The Footprints I've Left Behind

Ashley Uyeta

The idea of sustainability and "going green" has become more prevalent than ever. With many people advocating and promoting sustainable ways of living. While it's easy to talk and express the changes one should make, it's not always as easy to actually make those choices. 

While I try to be conscientious about the impact I make, I've come to realize that I'm not actively taking part in reducing the footprints I leave behind. Living in a country like the United States and the privileges that come with it, it's easy to have a less eco-friendly lifestyle. It's easy to forget how we impact our Earth. The things we take for granted, such as driving everywhere and even just access to water can lead to most people living wasteful lives without even realizing it, me included. 

This year, as a college student, I've decided to take a marketing and sustainability class. Taking a deeper dive in how we, as humans, impact our Earth, and what we can do to make positive changes. By using different footprint calculators to determine my impact, I can make achievable goals to decrease my negative affect. The different calculators I used were the Ecological Footprint, the Carbon Footprint, the Water Footprint, and the Slavery Footprint. 

Here are my results: 

       

Ecological Footprint

The Ecological Footprint calculates and measures the human demand and compares it to how much nature can absorb our waste and regenerate resources. It measure how much quantity of nature it takes to support our population and the way we choose to live. 

As I was answering the questions, the more fearful I became. It made me more aware of all the little things that I had never taken into account and how much it impacts our Earth. I was becoming more and more self-conscious about the way I live. According to the calculator, there would have to be 4.3 Earths to sustain the way that I live, if everyone lived like me. 

The results weren't so much surprising, but saddening to see. Seeing how wasteful I was living with no regards for the traces I have left behind was a really eye-opening experience. Having everything calculated out for me, seeing actual numbers that represent how I live left me stumped. To be completely honest, I wish I could stay ignorant and naive, because that easy to accept. It's easier to pretend, but at the same time, I'm glad I have been exposed to the harsh reality of my actions. This gives me an opportunity to make changes in my lifestyle that will not only impact me positively, but the environment around me. 

        

Carbon Footprint

The Carbon Footprint calculator measures how much food, consumption, transportation, household energy, and other aspects that contribute to greenhouse gas emission. I, at the moment, currently rent a house with three other people. While answering these questions, it was a lot harder to estimate certain things correctly based off of my roommates. I tried to answer them as accurately as possible. 

After getting my results for the Ecological Calculator, I was extremely worried about getting my Carbon Footprint results. But seeing these results after using the Ecological Calculator made me feel slightly better. While my household contributes an immense 21 tons of CO2 per year, we are 38% better than the average. 

Even while my household travels less by vehicle, and chooses to walk more, believing we are reducing our carbon footprint, it doesn't account for the many other aspects that we contribute with. While it may feel like we are doing enough, in reality, enough is never enough. These results gave me slight, but fleeting happiness. Happy that I contribute less than average, but fleeting because it is still 21 tons of CO2, regardless of how it's being compared to other households. 

Water Footprint

The Water Footprint calculates the usage of water, not just the actual water, but also virtual water. I never heard the term virtual water before using this calculator. Virtual water is the water that is used to make the goods and services that a consumer buys. 

My water consumption was never really something that I thought about. While I know not to leaving water running when not using it, and taking shorter showers when possible, I never stopped to consider how much I was actually using, on my own and virtually. Again while I am happy that my personal average is lower than the US average, it still shows how much water is being wasted on a daily basis on just mu consumption alone. 

One of the bigger contributors to my water consumption, is my food consumption. My diet consists of eating meat once, maybe twice a day. This was something that I never considered when even thinking about water, and I bet many other people are the same way. It was interesting to see the different aspects that do make up water consumption, because it's not necessarily stuff that we would normally think of, like virtual water. 

Slavery Footprint 

The Slavery Footprint calculates the number of slaves that have to work to accommodate my lifestyle choices. It shows how many slaves would be working for you in order to sustain the live that is being currently lived. 

This by far was the most nerve-wracking calculator to use. When people think of slavery, many believe that people are no long enslaved, that it had been abolished years ago, so it can't be as prevalent today. But they would be incredibly wrong and this calculator shows how much people rely on working slaves to get the goods and services that they want to consume. 

Seeing the number 33 was shocking. The things that I consume to enjoy my life relies on the expense of other people's lives. It brings me back to my previous point, that living in a country like the US, has incredible privileges that people don't account for, like the clothes we buy, the food in our grocery stores, and the electronics we use on a daily basis. 

Reducing My Footprints

It's easy to stay blissful and naive, that is something these calculators have taught me. Without this class, I would've remained extremely unaware and ignorant to the footprints that I leave behind. Moving forward, I want to be more conscientious about what I do and how it impacts my environment. 

These are my goals: 

1. Limit my meat consumption

I rely heavily on meat in my diet. I want to substitute meat with other options such as tofu to help reduce not only my carbon footprint, but my water footprint as well. Overall, I want to be eating meat only 3 to 4 times a week, once a day. 

2. Using less electricity 

While this is not something that I talked about or mentioned earlier, my electricity consumption is quite high. I sometimes have up to three different light sources on, just in my bedroom, a desk lamp, a regular lamp, and the lights on the ceiling. Why I do that? I'm not completely sure, but I do know that I don't need all those lights on at once. Another thing that my household is quite bad at, is leaving hallway lights on overnight, with many of us having different sleep schedules, lights are generally on a lot of time, even when they don't need to be. 

3. Buying more locally grown/sourced foods

When shopping, I usually buy what I grew up eating or buying the things my parents have bought because it's familiar. They're the type of fruits, vegetables, etc., that you can find at any grocery store. I want to try buying from this place called Joe's Garden, that is not far from my house. They are a nursery that not only sells plants, but they also sell fruits, vegetables, different jams, and other items. I've never gone before because I usually would buy these types of things at the grocery store. This gives me an opportunity to go while reducing my footprint! 

I'm exciting to try these achievable goals and see how I can implement them in my lifestyle. I hope these changes go really well, so that I can retake these footprint calculators. Hopefully the next time I retake the calculators, my numbers are lower than what they are now. And if so, creating more goals to achieve to try and lower those numbers. It will become a happy cycle of lowering the footprint that I leave behind.