Re-Evaluation of My Footprints

Ashley Uyeta

It's been almost a month since I calculated my different footprints for the first time. A lot has changed since then, I have become more conscientious about what I buy, how to be more effective and efficient, and overall, thinking about ways to not only achieve the goals that I have set, but also ways to improve them. 

Ever since I learned about these footprints calculators, I have been fascinated in ways that I can reduce my footprints going forward. I even got my some of my roommates to use some of the footprint calculators so that they can see the impacts that they leave behind. While my original post has outlined goals for me to work on, my roommates have also worked on their own habits and have helped reduce household carbon and water footprints. 

Overall, I'm excited to see the in what ways my footprints have been reduced or not. As well as, I also plan to revise and implement one more goal that I will try to achieve and keep going in the long run!

Ecological Footprint

The first picture on the left is my ecological footprint after integrating the goals that I created into my everyday life. Seeing that the other three footprints (carbon, water, and slavery) all fit somewhere within the ecological footprint, the reduction of the amount of Earths needed to sustain my type of lifestyle makes me incredibly happy. This shows that the goals that I have started striving for, are indeed, making a difference. It's amazing to see the type of growth that can happen within a singular month. My original ecological footprint, second picture on the left, indicated that I would need 4.3 Earths, while my new ecological footprint has reduced by about half! Eating less meat has been one of the bigger changes that has happened in the last month, but it's something that I can feel myself doing for a long time. I didn't realize how much my diet had revolved around meat, and now that I eat it less, I rarely go in the meat section of the grocery store and my grocery bill is smaller! Using electricity has also changed my habits slightly, but not much. Instead of being stuck in my room all the time, I go to common areas of my house where other people are so I don't have my bedroom lights on all day. This, in turn, has actually made me more productive when it comes to work, so an added bonus to using less electricity. Overall I think the main factor that has  contributed to being more sustainable, is eating less meat, using less electricity, and spending less money on shopping for different products or services. 

Carbon Footprint

The first picture on the right is my carbon footprint after my goals. While I'm not 100% sure how accurate my results are, I am still pleased to see that my carbon footprint has been reduced. I feel like this footprint requires more in-depth answers than what I was able to provide. I do know that my household has reduced our carbon footprint based on food, goods, and services. I'm not too sure about the drastic change in home. For our household, we have used less electricity, as well as, we no longer use our heater due to the weather getting warmer. But I don't think it should've changed as much as it did. I am happy with the change in food because everyone in my household has reduced how much red meat they consume. It also helps bring down the amount of money that we spend on good because we aren't spending as much on buying red meat. One sacrifice that had to be made was traveling. While our household still travels mostly via walking, traveling has increase to find more locally, sourced places that sell fruits and vegetables rather than making one consistent trip to a grocery store. 

Water Footprint
Like my previous footprints, the difference between my original water footprint, bottom left, and my latest water footprint, top left, there is a positive difference. One big change for me and my household was doing less dishes by hand. We originally washed a lot of our dishes by hand rather than utilizing our dishwasher. This meant that our kitchen sink was often running for 10-20 minutes on a regular basis. This contributed to a lot of water being wasted. Showers were another step that has helped decrease my own and the household water consumption. Shower times have been reduced by a bit, trying to keep them between 5-15 minutes. As I have mentioned and will probably continue to mention, my virtual water has gone down due to eating less meat. It's nice to see that I am still under the US average of how much water is consumed throughout the day, as well as our household consumption going down by a little over a thousand gallons! I say that's pretty good work for a months worth of mindful actions. 

Slavery Footprint

Even though all of the other footprints showed that there was less impacts from my footprints, the slavery footprint was still just as scary to take as last time. Compared to the other ones, I believe this footprint will always have a difficult result, in the sense that even if the numbers are reduced, it still leaves a bad feeling behind. The main contributor that I feel like reduced the amount of "slaves working for me" was that, like stated before, I ate less meat and buying more fruits and vegetables from locally grown places. There are definitely other areas where I can improve to continue to reduce the number, but I haven't quite figured out where and how I would potentially go about doing it yet. I think this calculator is the one that is more stuck with me than the other due to the connotation that comes with it. 

Continuing to Reduce My Footprints

While I have made a lot of progress in the last month, it is something that I hope to continue in the future. Living in a more sustainable society is more prevalent than ever with the looming climate change disasters await. I can't advocate and expect companies to make a 180 flip and become more sustainable if I can't even do it myself. Of course, me versus a giant corporation have different degrees of impact and I have shown that I am able to make those changes in my life. But I believe that if I am asking someone else to make a change, that should also be a change that I am willing to make in my life as well. 

Here are my original goals that I started with, a little explanation on how these goals are being achieved, and ones that I hope to continue with moving forward. 

1. Limit my meat consumption

I have limited my meat consumption to around 1-2 a week which is even better than my original goal. I have substituted meat with other options such as tofu and fish. As well as supplementing my protein with more consumption of eggs. I want to find other ways other than tofu and fish, to bring protein to my diet, but also being ethically sourced. This way, I won't get sick of the food I'm eating too quickly. There are only so many recipes that will keep me happy with a tofu and fish diet. 

2. Using less electricity 

I have talk a little about this already, but I have been spending less time in my room overall so that my lights aren't on all the time. And because it is spring time and the sun is out more often, I have resorted to opening my window to bring light in instead of using my overhead lights. I rarely ever have all three lights that I usually use on. 

3. Buying more locally grown/sourced foods

The few times that I have checked out Joe's Garden, they were unfortunately not selling fruits and vegetables yet. I still hope to go, so this is a goal that hasn't quite been accomplished yet, but I am determined to make it happen. I have been more conscientious about the fruits and vegetables I buy at the grocery store, looking for more signs that state they are locally grown. 

And here is my newest goal: 

My newest goal is to thrift more clothes rather than buy them first-hand. I was initially hesitant in making this one of my original goals because I am more on the petite side, with the height of 4 foot 8 inches. This makes it extremely difficult to find clothes, often times having to get my clothes altered to fit me properly. I feel like this goal will be a good challenge, something that I might not achieve right away, but something that I can venture towards. Being able to thrift clothes will bring me one step closer to being more sustainable for our Earth.