Reducing one's ecofootprint

As you can see, decreasing your environmental impact is not easy, but it can be fun! Many of the suggestions from the NIW guide are not that hard to follow and can be completed with little effort throughout the day. Reducing one's ecofootprint is essential if we want to move towards living sustainable lives. Here are some of the easiest ways to decrease one's ecofootprint:

1.Turn off the lights when you leave the room. They don't need to be on anyway!

2.Use reusable water bottles. Please learn from my mistake and don't buy a new plastic bottle

everyday. There's absolutely no point to it.

3.Try to only wash your clothes in full loads. Smaller loads use the same amount of water as larger loads, so try to fit everything into one load.

4. Unplug things that you use only once a day, such as coffee makers and toasters. While

plugged in they suck electricity even when not in use.

5. Walk, bike, run. Anything that involves exercise and doesn't involve transportation that

would increase pollution.

By following these easy steps, you can decrease your ecofootprint and feel happier, healthier, and better about the environment at the same time!

Minimizing resource use

I used a blog for this project for many reasons. First, blogs decrease resource use by eliminating the need to print off paper or use tape and other physical resources that will only be thrown away once the project is graded. As long as the teacher grading the project is able to access the internet, no resources need to be wasted. Second, blogs allow for pictures to be displayed that can visually demonstrate the suggestions in the NIW guide. Hopefully, others will be able to see my pictures and replicate them to decrease their impact as well. Third, since blogs are on the computer, people who are reading them can multitask and reduce the overall energy exerted. Finally, blogs are very wide-reaching. People around the world can access a blog as long as they have internet. It is my wish that others will be able to access this blog and decrease their impact on the environment.

Recycling newspaper

Most people get the newspaper delivered to their homes every morning. While it is important to be updated on the daily news, newspapers quickly overstay their welcome. As the papers pile up, people begin to look for a way to get rid of them. Recycling newspapers is a critical action that everyone should take part in. It's an easy way to get rid of bothersome newspapers and it impacts the earth much less that simply throwing the paper away.

Dad jumps in!

Feeling left out, my dad asked me how he could help with this project. I told him that the easiest way would be to decrease his use of cars. He promised to reduce his car use. True to his word, that night he walked home from work. I quickly snapped this shot before he arrived to document his assistance.

My freshman year of high school I went to a school that allowed students to purchase lunch from a buffet. Every day at lunch I would buy a brand new bottle of water. At the end of the day I would dispose of the water bottle, usually in a recycling bin but sometimes just in the trash! In many ways, this was my greatest regret of freshman year. During No Impact Week, I chose to use a reusable water bottle that I brought with me to school every day. I decreased my production of plastic bottle waste and still got my water fix.

Printing on the back of paper

As a junior in high school, there are many assignments for me to complete. While most teachers want assignments typed, there's no reason for an assignment to only cover one side of a piece of paper. Paper has two sides for a reason. USE BOTH. After printing out a sheet, put it back into the printer with the type facing up and print on both sides of the sheet. This decreases waste by decreasing the amount of paper that you use.

Mom helps out again

After helping me out that first time with the lunch box, my mom got so into NO Impact week that she wanted to help some more! She followed one of the suggestions on the guide and took reusable utensils to work to eat her lunch with. Taking reusable utensils can decrease one's impact by decreasing disposable waste in the form of plastic utensils and only requiring minimal water to reuse.