Over all I am a bit disappointed with this. I appreciate now how hard it is to break out of this American lifestyle of high consumption. Small changes do make an impact but I still use so many resources to fuel my lifestyle.
I am glad that I was able to reduce the impact my diet has on the environment. My first footprint listed food as a quarter of my impact. Now it it just under a quarter. Buying organic food and only eating meat during dinner seemed to help.We also started composting all of our food waste. The quiz did not account for this so I am left not knowing how much that helped.
I was also able to lower electricity and gas use quite a bit. Our bills were lower than they were this time last year. Usage is frustratingly high during the winter no matter what though. I've been thinking about how poorly homes are designed based on what we have learned about greener more efficient building methods. Our heating bill is so high during the winter just trying to keep our house warm. It's silly to think that we spend so much to heat our house when it could have thicker walls, better instillation and better fitted windows. Its sick to think how much energy is wasted making up for bad design.
I will continue these lifestyle changes after the quarter ends. The changes aren't so hard once I'm in the habit and they do make a difference even if it is a small one. I will also look into vegetarian recipes once the quarter ends and I have more time. For all my work this quarter food is still the highest impact area so there is more work to be done there.
Briana -- I think a reduction of .3 planets is very significant -- don't forget the measurement instrument is not very refined. I did ask you to include a screen shot of your original footprint in this blog to enable a direct comparison. Best of luck with continuing your EF reduction efforts! 40/50 points
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