We have been using the Berkeley Institute of the Environment carbon footprint calculator to track our average ecological impact and our progress is shown below. When we started tracking our carbon footprint back in March 2009 we assessed that our household produced a shocking 68 tons of CO2 per year, this is equivalent to 158 barrels of oil in energy and would require managing 13 acres of forest to offset!

This was simply un-acceptable in our eyes. We purchased our current home 2 years ago, it is an older home and needed lots of upgrades to make it more energy efficient.

Our Carbon Footprint Back in March 2009 shown below…

Our Carbon Footprint in March 2009

Back in March when I saw these results I decided to really commit to reducing our household energy consumption and check our progress at the end of the year…

Here are the steps we have taken so far in 2009 to reduce our average ecological impact;

1. When we first bought the house we immediately replaced all of the old incandescent bulbs in the house with  new high efficiency compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs and extremely efficient LED bulbs.
   • Read more about our lighting upgrades here;
   • http://www.oureverydayearth.com/2009/04/12/led-flood-light-a-cool-find-for-energy-savings/
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2. Purchasing recycled materials such as bath tissue and kitchen paper all made from recycled post consumer content is something we have done for a long time but we also switched to using biodegradable trash bags for all of our garbage disposal.
   • Check out our favorite green trash bags here;
   • http://www.oureverydayearth.com/2009/03/22/go-green-biodegradable-kitchen-bags-making-our-trash-greener/
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3. The next big upgrade for us was to replace all of the outdoor lighting with two stage security lights, the new lights run at low power until motion is detected then they switch to high output for a minute or two if motion is detected.
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4. Here in Texas the sprinkler system is a very important part of keeping the yard looking good and maintaining constant moisture in the clay soil. We upgraded our entire sprinkler system to add more efficient zoning as well as a rain and freeze detector. The system knows if it has rained and prevents the system from running for 48 hrs after a good rainfall. This saves lots of water, the system also shuts off when the temperature drops below freezing.
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5. The addition of a compost bin outdoors has helped us greatly reduce the amount of trash we have collected, all of our fruit and vegetable waste goes into the compost bin and we are looking forward to the rich compost in spring 2010.
   • View our compost bin install here;
   • http://www.oureverydayearth.com/2009/07/07/home-compost-bin-a-self-assembled-solution/
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6. The next change was forced upon us! Our antiquated air conditioning system finally broke down and our home was over 100 deg F for several days, we quickly arranged to get a completely new system installed and we noticed an immediate drop in our electricity bill.
   • Check out the air conditioning system upgrades here;
   • http://www.oureverydayearth.com/2009/07/19/our-upgraded-cooling-systems/
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7. I finally purchased a new truck which both increased my miles per gallon and decreased my monthly bills!
   • You can read more about my new vehicle purchase and my green dilemma surrounding it;
   • http://www.oureverydayearth.com/2009/07/28/green-truck-maybe-just-green-thinking/
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8. Our clothes dryer also broke and it gave us another opportunity to upgrade, we purchased an energy star front loading washer and dryer and we hope to see large savings in both water and electricity consumption.
   • Our new washer and dryer should save us water and energy;
   • http://www.oureverydayearth.com/2009/11/15/upgrading-to-a-high-efficiency-washer-and-dryer/

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     Our New High Efficiency Washer and Dryer Installed

9. The most recent change we have made is a new energy star fridge freezer which will again help us cut down on our electricity consumption.

So with all of the above changes we implemented what impact did it have? I repeated the impact assessment with the Berkeley Institute of the Environment eco-calculator and here are the results;

Our Current Carbon Footprint is shown below…

Our Improved Carbon Footprint - Still A Long Way to Go!

As you can see, we greatly reduced out housing impact but we’re still not below the U.S. average which got me thinking;

As a family, we’re still consuming too much energy, but we’ve made significant changes and our carbon footprint is rapidly reducing – We’re looking forward to a much greener 2010!

Our plans for next year include upgrading our dishwasher and the other remaining appliances to energy star rated, we also want to improve our homes insulation and install radiant barrier in our attic spaces to reduce heating and cooling energy consumption.

What are your plans for 2010? Let us know by leaving a comment today…

Martin Home & Garden, Our Impact, Power Conservation energy, home and garden, reducing