Mollie Wood: S00153633

EDST167: EVALUATION
The following is the results to my ecological footprint calculations after implementing my plan for
reduction for a total of 10 weeks. (Test completed on the 27/05/2014)

Please note my evaluation and end of unit results highlighted in bold text:
*unfortunately the former website I used to calculate my footprint no longer exists therefore
the breakdown is in different units.
Personal ecological footprint
Beginn
ing of
unit:
End of
unit:
Victorias
average:
Australias
average
The level of what the planet can generate on an
annual basis:

(retrieved from
http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/Ecologicalfootprint/a
usFootprint/default.asp)
Hectare
s:
6.7 4.6 8.1 7.8 2.1gha per person per year.
Planets: 3.5 2.6 More
than 4
N/A



Breakdown
Begi
nnin
g of
unit:
Why? Strategies for reduction: End of
unit:
How?
Food: 2.8 Almost everything I eat has
an animal product in it,
whether it is a dairy product
or meat. I eat a small
amount of packaged or
processed food including
biscuits, chips and chocolate,
that could be avoided.
However I do eat a lot of
fruit and vegetables and they
are often local products,
from the local fruit shop.
To reduce the global
hectares of my diet
practices I will begin to
eat fewer packaged and
processed food, and
consume more natural
products that do not
require as many
resources to be made. I
will also consume less
animal products, with a
focus on consuming less
dairy.
44% Over the past few
weeks, my family has
become more
mindful with their
food wastage. After
many failed
attempts, we are
beginning to have
little to no leftovers
at the end of a meal.
I found out that
organic fruit and
vegetables are quite
expensive and
therefore I was not
able to always
purchase these
options.
Unfortunately the
amount of animal
products we
consumed did not
alter.
Shelte
r:
1.2 We have a double story
house, including four
bedrooms, three living
rooms, one dining room, a
study, two bathrooms, a
laundry and kitchen.
There are no strategies
that I can implement to
reduce the amount of
hectares for shelter, as
it is an inanimate object
that cannot change.
However, we can
implement strategies to
ensure that each room
is managed effectively,
4% It seems that turning
not off appliances
effectively was an
extremely bad habit
in my family. It took
a long time for my
family to remember
to turn them off at
the switch, however
we all still have to
such as turning of the
lights and power
switches when they are
not in use and using
natural ways to manage
temperature, such as
closing and opening
curtains, windows and
doors.
consciously
remember to do it
and often forget. A
main focus appliance
wise was turning of
phone chargers at
the switch instead of
just unplugging your
phone as well as not
leaving the TV on
stand-by.
Trans
port:
0.5 I live in a rural area, and am
often required to drive my
car to get from A to B. I drive
to work, to the gym and to
my boyfriends house most
frequently as these
destinations are not
accessible by public
transport. I do, however,
take the train to and from
university which is over an
hour away.
I live walking distance to
the town centre and the
train station, and
therefore will begin to
walk to these
destinations, rather
than driving
unnecessarily. I will also
arrange with other
colleges who live near-
by to car pool.
21% For a while I was
walking to the
station and down the
street, however since
it has been heading
into the colder
months I have been
driving again to avoid
the rain and wind.
On several occasions
I got a lift with dad as
he was driving to
work, but
unfortunately this
rarely matched up
with the train times.
During my day shifts
I began walking to
work to reduce the
amount of short car
trips I take per week.
Goods
/
Servic
es:
2.2 I buy a fair amount of things
that come in packaging, and
never use recyclable bags at
the supermarket. I do not
own a large amount of
materialistic items, however
I often by stuff that is not
necessary, such as updating
my iPhone when my old one
is still functioning.
To reduce the amount o
goods and services that
impact my ecological
footprint I will take
reusable bags to the
supermarket, and cut
down on packaging by
buying non-processed
food, and reusing
containers and zip-lock
bags. In the long term, I
will discontinue to
purchase items that I do
not need, such as
updating my car or
buying new shoes for
31% I have made some
small changes in my
lifestyle to reduce
the amount of goods
and services I use. I
purchased a keep
cup that I use every
time I get a takeaway
coffee. On my
average day at
university I would
get a takeaway drink
three times a day, I
simply stored the cup
in a zip-lock bag and
rinsed it out after
the sake of it. each use. We have
accumulated many
re-usable grocery
bags over the past
three months and
continue to use them
each time we go
shopping.



