The Low Impact Living Calculators
If you haven’t measured your carbon footprint, here is a pretty cool way to do so: the Low Impact Living Environmental Impact Calculator. In their words:
Our calculators assess your full range of environmental impacts – water use, waste generated, carbon emissions, etc. And we go a step further: we tell you what you can do to lower your impacts. We give you a list of recommended projects to undertake, tell you how much they will cost and explain how they will benefit the environment. We show you the steps needed to turn your house into a green home.
I just ran through the registration process, which involves entering your zipcode, house size and whether or not you own a pool. And a subscribe option for their newsletter. So, what did I find about this site and my house?
Part 1 is all about What You’re Doing:
1. A house in our area/house size uses 170,000 gallons of water a year. Most of this usage is considered ‘outdoor’.
2. Between electricity, natural gas and transportation, we’re producing 18 tons of carbon dioxide.
3. We’re generating 1260 lbs of trash waste every year. This is based on recycling, yard waste and the ‘non-recyclable’ trash.
I’ll debate these numbers a little, since our house is smaller than the range we were in. Plus, we own a hybrid, and my commute is minimal. But all points made are very well taken.
The 2nd part is all about What To Do Next. Some great ideas:
1. Installing an Energy Star thermostat will cost $70, but save me $120 annually.
2. Purchasing clean power credits will provide me 2500 lbs of carbon dioxide savings.
3. Installing compact fluorescent lightbulbs will cost me $120 per year, save me $100 per year and will provide me 480 lbs of carbon dioxide savings.
Everything is broken out by cost, savings, payback period, energy savings, water savings, etc. The best part: the site organizes everything by ‘project’. By using one of several project filters, you can narrow down your objectives and out a plan in motion. They even link out to relevant products, per project type, from that page. Very cool.
They also offer an In-home environmental impact assessment. This involves a skilled technician coming to your home, reviewing your situation and providing tips for improvement. This is an idea I really like… but will probably wait a little bit to do. If you do any of these, please send me your feedback. The tips for improvement will be great to share.
