My Ecological Footprint

If everybody was living like me, we would need 3.3 planets for our lifestyle.

I have to say, I am a litte surprised, but just a little. While taking the quiz, the first question asked about my location, which made me think there must be some kind of adaptation of the score depending on the region. In fact, I took the test again but entered Switzerland as a location, answered the same as I did before, and ended up needing only 1.9 planets for my lifestyle. It also said that the average swiss person needs 2.4 planets to live, that made me feel better =)

Another thing related to my score is probably the place I live in and the miles I had to fly lately.

Most of the land I use is for energy, most likely related to the fact that I don't really know how much energy I use in general, before Forest Land, because I live in an appartment building made of wood.

The category of consumption contributing the most to my footprint is Services, related to the busses I use and the planes I took a lot recently, before goods and food.

I must say I had to think for a while before coming up with actions that would effectively reduce my footprint, but here are the main ones I chose:

1. Walk to and from class everyday. I have classes at noon and spring is supposed to be coming at some point, so that should not be too much of a challenge.

2. Eat more locally grown food and shop at Farmer's Market. Even if the prices are a little bit higher than in a grocery store, I think it is a good investment. I'll try to get half of my food from local or organic sources.

3. I already unplug all electric devices when I am away for a long period, but I will try to not have my computer be on all the time when I am home, or at least not have it plugged in non-stop when I use it. I need and use my computer a lot, but I will change the energy economy settings and only plug it in when the battery is empty.

4. Be aware of the lights on in my appartment and motivate my roommates to switch them off when no one is in the room or during the night. For some reason, my roommates like to have a light on somewhere during the night, but I don't think it is necessary.