Household Footprint
Number of people in the household: 5
Waste productions:

Type of
waste:
Beginning of
unit (per
household):
Positive
aspects of
current
practices:
Negative
aspects of
current
practices:
Strategies
of
reduction:
End of unit
(per
household)
:
How?
Recyclable
waste
(paper,
plastic,
cardboard,
etc)
Averages of 2
medium sized
rubbish bins
are filled each
week. The
large recycling
bin that is put
out for
collection
takes
approximately
a fortnight to
fill.
Each
person in
the house
is
dedicated
to
recycling,
and we
take the
time to
effectively
divide
recycling
products
with
general
waste.
As a
household
we
produce a
lot of
recyclable
waste each
week
which
could be
avoided.
We also do
not take
the time to
rinse out
recyclable
items such
as milk
cartons
and ice
We can
reduce the
amount of
recyclable
waste we
produce
by reusing
a lot of the
rubbish
we throw
away, such
as
containers
, takeaway
boxes and
jars.
Averages
of 2
medium
sized
rubbish
bins are
filled each
week. The
large
recycling
bin that is
put out for
collection
takes
approxima
tely a
fortnight to
fill.
We are still
producing the
same amount of
recyclable waste as
we were at the
beginning of the
unit. Hoever we
have been taking
the time to rinse
out containers and
separate milk
bottle lids. I
collected six
containers after
we had Chinese on
night and they
were thrown out
the next day
because they were
taking up to much
cream
containers.
space in the draw.
Metal We have not
had any Metal
waste in the
last fortnight.
N/A The fact
that I have
not
recorded
any metal
waste from
the past
fortnight
could
suggest
that we are
not
disposing
of it
effectively.
We have
not
collected
any metal
waste
throughout
the past
three
months.
We have not had
any metal waste.
However my dad
has been working
on a project using
recycled materials,
to create rustic
furniture and
displays in our
outdoor area. He
used an old metal
industrial fan cover
as a light shade.
This is an excellent
example of how
we have been
reusing and
recycling old
materials around
the house.
Organic
(food)
It takes an
average of
two days to
fill our general
waste bin,
and a majority
of that is
organic waste.
We give a
large
amount of
our
leftovers
to our
dogs. We
also have
a worm
farm for
organic
waste
such as
vegetable
peels, fruit
scraps and
tea bags.
We have a
high
wastage of
food due
to the food
going off
or past its
used by
date. We
also tend
to cook too
much food
for dinner,
resulting in
money
being
wasted and
a large
amount of
food going
to the dogs
or getting
thrown
into the
rubbish.
A strategy
that we
could
implement
to reduce
the
amount of
waste we
produce as
a
household
, is to
check who
is home
for dinner
each
night, to
allow us to
cook the
correct
quantity of
food.
A strategy
to
implement
to reduce
Our
general
waste does
not include
as much
organic
waste as it
used too.
When I
implemented this
plan, I was
ensuring that all of
our organic waste
goes into the
worm farm and
compost bin,
however about
three weeks into
the challenge, they
were both filled to
the brim, and the
contents was not
breaking down fast
enough to use.
Unfortunately we
do not have
enough room to
store compost so
we decided to
focus on reducing
it in the first place.
We were able to
cut down on
perishable items
the
amount of
food going
to waste
due to it
going off,
would be
to only
buy
perishable
items as
we require
them. This
means
doing
multiple
small
shops
throughou
t the
week,
instead of
doing one
large shop
at the
beginning
o the
week.
by only buying the
required amount.



