Eleni-Greece-Calculating my carbon footprint:)

Environment   Nov 3, 2020 by GEN-HelenA
I had heard before about calculating my carbon footprint but never really bothered to actually do so, well that turned out to be the perfect opportunity :))
I first took the International Student Carbon Footprint challenge, and my result was 4,292kg of  C02 per year, in comparison to an average of 9,047kg for Greece and a 3,791kg worldwide. I think that one of the most problematic and not environmentally friendly parts of my every day life is the fact that I live about 30min away from school  where I go by car and also that, as a family we don't recycle properly. I think these are the reasons why i scored higher in "transportation'' and home" while in "purchases" I had a low score, as I try not to buy excessively, especially when i know that an item is made in countries were workers are exploited...
The second quiz was a surprise to me as I, apparently, manage to use 3,19 earths (1 earth more than the average person worldwide) I think it may be because it also included a lot of information of my parents activity (like how far they work etc)  But, in any case , it's quite disturbing to realise the extent of impact that our actions may have.
Long story short, I have a long way to go to achieve a sustainable lifestyle but, to my eyes, making a change at a time can work wonders. We should make an effort to think how much of a change our actions can make on global scale. It is not about zero waste , we don't have to achieve perfection to make change , what we do have to do instead is making a step at a time, towards a more environmentally conscious lifestyle. At the end of the day it is OUR planet that we are talking about,  the planet that our children will grow to, and we should protect it at all costs.
Thank you for reading my blog, I would love to hear what you think of it in the comments :)
I hope you have a lovely day !!
Greetings from Greece ;))



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5 Comment(s)

Bernadette
Nov 19, 2020

Nice to hear from you Eleni, I had a similar issue with a 30min drive in the car twice a day, this was the reason that my footprint increased.

HI Eleni,

I was just wondering why do think Greece's carbon footprint is larger than other countries around the world?

Emil
Nov 15, 2020

It is great that you want to make a change realising that you have a large carbon footprint. It is great that you are understanding and are wanting to make a difference to the planet. You could also add how you are going to decrease your carbon footprint. This could be done by decreasing the use of air-conditioning and usage of light.

Maggie S
Nov 15, 2020

Hello from Australia, my name is Maggie.

It is wonderful to see how realistic and open minded you are about changing your lifestyle for the better. It was very powerful of you to mention the future and how we should protect the earth for our children.

Thankyou for sharing and I hope you have a lovely day also.

Mia Forrest
Nov 4, 2020

Hello Eleni, I also live far from school so I understand how hard it is to reduce your transport carbon footprint. You're doing really well to have such a low carbon footprint but if you wanted to reduce it further you could always make sure you're doing your best to reduce your footprint at home. This could include turning lights of and using air conditioners or heaters as little as possible.

GEN-HelenA
Nov 8, 2020

Thank you Mia for your tips, I ll try to pay attention to such "little" usages for energy. They can add up before you know it :))