Final Ecological Footprint

In just eleven weeks, I feel like I have made a big difference in my ecological footprint. I have managed to decrease my ecological footprint to 3.3 and my carbon footprint to 5.6. I was also able to extend my Earth Overshoot Day from April 30th to July 6th in just eleven weeks.

I started out by setting a goal to communicate more efficiently with my family about what is needed in town, rather than multiple people making multiple, and unnecessary, trips to the store. This has gone very well! I am always at the store because I work at the bank inside, so now we have a system done and are sticking to it!

I also made the goal to volunteer more often to plant trees around the community. I have expanded this goal by also helping to restore shoreline habitat at Deception Pass Park. I will be taking part in this volunteer event on June 18th.

My third goal was to educate myself on healthier eating choices every Sunday. I still do this, and have learned quite a lot actually. I stopped eating quick and convenient foods, especially those in plastic packaging. Through this research, I have also decided to try meatless Mondays. I don't know how easy or hard this will be because I love meat, but I'm sure there is at least one day out of the week that I don't eat meat. So I will start dedicating Mondays as that day.

My fourth goal was to create a compost bin. I haven't given up on this idea, but I also haven't given it enough attention. I did a lot of the necessary research, but kind of just stopped there. I still need to shop for the materials and build the bin. On the bright side, I found out a close friend of mine just down the road has a compost bin. I have started taking my biodegradable waste to her house so I can still follow my goal to the best of my ability.

I have learned so much from this class and look forward to continuing.