REGENERATION

I spent some time tonight on this website
I found it on the Blog Action Day resources page. I've worked with several carbon and ecological footprint calculators and spreadsheets before, and of the simple web based ones, this is one of the more useful that I've found.

I want to emphasize though that having a goal of zero isn't all that inspiring, that's why Raquel and I have been working towards the goal of being REGENERATIVE as opposed to DE-GENERATIVE over the last few years. We've got to save our morale people! Visionary Architect Bill McDonough stated it well when he said that "we don't want to leave smaller footprints, we want to leave huge footprints - we just want to leave wetlands in them".

And I am happy to report that according to the ZeroFootprint Calculator we have a "negative" footprint - our regenerative impact is outweighing our de-generative impact. Do we live like hermits in the mountains? All you have to do is read Quellie's blog to dispel that notion.

Transportation: Telecommuting & Motorcycling to SLC occasionally + working within walking distance of home, Lots of Bicycling & trying to go car-less= 1.3 tons CO2 annually

Home: We got an ASKO combo wash/dryer that uses less e for both tasks than an energy star washing machine does just to wash, & a programmable thermostat. Plus we compost a lot, & cut down quite extensively on our garbage & paper intake= 1.1 tons CO2 annually

Food: We have been working towards a 100 mile diet, everything produced organically/ecologically, and lots from our garden. This is apparently worth -4.5 tons of CO2.

I am still working on doing more in depth energy accounting/ self-regulation, but going off this emissions calc. of roughly 2.3 tons of CO2 per year I think I think it is possible to make significant change while improving our quality of life- especially considering that the average emissions per person along our beloved Wasatch Front is a whoppingly embarrassing 29!

Although our efforts to cut back have at times created some frustrating situations, we have generally found ourselves getting through them with increased community - like the time James helped us to haul 20 foot pieces of lumber to our house on a bike trailer and a skateboard because we were too lazy to ride a motorcycle somewhere to borrow a truck.