I'm sure you have heard of the term Carbon Footprint before. Wondering exactly what it is? Well a Carbon Footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases produced in our day-to-day lives through burning fossil fuels . This is usually expressed in tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) because that is the most abundant greenhouse gas.
So I decided today that I would try to calculate my carbon footprint. I used the calculator over at The Nature Conservatory. First I determined what my individual footprint is: 11 when the average American footprint is 27. So I am doing OK, but I can do better.
![](http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y221/Marianna17/green%20mama%20blog/carbonfootprint3-10-09.gif)
Next I calculated the footprint for my entire household. This number was more disturbing to me. It is still lower than the national average, but not low enough. As a house of five, we consume a lot. But what really made this number so big was the amount my husband drives. While I virtually drive nowhere except to preschool twice a week, he is literally on the road 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Unfortunately, that is his job so I can't really do too much about it. I can however try to makeup for it by doing better at home.
![](http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y221/Marianna17/green%20mama%20blog/carbonfootprint-house3-10-09.gif)
Alright, you know your Carbon Footprint, now what? You can take small steps to try and reduce your it. Here are a few small ideas:
Challenge
Head over to The Nature Conservatory to determine your footprint. Come back and comment with what your footprint is and what you are going to do to reduce it.
![](http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y221/Marianna17/green%20mama%20blog/marianna.gif)
What a cool idea!
ReplyDeleteMy personal is 26
My family is 53
I only did my own and it was 28. I thought I was doing well, but I need to work more at it. I guess our home needs to be improved. Yikes, I really want to do more.
ReplyDelete