason why I think that this is a change that was easy to make is because our family doesn’t really go shopping together a lot. The plastic bags are also unreliable so even if we didn’t use plastic bags often, we still used reusable one as convenience.
- Showering for an extended amount of time
I never really showered that long before I tried lowering my footprint. The only real reason why I took longer than I needed to is because I zoned out often and because of the warm water. I did not continue to use cold water but because it was easy to change, I still reduced my time in the shower.
Changes that were difficult to make
- Wasting and having too much trash
This was really difficult which it shouldn’t have been. Everything that’s been happening with the new place at a food court we got. My parents aren’t really here to make home cooked meals so I have to eat prepackaged foods. Everything other than stuff I can’t really do about, because I have to eat, I don’t think that I create a lot of trash.
- Spending too much time on electronics
This wasn’t difficult because I had other things to do and for most of the time, I didn’t even have time to play games, but the problem was I had homework to do which required my device over 90 percent of the time which means I am still using my laptop almost all day.
Obstacles that I faced
Some of the obstacles that I faced while trying to lower my carbon footprint was owning a food court place pretty far away. It was kind of difficult to adjust to lowering my footprint when I didn’t have a lot of support. Other than that, I didn’t really face much of a challenge because I chose easier things to change because I am only starting out. Another obstacle is that I am not very good at cooking and most of my trash is from food. The last challenge that I faced was school. It was kind of hard limiting my screen time when I had homework to do. This one I am able to fix by trying to have better work efficiency and time management.
Steps in the future
I didn’t mention this in the blog, but I sometimes use my phone while working or even when I’m gaming which is a big waste of energy because I end up not focusing on my phone anyways. I only use it as something to listen to which I could use music instead because I don’t need the screen on which means I don’t have to charge my phone as often. Another thing I want to do in the future is to be mindful of this assignment. I don’t think that I would have tried to lower my footprint if it wasn’t for this assignment. I also want to try and ride the bus less and walk home when the weather is nice.
My two-week journey of lowering my carbon footprint (Bonus)
Day 1
Starting out, I was actually able to lower my footprint by a noticeable margin. The only thing that I was not able to work on was the trash. I don’t have a lot of homework which means that the only reason that I would use my electronics is so that I can play videogames, which I don’t have to. I still used my electronics, it’s just that I didn’t play it as much as I normally would have. The trash wasn’t that big of a deal either. I didn’t really buy anything that would produce any trash. The only exception is my water. Our filter broke so we are drinking using plastic bottled water which produces a lot of trash. Conveniently, I woke up late going to school which meant I had less time to shower and keeping my devices charged wasn’t a big deal even though I didn’t have a lot of batter because I hardly used it. I don’t usually keep my laptop charged.
Day 4
My family and I went shopping today for groceries and to get supplies for the upcoming fieldtrip that we have. For the supplies for the field trip, we didn’t need bags because I just put everything in my hiking bag that I bought which was nice. I didn’t bring a separate bag for the clothes that I bought for the trip which means I left a lot of carbon footprint for using plastic bags and buying new clothes. We brought our own bags when we went grocery shopping because otherwise, we would’ve needed a lot of plastic bags since we do a lot of shopping at once. I didn’t use my phone often either because I was busy shopping and I showered again, except a little longer than usual because I wasn’t on a time limit. I didn’t leave my laptop charged because I knew that it wouldn’t die because I wasn’t using it. There was an adequate amount of trash considering how many things I bought, like clothes that have tags and supplies that have packaging.
Day 7
After the first week of trying to lower my carbon footprint, I think that it went moderately well. Because of the amount of ingredients that my parents need for the food court place they got, my mom goes shopping very often. Fortunately, she always comes back with our own bags. I also have been using my laptop more than I use my phone and also more than usual because of the homework that I have. I can’t really do anything to fix that, so to at least reduce my screen time, I tried to use my phone less. My family has also been getting take out more often which produces a lot of trash because they come with non-reusable plates. I also still continue to not charge my laptop and devices overnight, although I do once in a while so that I don’t have to constantly bring my charger with me. Showering for a short time has not been a problem because it means that I can wake up later because I don’t have to shower for as long. This first week has been weird because I think that I actually increased my carbon footprint while trying to reduce it.
Day 10
Everything has been going better. I didn’t actually tell my family that I was trying to lower my carbon footprint by using less trash until a few days ago and to be honest, it hasn’t helped too much. Everything has been consistent and easier as went on. The tasks that I have been trying to change isn’t really something that takes multiple days to change. It is easy to change, but for some reason, trying to lower my footprint isn’t changing anything. Because these tasks are a lot of the time unavoidable and part of our daily lives, it isn’t something that I am just able to remove in just a few days. Something that helped with the charger system, although it is annoying for me, only having one charger for both my laptop and my phone makes it so that I am not overcharging and wasting energy. I constantly check how much batter my laptop has and if it has enough, I switch over to my phone. I also noticed that my shower times have been getting slightly longer, especially on days I wake up extra early. Sometimes I zone out and don’t realize that I’m taking a shower which means I don’t get out as quickly. We are also buying things in bigger packaging. Instead of, for example, buying a bunch of bags of chips, we just buy one big bag, so that way we don’t have as much garbage.
Day 12
I am finding less things to blog about. One big thing that’s increasing my carbon footprint that I only recently realized, is my laptop. I have another older laptop that I use to play games. I have a lot of accessories attached to it, which drains the battery by a bit. I also connect it to a monitor and a monitor takes power. I also always keep my laptop plugged in and never shut it down, only make it sleep. My laptop can’t really run without a charger plugged in, but a compromise I can make is to unplug it when I’m not using it and also shut it down. I don’t really want to because I have to set up my configurations again which takes a while, but I think that I will try to unplug it more moving forward. We still use a lot of water bottles so to reduce my footprint by a little, we are collecting them in a big bag, and we are going to recycle or return for refund. I keep trying to use my phone because I am bored, so I am going to try and set up some sort of system to fill up my day so that I am not bored, like sleeping.
Day 14
On Thursdays, I take 6 buses because I go to school, then home, then back to school. Instead, from now on, I am going to stay back and wait in the halls so that I am not taking transit so often. This isn’t what I decided to change, but I felt like I am able to slowly add more to what I will change. Constantly being mindful of the things that I do is making it feel like a habit which is why I decided to add more ways of reducing my footprint. I feel like I have creating less trash myself, although I haven’t been measuring exactly how much trash I produce in one day, just estimating. I also started using my really fast charger more so that I can just plug my devices in for about 10 minutes and have enough for at least 2-4 hours’ worth of battery. After doing this for two weeks, I am going to try and continue to lower my footprint. I feel like even if I didn’t lower it too much during these two weeks, I still lowered it by a little bit. It wasn’t really easy changing and adapting to a lifestyle like this but I got more used to it. I think that I still produce around the same amount of trash as I did before, but only because we have been buying more things that have trash (not a good thing).