Little steps to reduce my carbon footprint

A carbon footprint is how an individual changes the environment through the life that they live. As I began to look at climate change with a public relations perspective I decided to begin with myself and how I live my life. When I was young, anytime anyone in my family would leave a light on, my father would make us come and turn it off. It did not matter if you were on a different floor from the light, or if you were outside playing with friends. Because of this I became very conscious of energy saving actions. I turn lights off, I turn water off while brushing my teeth, I take short showers, and I only do laundry when my load is full. One large action I take, which people have mixed emotions about, is the car that I drive. I drive a Volkswagon Beetle which gets great gas mileage. The kicker is that it is a diesel, so I use less gas than non-diesel cars, but my little car puts out a lot of black exhaust.

I next decided to look at my future (non-existent) job. When I get to the company I plan to look at ways the company can decrease their carbon footprint. There are so many ways this could be done: using less paper, unplugging outlets for weekends or off-days, recycling everything, setting up carpooling, purchasing community grown food items for employee parties or luncheons, use manual staplers, and have less elevator trips to conserve energy. I would also look into ways the company can conserve natural resources and I will promote this so it will become part of the companies public image.

*Another way I will help spread awareness for climate change in my future job is through social work. I will do this by participating in Earth Day and other environmental awareness days and encouraging my co-workers to participate with me.

At the current moment I believe my carbon footprint is pretty small and I hope that over the course of the rest of my life, including my career it stays that way. This site is great for calculating your carbon footprint. I was not able to my own because the apartment I am living in includes utilities so I could not fill out most of the important blanks.