While thinking about my family’s carbon footprint it became clear to me how much gas we use, having two family sized vehicles. Then I also thought about how soon I myself would be getting my first car. I wanted to find ways to reduce gas emissions from a car or everyday, gas using, vehicle. Enclosed I have a link to a page from the Enviromental Protection Agency on how to make driving cars as fuel effient as possible. I hope that you all read it to help us benefit our carbon footprint.

After calculating my carbon footprint, I was surprised to find that my carbon footprint in the transportation category was over twice the size of an average footprint from Texas! I burned 15,423 kg of CO2 while the average Texan only burned 6,387 kg! My family lives all over the world from Hong Kong to Singapore to London. My family tries to visit either my cousins or my grandparents over the summer on top of traveling to at least one other place around the world so the amounts of trips we took this year was a major contributing factor to my carbon footprint. My family also takes at least one road trip during the year so we could include my dog on all of our adventures out of state. Also, with school farther away this year and with forms of recreational activities a good 15 minutes or more away by car, it is increasingly difficult to walk or bike to where I want to go. I am going to try to cut down on my carbon footprint by carpooling with friends that live near me for school and by going with a group of others to places like the mall that are farther away from me. We can also try not to take as many trips out of the country or at least reduce the trips to one out of state plane trip per year.

If any of you have similar troubles regarding your transportation carbon footprint, see the link below for helpful suggestions for reducing our carbon footprint.

When I was calculating my carbon footprint I was very shocked to find out how many pounds of carbon emissions my family would emit each year. What was even more outraging was the fact that a lot of these wastes could be fixed with simple solutions. Such as reducing your shower by only 2 minutes and washing your laundry with cold water instead of hot. I have added a link the a youtube video that teaches on effient, easy, and money saving ways that you and your family can reduce carbon emissions. I hope that you all take the time to watch the video, because if we all made an effort to help our eniviorment we would see very promising results for the future.

In my carbon footprint, the home factor was very high! It was 5030kg where as the regions is 2643kg. My family and I have some bad habits where we always forget to turn off the lights when we leave the house, and that uses so much unnecessary electricty.Also, when were not home at night my mom likes to leave some of the lights on because i guess it tricks people into thinking were home so no one will break an entery. My mom and I also like taking really long showers and sometimes we take bathes. All my family members always leave our computers and laptops on and we never turn them off so that also uses so much electricty as well. My family and I are working on improving our carbon footprint so we are trying to remember to always turn off the lights, not using too much water,and turning off our laptops so hopefully our footprint will improve.

I found that the home factor in my carbon footprint was extremely high. It is sometimes hard, being the youngest member of my family, to have much say or persuasion in things, including green ideas.

The attached youtube video below has great ideas for eco-renovating a house. If I had my own home, I would incorporate some of David Bach’s ideas (from the video): I would install solar panels on my roof, use “healthier” carpets with less toxins, use organic low-VOS paint on the walls, and install eco-friendly appliances. I would also use CFL light bulbs to save both energy and money, and I would try to live within walking distance or biking distance to school or work. Additionally, I would buy organic, locally grown food, and try to balance my diet with vegetarian food options.

This attached video also makes it clear that going green is not always costly; in fact it can save you quite a lot of money.

If I had the chance to design my house, I would make it into an eco-friendly house. I would consider four main factors on designing and buying the house. The four main factors are: is it energy saving, where the place would be, is it a convenient place and at last where do we the food get from. I would choose an eco-frendly material that is locally produced, sustainable, and natural; I would insulate the house well for energy efficiency. I hoped that my house was very close to the MRT station or any public transportation station, because I would not need to worry about the traffic and the car transportation everyday in the morning. I hoped my house was very close to supermarket, bookstore, restaurant and convenient store; so I don’t need to spent lots of time and energy seeking for restaurant. Hopefully, I could be able to buy and live in an eco-friendly in next decade with my family.

Hi, I’m Yvonne from Taiwan. How are you? I would like to share with you something about my family footprint. And I hope you can share too. Your family footprint is about recycling, food you waste, or electricity you use…etc. My family footprint is good. We always recycle, we don’t waste food, but I think we use too much electricity. A lot of families don’t recycle, and they always put everything together, that is very bad for the Earth. Some families like to travel around the world each year, but this will damage the atmosphere soon. My family goes on vacation by car once to twice per year, but we often take the MRT to move around the city. I think everyone’s family footprint can be better, although it’s not easy to be done. Everyone should try their best, because this can save the Earth. I hope you can share with me about your family footprint, so that we can discuss together.

If I had my own home I would be much more environmentally friendly than I am now. One thing is because I would want to save more money by turning of electricity whenever I leave a room. Of course I think about doing it now as well, though it’s more because my mom tells me to do it.
I would really like to have solar panels on my house (if I have the money), at least using eletcricity from wind turbines and not from a nuclear power station!
I would build my future house of probably wood, but from companies where they plant a new tree for every one they take down. I also want for my trees to be shipped from places near my home town. It would be nice to live close to work or to a bus-/train station. So I don’t have to take my car to work which is bad for the environment, except if I have an environmentally car, which I would like to have.
I will try to be as vegetarian as possible, though it’s a matter of money and what the stores’ close by have for vegetarians with the same amount of protein as meat.

I want to progress for environement

Hello,

I’m full aware that it is difficult to change habits and rutines, but if we all try our hardest to make a few changes it will for sure make a huge difference. If we first try to act as independent individuals and then as a community or country we will be able to see a change and be part of it. At home there are a few small things that can make a big different if we all try to make a change:
- make sure to fill the washing machine before putting it on
- make sure to fill the dish washer before putting it on
- turn of lights when you’re not in a room/ use candles more often
- turn down the heating a few degrees and use blankets and sweaters: you will save money and be environmentally friendly at the same time!
- RECYCLE!!!
- REDUCE!!!
- REUSE!!!

The list can get long. Try to think ahead, what will happen if I don’t contribute to making a change? What will happen to our world?

Byebye/ Stockholm :)