Ecological Footprint

Finding out if you live a sustainable life:

To start the game, you get to make a character that represents you to go through the game. You start with a number 1.0 to represent one earth, that will drop depending on how much energy you use. With each item that you put it in, there are "Did you know?" facts that appear at the top to give you some ideas of how everything effects the environment.

Categories include:

• Your Home: number of people in your home, and type of home
• Power Up: electricity that you use
• Talking Trash: how much you try and sustain, recycle
• Public Transportion: do you carpool, take the public bus, subway, plane
• Personal Transportation: about your own car and how many miles you drive
• Food and Drink: your eating and drinking habits
• Shopping Habits: 

Results:

Towards the end I reached 3.8 planets. Based on my numbers I scored 1 in home, 1 in power up, 1 in talking trash, 6 in transportation, 6 in food and drink, and 3 in shopping. The average number of earths is about 4.5, so I am not too far off from the average. 

The results make you think about some of the decisions you make, especially with the types of questions that are asked. Normally you wouldn't think of buying new clothes as a sustainable factor, but think about recycling those clothes by giving them to other people. I know that my transportation numbers might not be as high on someone else (not really sure) but I know that its one area that I could work on improving. In this area it is hard to rely on public transportation because of how long it takes to get to your final destination. I know I should be trying to carpool more, but everyone's schedules are so different it makes it a little hard. I know when it comes to food and recycling I do very well. I do not consume a lot of dairy or cereals, my diet is more focused on meats and vegetables/fruits. We recycle quite a few things in my house. In our regular recycle we place newspapers, glass, plastic, styrofoam, etc. But we also go the extra distance by recycling metals and aluminums by bringing them to a recycling yard so that its not trashed.

I did enjoy the little game, it was cute and makes you really think.

• http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumerconsequences/