Final Footprint Evaluation

Most of my footprint calculations improved greatly from the first time I took them back in March. I have worked to make my lifestyle more environmentally friendly and I am very happy with these results. 

Ecological Footprint

Before

After

 

Obviously, this was a pretty big improvement. I think that I mostly attribute this to my reducing travel and eating little to no animal products. 

Carbon Footprint

Before

After

My travel has decreased a lot, especially by car. This has shown a dramatic change in my carbon footprint.

Water Footprint

Before

After

I think this has improved because of my efforts to make my whole apartment vegetarian and us committing to taking much shorter showers.

Slavery Footprint

Before

After

I cleaned out my closet and donated a lot of clothes. This means that I have way less in my closet and I have also been refraining from buying any new clothes. I think this was the biggest factor in reducing this number. 

I made a few goals this quarter to work towards making my footprint smaller. As the quarter comes to a close, it's time to recalculate my footprint and see if my goals have helped me make strides toward doing my part to become more sustainable. 

The first was to limit my travel by car/planes. I had been driving to school a lot and up to the mountain to go skiing. I had also been flying quite a bit for the holidays. This travel was a big part of what made my original footprint so shocking. Since I've made the goal to cut down on the wasteful amount of traveling I was doing, I have begun strictly walking or bussing to class, haven't flown unless I actually needed to, and have carpooled on any longer trips (like to Baker). I would say that this is the goal that I stuck to the best and probably had the most impact on making my footprint smaller. 

Other goals I had were to make my diet even stricter when it came to meat, not buy any fast fashion, and to take faster showers. I also kept to these goals pretty well. I didn't buy or cook any meat for myself and in the process got my roommate and boyfriend to eat a bit less of it as well. I didn't buy any clothes for myself all quarter and I did my best to stay in the shower for less time. 

I hope to continue sticking to these goals the best that I can. They are all specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant. At this point, a lot of the changes I've made have become habit. With summer coming, my lifestyle will change a bit but I can make adjustments to these "rules" to still keep them up as long as I can.