Re-evaluation of my carbon footprint.

It has now been two weeks since I set the three goals to reduce my carbon footprint. I thought that they were pretty reasonable to strive for, but I had some difficulties.

As far as the first goal goes, I did not ride my bike to work last week at all because the weather was terrible. I work in a restaurant and it is pretty unprofessional to show up to work drenched from head to toe. The fact that I discovered a flat tire played a small role as well. I would have ridden the bus except that the restaurant where I work closes after midnight, which is around the time when I get off work, and the buses stop running well before this time. I rode my bike to work today in the beautiful, but freezing cold weather!

Another option I found: Continue riding my bike but adjust to the weather conditions!

I was only somewhat successful with this goal but I am going to keep this one as it is. I usually work at least one shift during the week that I am able to ride the bus to work for. I just need to have a stronger backbone and make sure I follow through with this goal. It's important.

For the second goal "unplug all of the electronic devices in my room if they are not in use," I only had partial success with as well. I have always been really good at turning off lights when I leave the room, but I sometimes leave my iHome plugged in even if I am not charging my iPod. These past two weeks, I tried to stay very aware of all of the electricity use in my house. I went around and turned off the lights in rooms where nobody was and stayed very conscious of the amount of time I spent in the shower. My number one focus for the goal was to turn off my computer and unplug it when I leave the house. I really do not like doing this because the battery for my computer is about to die so whenever I need to "Power on" my computer, it takes (what seems like) forever. To change this goal to be more influential on my life and the planet, I am going to purchase a power strip. I truly believe that if I just plug everything into the power strip and flip the off switch every morning before I leave the house, I will not think about my computer individually, that it will be okay to leave that plugged in if all my other electronics are shut off. Everything will be connected and I will have no choice but to turn them all off! I plan to purchase a power strip by the end of the weekend (10/14).

My power strip probably won't be THIS cool... but it will still do the trick! :)

The third goal of "sticking as close to the vegan diet as possible" needs to be more concrete and measurable, or changed altogether. I am altering this goal to be that I will eat strictly vegan four days out of the week. Of the three other days, I will still not eat meat or dairy. In addition to this, when I need to buy groceries, I will go to either The Co-op, The Market, or the farmer's market. I will bring along the re-usable bags that I have and will either carpool or take the bus.



I think adjusting these three goals in the ways that I have will be difficult but doable. They are reasonable changes to make and I need to stick to them.