First Post and 3 Goals

Hey there, so this is my first post on my sustain-abili-blog. Say it with my now, Sustain- Abili- Blog! (It truly rolls of the tongue, surprised it wasn't already taken...) Through the use of this blog, I hope to transform from current careless college student to eco-friendly and environmentally aware young adult. You can watch as I become cocooned and eventually spread my green-wings throughout the course of the quarter.

During the first class session of Marketing 488: Strategies for Sustainabiliy, we were asked to go home and calculate our "Ecological Footprint," after completing the activity, I was told that it would take 4 Earth’s to sustain my sort of lifestyle. First off, I can’t believe that, I felt like my carbon footprint was somewhat low due to use of public transportation, recycling, and very infrequent driving and when done often accompanied with a passenger… I guess I still have a lot to learn about my actions in regards to the ecosystem.


After realizing my wasteful ways of living, I came up with a few simple goals to help me reduce my negative impacts on Mother Earth.

My plans to reduce my carbon footprint this quarter:


1. Replace a meat-based meal with a nice, healthy peanut butter and jelly sandwich

My first action that I plan to enact centers around the PB&J campaign. I realized after using the EF calculator that a lot of my meals centered on meats, and after visiting the PB&J campaign website I learned how a subtle change like eating a plant-based meal over a meat-based meal can drastically reduce my personal footprint. I wholeheartedly accepted this challenge. I have already replaced two normal sandwich meals with PB&J and feel like this will be a simple and successful step in my personal sustainability efforts.

2. Reduce buying of non-essential new consumer goods

I want to reduce my purchases of new consumer goods. As of now, I don’t buy every new gadget or anything but I have replaced a few computers and big purchases like that before it was completely necessary. In such a fast moving industry there is no way to keep up anyways, especially in regards to consuming responsibly, and it gets individuals stuck in a cycle of trying to keep up for seemingly no reason. Also, in regards to clothing and other unnecessary comforts, I would like to continue buying second hand and possibly force all my purchases to be second hand in this area.

3. Reduce household energy consumption simply, by unplugging unused appliances

Reduce energy consumption in my house. Living in an antiquated house with 3 other men in a college environment is possibly a carbon-reducers biggest nightmare. While we are pretty good about recycling and keeping water usage low, we have never been very good at unplugging electronics. In a house with 4 college kids, there are probably 4 phone chargers in at all times, 4 laptop chargers, 4 huge power strips connected; all while we are out and about all day… It takes a little persistence to end these wasteful activities and I plan to not only utilize the power switch on my surge protector much more efficiently but also my roommates’ as well.