My ecological footprint requires an extra Earth

A new, updated version of nonprofit Redefining Progress' Ecological Footprint Quiz came out -- and so I took it. The result -- I require 1.84 earths!

How could this be? Turns out, a big chunk of my footprint was calculated by things beyond my direct control. According to the FAQ:

There are some portions of your footprint that are not the direct result of your consumption habits. For example, each resident of a city is "responsible" for a portion of the city's infrastructure, such as roads, schools, and government offices, regardless of whether the resident uses those services. In addition, some options that could make your footprint smaller are not available to you as a result of choices on the part of local decision makers, such as reliable and efficient public transportation as an alternative to driving. Therefore, an important path to reducing your footprint is to advocate for more sustainable decisions at all levels of government.

Well, okay then. But the quiz got me wondering if it'd be possible to live in L.A. and have a footprint that'd require just 1 earth or less -- so I took the quiz again basically checking off everything that'd lower my score.

In this imaginary greener life, I moved to a big apartment complex built only with green materials with a 100 square foot edible garden. My imaginary greener self also quit all travel, went vegan, and installed a graywater system for the imaginary garden.

This spartan lifestyle got me down to .98 earths! So I guess it is still possible to live in L.A. and have a sustainable lifestyle according to this calculator -- except we don't have any huge, LEED-certified complexes offering apartments smaller than 500 square feet....

As with most footprint calculators, this quiz tends to be geared toward home-and-car owners, and doesn't offer apartment dwellers extra points for not having a lawn, not buying their own washer / dryer or other appliances, etc.

Still, it's kind of a fun exercise if you have a few minutes to kill at work -- Let me know how many earths you require.

Earlier: My enviro impact score's lower than yours

Comments

[Alex Thompson]

I mean - one huge issue with LA is that we pump all this water from up north down here. Something like 30% of electricity in CA is used for pumping water. So, just because of that we're all consuming a lot more than our share of the earth's resources.

Back to drafting this post I owe!

[Roxanne]

I got two and a half planets, not too bad but I def can do better.

[Tim Buchheim]

4.47 earths, partially due to the fact that I live with my 85-year-old grandparents in their 52-year-old house, which limits some of the things I can do. (although we did rip out their lawn last year and put in a native plant garden)

carbon: 74.3
food: 54.5
housing: 27.6
goods/services: 17.0

total: 173.51

[Lori]

Even though I was lower than the Country's average in all the categories I still scored 4.8 earths!!!

I compost and have a veggie garden but driving my pickup truck kinda negates those gains...