three page executive summary

Reducing My Ecological Footprint

Mark Twain quoted Charles Dudley Warner as saying, “Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” Today we could say that everybody talks about improving the environment, but few take any action to make it better. The cause and effect diagram helps me examine my journey in reducing the negative physical effects of my lifestyle – my ecological footprint. Gleaning from the Ishikawa diagram, I will discuss improvements to reduce my eco-footprint I have taken in the past, improvements I can make, and improvements I imagine I will take as technology improves or I learn more.

Past Eco-Footprint Improvements: My efforts to reduce my personal eco-footprint have taken various forms: cleaning the air, reducing energy consumption, reducing water usage, and reducing solid waste. I have helped clean the air by planting trees – thousands of them. Think of them as personal carbon offsets. I also pollute less by occasionally riding a bicycle the 5+ miles from my house to work. Assuming 20 mpg for my Previa van and a round-trip distance of 10 miles, I will only save a half gallon per bike trip – not a huge savings.

In 1986 I purchased my last new car, a Honda Accord. Buying used vehicles rather than new may result in lower fuel mileage, but usually it has a much smaller eco-footprint via reduced energy consumption and waste emissions during the manufacturing process. “If you make a car last to 200,000 miles rather than 100,000, then the emissions for each mile the car does in its lifetime may drop by as much as 50%, as a result of getting more distance out of the initial manufacturing emissions.” Besides the cars I drive (a 2006 Avalon and a 1991 Previa, both of which have over 200K miles), I reduced my energy consumption by replacing two water heaters in my home (one gas and one electric) with one tankless heater, upgraded our refrigerator and dish washer to more efficient models, and begun the switch to LED bulbs rather than incandescent. The LED conversion has the double impact of less energy consumed by the light and less heat produced, which is a benefit during the cooling season. We have improved the insulation in our 50-year-old home after a thermal inspection located the heat leaks.

This may sound crude, but if you flush less often then you will waste less treated water. A male of my age typically visits the bathroom several times a night more frequently than you do. Two fewer flushes per day may save over 1000 gallons of treated water per year! I also reduced my consumption of treated water by using river water to irrigate from the Stones River in our backyard via a pump we had installed three years ago.

We have reduced our contribution of solid waste to the landfill by paying for a recycling service. For about $10 per month we have curb side service every two weeks. The result has been a reduction of about 25 bins of recyclable waste to the landfill per year. This actually an increase in cost to us, but we are reducing our contribution to the landfill. Formerly I occasionally took my recyclables to the convenience center in Lascassas, but that was a 30 mile round trip with obvious negative environmental impacts (1.5 gallons of gasoline per trip). We often take the bulk of our corrugated paper packaging to the recycling location on the north side of campus (without adding significantly to my drive) or to the bin at our church.

Possible Immediate Improvements: I believe the measures category of the cause and effect diagram has the most potential for driving short term improvements. In the new semester I will track mileage driven and record it in my journal. I will maintain a log of redundant trips at my office desk. Consuming less is a vague goal, but I can monitor this year’s expenditures on Amazon vs. 2015 expenditures and review quarterly. How many times did I bike to school last semester? Probably only twice, so I will maintain a log for that as well. I will continue a migration to LED bulbs. I will purchase filters ahead of time and keep a log of when I change them. All of these changes can be implemented this semester.

Possible Future Improvements: There are many improvements that could be done, but which ones are most beneficial and which ones are most likely? I can install a dust collection system in my shop and should do this within the next 18 months to clean the air in the immediate vicinity of my shop and to keep the dust out of my lungs. Steve Waldron recommended during an energy audit that I consider insulating the crawl space. I like the idea of insulating and dehumidifying that space to achieve the double benefits of reducing energy consumption and cleaning the air in our home, but I believe it will be at least three years before we could afford it.

We could generate our own power by installing solar panels on the roof of the cave to reduce our consumption of electricity, but that is likely at least five years out. We could even consider hydro power in the river, but it is less reliable and would require more maintenance than solar. We can reduce trips to Nashville, but that isn’t likely until Alei graduates from high school in three-and-a-half years. I can still plant more trees – and I probably will. I can and should identify and implement a systematic program to recycle our hazardous wastes (batteries, cfl’s, etc.).

In an earlier section I mentioned the advantage of driving vehicles longer. Since I wrote that our 2006 Avalon has been involved in an accident and we will need to replace it. We will consider replacing it with a vehicle that is at least that new and gets as good or better fuel mileage.

Conclusion: We can and should do more. I have detailed the actions I have taken, will take shortly, and may take in the more distant future to reduce my ecological footprint by cleaning the air, reducing my energy consumption, reducing water usage, and reducing solid waste.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/2010/sep/23/carbon-footprint-new-car

[3] Charles Dudley Warner need to add reference.

This was quoted by Mark Twain in a lecture, and is still commonly misattributed to Twain. [4] add Wikipedia reference.

Note: This is a second draft. The second and third sections are not as developed or as well organized as the first section. The conclusion is still weak. Your report will be different. Generally, I like to see balanced sections, however, at 60 years of age my already completed improvements naturally dwarf the ones I plan in the future. On the other hand, most of you will have more opportunities in the future than improvements in the past. Be careful not to make unwarranted assumptions about the impacts. You can do a quick calculation on the impact of buying a Prius to replace your current car. Don’t just say it will be a “lot.”