Prairie Works

Happy Earth Day, everyone! 

Since its inception in 1970, Earth Day has grown into a celebration of the masses and is the one “holiday” that is celebrated by people of all races, religions, countries and beliefs around the world. We all have an impact on the environment. The goal of Earth Day is to raise awareness of the options that we have in order to reduce that impact.

During the past year, I have been involved in a discussion group, hosted by the diligent Dan Wenny. We met monthly on Sunday afternoons. The goal was to analyze household carbon footprints and to assist the other five households in the group, in reducing theirs. We traded tips, advise and took our carbon footprint numbers into an analytical process. Our carbon footprint was established using this calculator: Carbon Footprint Calculator 

The book, Low Carbon Diet,  was given to each of the households to guide us through the process. 

We all had a fun time discovering our habits and lifestyles and realized how they effect our footprint. Analyzing these numbers is a staticticians dream. As you would imagine, housholds with homes with higher square footage and housing more people resulted in the highest footprints. The average carbon footprint in the United States is around 55,00 pounds. In Germany it is 27,000 and in Kenya it is 400.

My houshold’s largest comsumptives were car mileage and water useage. This year we are attempting to reduce those two numbers, and chip away at the others, to give us a footprint of 30,000 carbon pounds next year. A simple Excel spreadsheet can assist you in keeping on track.

This is certainly a fun and engaging way to become more aware of your impacts on the environment. This next year we will become a group host and will help 5 other housholds reduce their carbon footprints. 

There are also many more decisions that can be made that the carbon calculator does not take into account, such as: Eating foods that are locally produced, purchasing used rather than new, buying goods that utilize environmentally friendly processes and of course landscaping with native plants.

Here are some Earth Day links:

http://simplylocalfood.com/ Local Food Group in Northwest Illinois

http://www.green-living.com/ Green Products

http://www.prairieworksinc.com/2008/04/22/earth-day-2008/  Last year’s Earth Day post