My Carbon Emission Remission Mission

Okay, so here's the rub. We're doing a lot of the things that we should be doing already - and with my being an unemployed, full-time student - that is putting a bit of a crimp in our budget. We won't be doing some of the major upgrades, like home remodels, vehicle purchases, etc., that would make a significant change.

On the EPA website, there were action items to select that would estimate financial and CO2 savings, and my action items resulted in an estimated 8% decrease. Let's take a look, shall we? Everything with an *asterik* is a success!

* 1. Reduce the number of miles I drive my first vehicle by 10 miles per week ($83 annual savings; 531 pounds of CO2 per year 1 percent of your total emissions). Last week, I walked to pick up some fresh produce, plus my daughter and I walked to the library. I also combined some errands together and ran them on the same day instead of fitting them in as I could each day. I wasn't sure if this would actually save 10 miles, but my calculations estimate that it actually saved about 11 miles.
2. Reduce the number of miles I drive my second vehicle by 10 miles per week ($83 annual savings; 462 pounds of CO2 per year 1 percent of your total emissions). Well, maybe I should not have answered this one on behalf of my husband, because almost all of the driving that he does is to and from work. However, there are times that we could drive his slightly more efficient car, instead of my mini-van.
? 3. Perform regular maintenance on my vehicles ($173 annual savings; 1,243 pounds of CO2 per year 2 percent of your total emissions). Can we count this one as a savings if we already keep our vehicles maintained? And frankly, I don't think that an individual can count this as monetary savings, if one assumes a trip to the shop for the engine tune-up. Let's just call this one a wash.
4. Turn down my household's heating thermostat by 2 degrees Fahrenheit on winter nights ($17 annual savings; 142 pounds of CO2 per year 0 percent of your total emissions). Yes, we can do this one, but I can't count it as something completed for our assignment.
* 5. Turn down my household's air conditioner thermostat by 1 degrees Fahrenheit in summer ($48 annual savings; 444 pounds of CO2 per year 1 percent of your total emissions). I will count this as a win now, because my husband likes to run the AC to keep things cool and to dehumidify. I actually changed our programmable thermostat 2 degrees, and so far so good.
* 6. Enable the sleep feature on my computer and monitor ($10 annual savings; 153 pounds of CO2 per year 0 percent of your total emissions). We actually have 2 computers on which I have made sure the sleep feature is enabled.
* 7. Wash my clothes in cold water instead of hot ($12 annual savings; 173 pounds of CO2 per year 0 percent of your total emissions). Other than linens and whites, I have changed my clothes-washing to cold water.
* 8. Use a clothes line or drying rack for 50% of my laundry, instead of my dryer ($40 annual savings; 584 pounds of CO2 per year 1 percent of your total emissions). We had a clothes line in the laundry room already, but we purchased and installed a retractable line for outside as well.
* 9. Replace 5 75-watt incandescent light bulbs with 20-watt ENERGY STAR lights ($35 annual savings; 623 pounds of CO2 per year 1 percent of your total emissions). Although we had already changed out most light bulbs, I found 5 that could be replaced and just went ahead and did it instead of waiting for them to burn out on their own.

According to the EPA web site, our new "total annual estimated CO2 emissions would be 53,469 pounds of CO2 per year or 17,823 pounds of CO2 per year per household member (average emissions per person in the United States are 20,750 pounds per year)."

A few more things that I am doing on my own:
1. Composting - I purchased a Compost Tumbler a few years ago, and I have yet to really use it. We pulled it out, got some compost acceralator, and we are adding kitchen scraps and yard waste. Soon we will have a lovely compost to add to our garden.
2. Vegetable gardening - Within the past year, we acquired a tiller, so I am tilling up some ground this week to plant more vegetables than our usual tomatoes.
3. Shopping - I will make an even greater effort than usual to shop for local and organic food and to buy second-hand clothing and household decor.
4. Water Heater - We turned down the water heater by 2 degrees, because it was set pretty high anyway.


I hope that all of these steps help to reduce my household carbon footprint, but I also wonder what else I can do to help spread the word to get more people to take even greater steps just like we are doing in our class?!!?