Before I retook the quiz, I was worried that it wouldn't have gone down at all because the steps that I took to reduce my carbon footprint were not necessarily quantifiable from this quiz since it focuses on household measures.
However, I took the quiz anyway and it did go down by .3 earths. Services were 55%, food was 14%, mobility was 14%, shelter was 7%, and goods was 10%. So, my food, mobility, and shelter impact went down during the course of this quarter.
The goal that I stuck to strictly was always taking the stairs, never the elevator, for which I am pretty proud of myself. The energy savings of this activity would not show up on my household ecological footprint. I also started eating more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (usually 2 or three a week) in congruence with the PB&J campaign. This was also hard to quantify in my quiz because none of the ingredients are local but it did save trips to the store and money on on-campus lunches in addition to being a non-meat based lunch.
There are a few things that were not a part of my original goals that I have started doing to reduce my carbon footprint. One of which is paying closer attention to what I can recycle at home. I have also started taking my reusable grocery bag to the store to reduce plastic and paper bag consumption. Another factor that has helped reduce my household ecological footprint has been unplugging my chargers when I'm not using them.
I'll admit I have been slipping a little bit on buying local and organic produce because I have been going out to eat a lot recently. The weekend trip to Texas for an interview did not help my mobility footprint either. All of that aside, this exercise for class has shown me that no effort is unnecessary, every little thing that you can do to reduce your impact counts. This idea needs to be spread so that more people will be empowered to make any small change that is reasonable for them to reduce our impact on the earth. Not every activity is realistic for everyone, but find some goals that you can stick to and do it! Changing one habit will make you aware of other unsustainable behaviors and be a catalyst for more change!
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
The Problem with PlayPumps
Earlier in the quarter we discussed how we could use business to help society. One of the business ventures we brought up was the Darfurstoves and their goals to help with the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. The class decided that it is not only important to want to help people but in order for it to be a sustainable solution in business it must also make money. The tricky part is that it also cannot just be about making money. This was the fallacy with the PlayPump (sorry for the spoiler for those of you who have yet to take Mgmt 495).
The PlayPump was designed to use the energy of children playing to pump water out of the ground. It could support a small village and kept women from having to walk miles to another water source. With good intentions, PlayPump International installed pumps all over parts of southern Africa with funding from donations and advertisers. Months later, when a third party went in to check on the progress, it turns out that most of the pumps were not working as promised. It seemed like PlayPumps International did not do their due diligence in researching prime locations for these pumps or for villages that wanted them. No one was willing to take responsibility for the ineffective pumps and eventually the program was abandoned.
The moral of this story is that philanthropic ventures have to chase the triple bottom line (profits, people, planet) and not lose sight of any one of the three. I do believe that it is possible for a business to succeed in this kind of venture but the leader needs to be in it for the right reasons and have a good business strategy. A new term for this type of business is 'social entrepreneurship' and there could be a future for it if business leaders can balance the priorities.
The PlayPump was designed to use the energy of children playing to pump water out of the ground. It could support a small village and kept women from having to walk miles to another water source. With good intentions, PlayPump International installed pumps all over parts of southern Africa with funding from donations and advertisers. Months later, when a third party went in to check on the progress, it turns out that most of the pumps were not working as promised. It seemed like PlayPumps International did not do their due diligence in researching prime locations for these pumps or for villages that wanted them. No one was willing to take responsibility for the ineffective pumps and eventually the program was abandoned.
The moral of this story is that philanthropic ventures have to chase the triple bottom line (profits, people, planet) and not lose sight of any one of the three. I do believe that it is possible for a business to succeed in this kind of venture but the leader needs to be in it for the right reasons and have a good business strategy. A new term for this type of business is 'social entrepreneurship' and there could be a future for it if business leaders can balance the priorities.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Eco-Goals Update
So, originally I wanted to only take the stairs and never the elevator, buy more organic fruits and veggies, take fewer short trips to the store or at least carpool with someone, and pay closer attention to recyclable packaging. Evaluating my progress on these goals, I realized I started strong and have lost steam on the second and third one. Reducing my carbon footprint by reducing travel has been particularly difficult for me in the last week with a trip to Texas on an airplane which of course involved a drive to and from Seattle as well. However, I have stuck to only taking the stairs (even when I'm running late to class!) and have paid attention to the packaging on products.
A couple weeks in to the challenge, I decided to commit to eating at least 2 PB&J sandwiches during a work week for lunch. This has been easy to accomplish because its cheap and easy to make. It also didn't hurt that my cousin made me homemade jellies too! I checked out the website to see what the campaign was all about and right before I was about to get skeptical on all of the carbon emission numbers being thrown around, there was a link directly answering my question: Where did they get the numbers? I've been keeping to this goal and shouldn't have a problem sticking to it although haven't taken the pledge.
Like the PB&J challenge, I noticed that becoming more and more aware of the effects that my actions have on the environment has changed my focus of my goals. While I'm not doing fantastic on 2 of my goals, I have started unplugging my power cords when I leave and such things because this class has made me aware of simple actions like that really making a difference. So with this in mind, I think it is important to note that you should set goals that DO make a difference but are also realistic for you to achieve. Isn't that what they teach us in business anyway?
One final note: on my trip to Texas I learned something that others are doing to conserve water. Currently Texas is in a drought, so everyone is on restricted water privileges for watering their yard. The water in the shower takes a long time to get warm, so instead of letting gallons of water run down the drain waiting for the warm water, they put buckets in their shower to collect the cold water and then use that water in their yards. Something that we as Northwesterners RARELY have to think about...
A couple weeks in to the challenge, I decided to commit to eating at least 2 PB&J sandwiches during a work week for lunch. This has been easy to accomplish because its cheap and easy to make. It also didn't hurt that my cousin made me homemade jellies too! I checked out the website to see what the campaign was all about and right before I was about to get skeptical on all of the carbon emission numbers being thrown around, there was a link directly answering my question: Where did they get the numbers? I've been keeping to this goal and shouldn't have a problem sticking to it although haven't taken the pledge.
Like the PB&J challenge, I noticed that becoming more and more aware of the effects that my actions have on the environment has changed my focus of my goals. While I'm not doing fantastic on 2 of my goals, I have started unplugging my power cords when I leave and such things because this class has made me aware of simple actions like that really making a difference. So with this in mind, I think it is important to note that you should set goals that DO make a difference but are also realistic for you to achieve. Isn't that what they teach us in business anyway?
One final note: on my trip to Texas I learned something that others are doing to conserve water. Currently Texas is in a drought, so everyone is on restricted water privileges for watering their yard. The water in the shower takes a long time to get warm, so instead of letting gallons of water run down the drain waiting for the warm water, they put buckets in their shower to collect the cold water and then use that water in their yards. Something that we as Northwesterners RARELY have to think about...
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