Water Usage

Where Used Beginning of unit
(per day)
Strategies for reduction End of unit
(per day)
How?
Total household Average of
880L/day
Being aware of the amount of
water we use throughout the
day will assist us in addressing
the overall problem. We could
begin by roughly recording how
much water we use in each
room, this will allow us to find
the problematic areas that need
to be addressed.
798L/day I was rather
surprised
with the
results as I
feel
reducing the
amount of
water was
one of our
biggest
challenges
faced.
Bathroom
(shower, basin)
Estimated 340L By placing a timer in the shower
that is set for 4-5 minutes will
dramatically reduce the amount
of water used in the bathroom.
Strategies that can be
implemented to ensure we have
shorter showers could be to
shave our legs before we get in
the shower, and to turn off the
tap as we are rubbing in our
conditioner.
Everyone
used the
egg timer in
the shower
for the first
two weeks,
however
the novelty
shortly
rubbed off
and we all
went back
to our old
habits. I
think that
even the
first two
weeks of
having three
minute
showers
made a
huge
difference in
our water
usage.
Toilet Estimated 180L Save Water (Retrieved from
http://www.savewater.com.au)
suggest that you buy a gadget
that reduces the volume of
water in each flush. The toilet
only flushes for as long as you
hold down the button, as soon
as you release it, the water
stops running.
We did not
install a
water
saving
gadget for
our toilet. I
do not
believe the
amount of
water used
in the toilets
would have
changed at
all.
Kitchen Estimated 190L A strategy that can be
implemented to reduce the
amount of water usage in the
kitchen would be to ensure that
you only use the dishwasher
My main
focus in the
kitchen was
ensuring we
only put the
when the load is completely full.
We have a tap in our kitchen
that often doesnt turn off
completely, Save Water state
that dripping taps can waste
30200 liters of water per day
(Retrieved from
http://www.savewater.com.au)
therefore it is important that we
address this problem
immediately.
washing
machine on
when it was
completely
full. This
technique
worked
effectively
and in some
instances
we even
went two
days at a
time
without
using the
dishwasher
at all.
Garden N/A*
Laundry Estimated 160L A strategy to implement in the
laundry would be to only put
the machine on when there is a
full load, to avoid doing multiple
smaller loads. Save Water
(http://www.savewater.com.au)
suggests that if you wash with a
full load and you will save 10
liters of water each wash.
I found it
particularly
hard to wait
for a full
load of dirty
washing
because I
always want
to wear
something
specific that
is in my
dirty clothes
basket. On a
few
occasions I
washed a
specific top
as it was
dirty and I
did not have
a full load. I
was
surprised
how easy
and efficient
it was and
will
continue
doing it in
the future.

*We live on 2 acres of land; therefore have installed a 15,000 liter rainwater tank for outside purposes.




Energy usage
Energy
Source
(gas,
electricity
, wood,
solar,
petrol
etc)
Beginnin
g of unit
(per day)
Average
electricity
consumptio
n of houses
of similar
size in the
region (per
day)
Strategies for reduction End of
unit
How?
Electricity 20.27kw
h
Summer:
16.4kwh
Winter:
19.5kwh
Turning off appliances at the wall or
using a smart power board can save
you money on your power
bill.(http://www.livinggreener.gov.a
u) Each member of my family have
appliances that they have to charge,
a strategy to implement would be to
turn off the charges at the switch
once the battery is at 100%, this will
save hours of unnecessary
electricity use.
18.01kW
h
The main
change we
made to our
electricity
usage was
ensuring we
turned off
appliances
correctly and
did not use
them
unnecessarily
, including
turning off
the tv at the
switch
instead of
leaving it on
stand-by,
shutting
down the
computers
and turning
charges off at
the switch.
Gas 134.65M
J
N/A When heating the house, closing the
doors to certain rooms that are not
in use will heat the house quicker,
and therefore reduce the gas usage.
Our showers take a lot to get hot, so
it is a good idea to turn down the
cold water instead of adding hot
water to it, to make it warmer. This
will use less hot water and will in
turn reduce the gas usage.
Another way to reduce the amount
of gas we use, would be to wash our
clothes on a cold cycle, instead on a
hot cycle. This will reduce the
amount of hot water that is being
produced in the house each day.
229.00MJ I was not
surprised to
see that our
gas usage
had gone up;
as we were
heading into
cooler
months we
began to use
our small gas
heater as it
was not cold
enough to
use our
wood fire, it
was is also
easier to
gage the
temperature.


References:
Save Water, web page; http://www.savewater.com.au
Australian Government; Living Greener, webpage; http://www.livinggreener.gov.au