Mt Airy Presbyterian Church

Environmental Justice - Minute for Mission

Reducing Your Carbon Footprint - 27 Jan 2008

a talk by Meenal Raval of the Green House Detectives

www.greenhousedetective.com | 267 709 3415

Hello.  

I'm here to talk about reducing your carbon footprint. 

But first, let's understand what is a carbon footprint?

It's the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by an individual, a household, a community or a nation in the course of a year. It is measured in pounds, or tons, of carbon dioxide. 

And how is it emitted?

By breathing - by lighting a candle - and mainly, by the burning of fossil fuels - you know, coal, oil & gas.

At the household level, where each of us pays for and has some control over how energy is used, carbon dioxide is emited: 

1. when we heat & cool our homes - mainly with gas & electricity generated at coal-burning power plants and 

2. when we use electricity for our lighting needs, & appliance use and 

3. when we drive cars to get around town

So how do we reduce our carbon footprint? 

In line with the 3 Rs you've all heard of - Reduce, Reuse & Recycle, there's an equivalent in the energy world - Conservation, Efficiency, and Clean Renewables. 

The first one - Conservation - Simply put, this means being frugal and using less energy. An example of what I mean by conservation is - Turning off the lights when you're not in the room. Another is Walking instead of driving when you can. Yet another is sealing drafts so you use less energy to maintain the same level of comfort. The first two (turning off the lights & walking) are lifestyle changes and cost nothing. The third example (draft sealing) costs a little, but usually pays back for itself in increased comfort and reduced heating bills! 

The second part of the solution - Efficiency - Investing in efficiency also results in using less energy, this time by relying on efficient technologies. An example is changing incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs, which use 25% of the energy. Another is replacing major appliances with more efficient ones. Investing in efficiency pays back for itself with reduced utility bills. It saves you money. 

And the third part of the solution - Renewables - Most of the electricity we use is generated from coal-powered plants. The current low rates for electricity generation are subsidized with our tax dollars. Once you've reduced your energy use (and corresponding carbon footprint!) using Conservation & Efficiency, you're ready to demand clean renewable wind-generated electricity from PECO. Doing so will directly reduce the amount of coal burnt at our power plants, And make future investments in clean renewables more lucrative. 

To summarize - the solution lies in Conservation, Efficiency & supporting Clean Renewables, in that order. 

So, onto our personal experience, or How one household reduced their carbon footprint. 

Upon watching Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth in June '06, we went online and calculated our carbon footprint. For an eco-aware couple, there was quite a Yikes! moment to weigh in at 12.2 tons for our 2-adult household. Just for comparison, the national average is 20 tons. The Philadelphia average is 17 tons. 

First, the mini-van at 15mpg had to go. This was replaced by an efficient sub-compact that gave us 35mpg. Our projected footprint dropped by 2.2 tons. 

Next, we installed a programmable thermostat, sealed drafts, replaced some windows, and all of our light bulbs. And buy wind-generated electricity, 100% renewable. 

Now, as of November '07, our annual electric usage is 2700kWh. Cost? $525 for the year. Our annual gas usage is 645ccf. Cost? $1300 for the year. And our carbon footprint? 7.6 tons.

A 62% reduction.  

So, what can you do to reduce yours? 

I've put together a list of Simple, and Not-so-Simple Things that you can do right now to reduce your carbon footprint (and Global Warming). These are available... 

Thanks for having me here.