Footprint Revisited

This is the last of my footprint blogs for the scholastic quarter.  I have been making serious efforts to reduce my impact on the environment over the past few months, but due to the simplistic nature of the questionnaire and the lack of serious detail that I could apply to my answers I ended up with almost the same score.

Let's Review

 Old Footprint

 = 3.6 Earths, 15.8 global acres

New Footprint Calculation 

= 3.5 Earths, 15.5 global acres

To be quite honest with you I am not terribly sure how exactly this all adds up.  In my opinion I feel that any improvement is a step in the right direction.  In our class we had discussions about the nature of the survey and how an individual's answers are weighted according to where in the world they are due to cultural societal norms and expectations.  For instance, a person answering all of the same questions in the same exact manner might end up with two less Earths simply because they are from a country that is believed to be less wasteful and more proactive in reducing global impacts.  Either way, my numbers have dropped and the exercise has led me to be more thoughtful in the ways in which I interact with my environment and the methods in which I make decisions on food, electricity, and transportation.  

In my first post I had to throw down a few things that I could do to reduce my footprint and be more mindful.  Of the things that I had listed most of them were pretty easy to handle, especially due to the changing of the seasons.  Reducing my energy use for heating?  Right.  As for the efforts that I have taken to unplug appliances and turn off my power strips I have been doing really good.  I have incorporated those actions into my pre-departure routine.  I also stopped purchasing sandwich meat.  I have really missed my peppered turkey and provolone sandwiches with lettuce, pickle, mayo, and garlic mustard.  Yum.  

Half-way through the quarter I reevaluated my methods and included reducing my water use.  My initial thoughts were that if I washed everything all at once it would be a better deal.  That worked out.  I have also been very careful to keep my dish washing water usage to a minimum.  I have actually taken a different stance on the water issue in a fashion.  I have decided that if I drink as much water as possible it will help me keep my system flushed and running smoothly.  I don't think this has very much to do with my footprint.  I mean, really, that's not included in a wasteful category.  

I guess I will leave this with one or two thoughts on my sustainability:  I feel that I will continue to take greater strides toward being completely mindful of the ways in which I interact with my environment and the methods I use to reduce my waste.  I strongly believe in the Food Plus Recycling program that we have in Bellingham and will continue to increase my knowledge of the composting and closed-loop processes that work for our environment, not against it!

Sustainable Marketing Update

Things have been going pretty well in my quest to reduce my Ecological Footprint.  Actually, I am not too sure how well things have been on the whole.  There seems to be a bit of gain and loss in certain areas.  I will explain with my bullets from before:

• Turning off appliances and unplugging things:
• Since the beginning of the quarter I have made a concerted effort to keep my energy consumption down and to make sure to turn off the appliances in my home.  I had some issues with the way that energy was being used (misused) by my roommates and I ended up moving a couple of weeks ago.  Since then I have been able to keep a better handle on which appliances remain plugged in while there isn't anyone home.  Score one for me.
•  Eat less meat/pork/poultry.  At least not at every meal.
• Since the beginning of the quarter I vowed to do a little bit and help out in the meat department.  This has actually been the easiest for me to control.  I would normally eat meat about twice to three times a day.  I stopped purchasing sandwich meat and have gone on an Almond Butter and Jelly/Preserves lunch diet.  In doing so I have noticed that I eat a lot more sandwiches in order to feed my fat belly.  
•  Pay more attention to origination of my food purchases
• I have been able to keep my eye on where my food is coming from, and honestly, most of my fruit is still being produced in Southern California (Limes for the Tequila and Cervesas) or imported from other countries (I love me some bananas!)  I would like to reduce the amount of travel that my food has to go through before I get to it, but in the case of fruits and veggies during the early Spring and Summer it is pretty hard to do while keeping a well rounded diet.  I guess I am just not that hip to what can be substituted in our local markets.
• Try to use less heating energy. (This one I know will work out this quarter!)
• Ahh, the heating issue.  I have managed to put on a few extra clothes during the colder days and kept my hands off the thermostat in the house.  At my new pad I have baseboard heaters and a fireplace.  I haven't really had the need to use either.  I am not super stoked on baseboard heaters as it is, but from what I know about energy use they are inefficient.

So, I guess you could say that of my goals I haven't really been too awesome.  Now that snow season is coming to a close I have been using a lot less gasoline to get my butt up the mountain.  That helps, right?  Although, I did make a solo trip down to Steven's Pass for the filming of the WildCard movie to be released this fall, "The Saturday Night Ride".  Here is another point to note: professional snowboarding is not exactly a sustainable practice.  There are some aspects of the sport that if done in conjunction with a minimalist alpine attitude can be quite sustainable.  A major problem that I found is that for a large scale film shoot there is a lot of fuel consumption (generators, flood lighting, snowmobiles, transportation of talent, etc.)  I hope to be able to redesign and streamline some of these financial and natural resource expenditures for future projects.  For now, all I can say is that we make sure to pack it in and pack it out!

For the rest of this quarter I am adding to my list of things that I am trying to be better about one more item:  I am going to try to use a lot less water.  After moving from my old place to the new place I ended up doing a whole lot of laundry and bed clothes washing.  It was necessary, but I seriously believe my lady and I had the washer, dryer, and dishwasher going on a constant cycle for the better part of our first week in the pad.  Yikes!  Quite disconcerting.  I am usually pretty good about my water use and I am going to be a lot more consistant with my conservation practices!

Footprint

Ecological Fooprint is as follows as per FootprintNetwork:

Website Critical Assesment:

I wish I could turn the music off!  

          It is very hard to try and focus on this when I am trying to listen to the music of my choice while trying to figure out how horrible I am to my Planet and the other inhabitants of said Earth.

I tried out the options at the end of the test concerning changing a few of my lifestyle traits and the results were pretty entertaining.  If I eat less animal based foods I could reduce my impact by .1 Earths.  Seriously, I could go into detail about how off this test is.  For one, I am not a serious driver most of the year and when I do drive there is almost always another person in the car.  I choose to ride my bicycle.  Before the bike there was a skateboard for transportation.  I do own a car, but mostly for convenience and to get to and from the mountains that I hold so dear to my heart.  However, I must say that the web developers are most likely to err on the side of awareness and for the non-critical thinker this is a good start.  Sure, I eat some things that I have not grown and come from another living creature that had to eat and utilize the Earth.  There is a bit of a return that we are not able to offer our Mother planet and keeping that in mind is the key to ensuring that we live a lifestyle guided by moderation.  If I could be a completely self-sufficient human I would, but that is not exactly a possibility in today's world.  Here is a start to what I could do to reducing my footprint:

1) Turning off all appliances when I leave the house.  (My roommates won't mind, or follow suit.)

2) Eat less meat/pork/poultry.  At least not at every meal.

3) Pay more attention to origination of my food purchases

4) Try to use less heating energy. (This one I know will work out this quarter!)

I'll keep you posted.