From the course: The Employee's Guide to Sustainability

Calculating your carbon footprint

From the course: The Employee's Guide to Sustainability

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Calculating your carbon footprint

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- If you've spent time visiting national parks or World Heritage sites, you might have noticed signs encouraging you to leave no trace, to take only photos and leave only footprints. A footprint is a mark we leave, an impression. It shows where we've been or what we've been doing. During our daily lives, we leave lots of proverbial footprints on our planet, and we use those footprints to measure our impact on the natural world, all that it takes to sustain a person or organization. Let's explore the types of footprints we make. An ecological footprint is a way to look at our personal demand on nature. It measures how quickly we consume resources and produce waste compared to how quickly nature can absorb our waste and generate new resources. Our carbon footprint helps us remain conscientious about the heat-trapping greenhouse gases associated with our day-to-day activities, including commuting by car or bus, powering the buildings we occupy or growing the food that we eat. Our water footprint measures not only the water we use and consume, but also the water used to produce the products that we buy. Think about the water used to grow our fruits and vegetables and make the clothing that we wear. So how can we work together to reduce the footprints that we leave on this planet Earth? Start by using the tools in the exercise files to identify what parts of our daily lives are the biggest contributors to our ecological footprints. Is it our diet or travel? The way we heat our living and workspaces. Are there differences between your footprint at work and your footprint at home? Exploring your ecological footprints can help you determine the most impactful ways to reduce your footprint. One other source that goes hand in hand with our footprints is our handprint. Handprints represent the benefits of our presence and bring positive changes in the world. If footprints are what we unavoidably leave, handprints are what we intentionally give. A contribution that causes positive change in the world, including reductions to your own or someone else's footprint, is a handprint. For example, you might decide to ride a bicycle to work instead of drive, reducing your greenhouse gas emissions and improving your health. Take that step to do more good in the world rather than just less harm. Together our creative individual actions and outreach can generate ripple effects to improve our communities and our planet.

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