Know Thyself
Here is the next tip in our “Don’t be an Eel with Energy” challenge.
The interesting thing that I have observed recently is the HUGE increase in media exposure environmental issuse have received. The new awareness of human activity is brillant but it does not actually change anything. Actions do make a difference, even the smallest change multiplied by 3 billion becomes huge.
One thing to understand is actually how many resources each and everyone of us uses. Our environmental footprint so to speak. There are many different ways to estimate your footprint. Amongst the easiest are the following websites.
EPA Personal Ecological Footprint Calculator - This site allows you to calculate your environmental footprint taking into account your eating habits, energy usage, travel habits etc… At the end of the quiz is shows you how you compare to the “average” victorian household and calculates how many earths we would need if everyone lived like you.
Earth Day Footprint Quiz - This is a more international site that allows you to calculate your personal footprint. It is almost identical to the above site.
Energy Australia Home Energy Saver - This site allows you to calculate the enrgy efficiency of your house by taking into account many factors. It has two different modes. You can allow it to estimate your energy usage based on average utilities or a detailed mode where you can enter manually all your devices and usage habits. At the end it provides an estimate of your annual energy usage and equivalent carbon-dioxide emissions. The excelent thing about this site is that it provides a huge number of usful tips on ways to reduce your energy usage. These tips are generated given the information you give it. So the more accurate information you give it, the more accurate advice it will be able to give.
The important thing to realise when doing these quizes is to be truthful. Also remember that whatever the end result is there are thousands of ways to reduce it dramatically and make a positive change.
I did the first quiz in the list above and have posted my answers and results below for people to see. If you have a chance, have a go yourself ard feel free to share your score in the comments
My Answers;
1 - Melbourne
2 - Occasionaly
3 - One Quarter
4 - More than one bin-bag a week
5 - 2 People
6 - 50-100 square metres
7 - Multistory appartment building
8 - yes
9 - 10-25 Kilometres
10 - No
11 - Yes
11a - 50-150 Kilometres
11b - 6.5-9 Litres
11c - Occasionally
12 - 25 - 100 Hours
My Result;
The score above compares to an average of 8.1 global hectares. The big contributer to my score was the amount of air travel that we do. With no easy way to reduce this at the moment (without staying here in Italia for ever!) we can oly look towards carbon offset program to help nutralise our flying time, but that is a while OTHER topic!
I completed this as if Vilija and I were living in our old house & lifestyle in St Kilda. As we barely use a car here in Italia my score would have been a little different, but not dramatically.
Thanks to Venta for the tip on the website!! 