Peer Response 2

• Respond to your peer. comparing your footprints to theirs and offering additional suggestions for ways they might lower their footprints, along with possible obstacles to doing so and ways of overcoming those obstacles.

PEERS POST:

I kept getting surprised by the results as I continued forward with this assignment. There were so many more elements involved that I did not consider from my habits, like meat consumption and water use intertwined. Now, that is obvious, but it isn’t something discussed. Something else that I learned is how difficult it is to lower your footprint. There are many things out of our control. We may reduce the use of electrical power, but the company is responsible for obtaining that energy. And not all of them go towards renewable energy. These practices affect the overall amount significantly too.

The carbon footprint seems the hardest to manage. There are so many things in people’s lives that create carbon waste. The biggest offender was electric consumption, from which most of the carbon is coming on my end. I have thought of just being more aware of how much energy I am using at home to turn off power sources that do not serve any immediate purpose. I would love to invest in renewable energy like solar panels as another option. Also, getting a handle on heating/cooling and making sure it is operating in a way that is actually energy efficient. Reducing electricity would also help with water consumption, as the chart above shows they are intertwined.

There were other aspects of personal life changes that would be difficult. For example, one of the questions on the assessment was a toilet question about letting it “mellow.” Which is essentially not flushing after every instance of urinating. I understood how that would save water, but it wasn’t easy to wrap my head around, nor is it a solution I feel I can commit to. But I liked the idea of a water system that repurposes the water waste from sinks, showers, toilets, etc., for garden/yard use. It would come in handy since my garden seems to expand more and more, consuming more water. Or use the water barrel method. Something that catches rainfall to use on outdoor plants. I did not realize how much baths consume water either. For some reason, I thought showering wasted more water. Since I enjoy baths, I should limit the number of times I do that versus just taking a quick shower.

Finally, I would switch up my dieting a bit and focus a little less on meat to combat water consumption. The biggest issue with that, though, is my job with trucking. Food options are limited, so plenty of food prepping and planning will take to make something consistent, healthy, and sustainable.

Note: I did not include the carbon included with trucking since I see that more as the company footprint instead of my footprint and what I can control.

-Israel