regardingjohn

According to myfootprint.org, my footprint is 12 acres. Here are my results:

• Food: 4.4 acres
• Mobility: 0.7
• Shelter: 3.7
• Goods/Services: 3

Total footprint: 12

In comparison, the average ecological footprint in your country is 24 acres per person. Worldwide, there exist 4.5 biologically productive acres per person. If everyone lived like you, we would need 2.7 planets.

12 acres is too big, methinks. Granted, it’s not as big as the average for the U.S. (24 acres per person), but it’s too big. Here are my thoughts on the categories:
Food is my weakness. Even as a flexetarian (prefer veggies, but eat whatever is served rather than wasting it), I don’t eat as “low on the food chain” as I’d like because I eat a lot of prepared food. I’m not skilled in preparing my meals from local foods — I don’t know the recipes, I don’t have the practice/training/experience, etc.

• Solution: So, dear reader, help me out. Tell me what to get at the Co-op, and come over and teach me how to cook it. I’ll buy you the meal if you teach me how to make it.

Mobility was my strongest category. As a year-round biker, I’ve been avoiding the use of my car for the past two years. However, now that I have Rufus I drive him to the dog park because I can’t wear him out (and socialize him) on my walks as well as other dogs can. I have a Springer Jogger, but Rufus isn’t as much of a runner, and it still doesn’t provide the pure joy of playing with other dogs.

• Solution: I’d like Madison to get the city to convert Burr Park, next to Savers, into a dog park (just add a fence). Bike paths provide safe and accessible routes to it, for walkers and bikers, under East Washington and under East Johnson, and it would serve the entire Isthmus and Near East Side.

Shelter isn’t a category I can do much more with. I share a 4-bedroom apartment with 3 others; we have a high efficiency natural gas furnace on a timed thermostat; half our windows are thermal-paned, and the leaky windows are sealed with plastic, and have curtains closed (usually) at night; we have CF bulbs and LED lighting in the “often-on” lighting spots, and do a pretty good job of keeping the incandescent (better quality light) task lighting off when we’re not using them. All-in-all, we’re pretty good.

• Solution: This year, we’re moving to >100% green power for our electricity. It’s only ~6% more per bill, and that breaks down to about $2 more for each of us each month.

Good/Services is a funny category. I’m not sure what it is, and on the “Take Action” page, there aren’t any suggestions to improve it. I suppose it means shopping locally, and I’m a mixed bag at that: I shop online instead of driving to the malls, so while my new “stuff” is shipped, I know I use less carbon to get it to me than I would if I drove to the suburban malls and tried to find it there. Plus, I’m not supporting the excess of the “suburban mall system” — an ecological disaster on so many levels!

Groceries are semi-local. I do my weekly shopping at the local co-op, and pay more there, but save on car and congestion costs by biking instead of driving. But I do my major monthly grocery shopping at Woodman’s, and get quite a bit of my non-perishable foods (over-packaged and over-processed) like rice and Indian heat-and-eat meals, and cereal, and salsa, etc. there.

• Solution: Again, I’d like to do more with the raw materials. I use Freecycle and Craigslist more and more, and try to do without new stuff, but I am a bit of a tech geek, and confess to having more than I need.

Overall, there are corners I can cut, and local communities (like EnAct) that I can join to help encourage me in that goal. And I will:

we would like to invite you to a kick-off meeting for a downtown area EnAct team – Monday, January 22 at 7pm at the 3rd floor office of Madison Environmental Group and EnAct 25 N. Pinckney St., Suite 310 (on the Capitol Square above L’Etoile Restaurant)