Blogs
This is an image of my carbon footprint after completing the test.
After completing the test, I was surprised about how low my carbon footprint was when compared against the average Australian’s footprint. I was expecting my footprint to be about the same, if not higher than average, as I believe I do use a lot of electricity and fuel.
I am conscious about the choices I make and the impact it will have on the environment, for example I always make sure I turn the lights, fans or aircons off in an unoccupied room to save electricity. But I always leave my phone and laptop on charge even when it is fully charged, and I now know that this is something I will have to try and stop.
During the warmer months, my family leaves the central aircons or fans on, which definitely makes our carbon footprint rise, however, we do use solar power, from the panels on our roof, which does decrease the amount of electricity we use. Also, the majority of machines in our house, such as dishwasher, toilets and aircons, are all energy efficient, which assists in minimising our environmental impact. I live in a house with 3 other people and we all try our best to have minimal impact on the environment.
When it comes to food wastage in my house, it is not that severe because whenever we are unable to finish our food, we feed our dogs with it, so the food never really goes to waste. We also ensure that we reuse or recycle food packaging whenever we can.
Personally, I think my transportation total should be higher than what it was calculated to be as I live quite a long way from school, and I drive my car to and from school five times a week, which will emit quite a lot of pollution into the air. As I play two sports and have to go on sporting trips, we have to drive or fly to wherever the competition is located, which should cause the transportation aspect of my carbon footprint to rise.
In conclusion, I am pleasantly surprised about how low my carbon footprint is in comparison to the Australian average, and throughout the completion of this decarbonise project, I have become more aware of my actions and the possible environmental impacts they could have, so I will be ensuring that I keep working on the little things to help our environment.
- Tahnee
