While collecting information about my own energy usage, I noticed that my energy company includes a comparison between me and others within my apartment building. My usage falls 100 kWh less than the average, but about 170 kWh more than the “efficient” users in my building.
Carbon Footprint
Going into this activity, I expected my carbon footprint to be pretty close to our country’s average because I do not find myself considering sustainable options often. I was surprised to find that mine falls roughly 5 metric tons less per year! I don’t see this as an excuse to cut myself slack in choosing to offset my impact, rather just more assuring that I can make easy changes that will make a greater difference.
Global Footprint Network: Ecological Footprint
Water Footprint
My utility meter usage reads show that my apartment consumes 687 gallons of cold water and 738 gallons of hot water. I discovered that the average person consumes between 50-100 gallons daily, but my average only rounds out to about 48.
The water footprint calculator was difficult to fill out with accuracy, but overall I found that my total water footprint is about 4334 cubic meters per year. The average usage per year per capita in the United States is 2842 cubic meters. I think some of my inputs could have been excessive, but most of my consumption is likely from shopping for clothing as a pair of jeans can require 8000 liters of water to be made!
