One Ton Challenge . . . Make It a Resolution, continued from PBiNews January 2011

PBI Advisory Council Scientist Dr. Andrew Derocher is challenging you to make 2011 more meaningful:

HELP POLAR BEARS BY REDUCING YOUR PERSONAL CARBON FOOTPRINT BY ONE TON.

That may sound like a lot, but a few hundred pounds here and a few hundred pounds there soon add up to make, well, a ton.

Here are some suggestions that, collectively, add up to more than one ton*:

Drive 20 miles less per month. Savings for an average car (21 miles per gallon): 270 pounds per year.¹
Give up bottled water. Take a refillable bottle with you instead. Savings for an average family: 216 pounds per year.²
Use cold water to wash your clothes. Savings for an average family: 327 pounds per year.³
Change your light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs. Savings for an average household: 670 pounds a year.⁴
Unplug small appliances like televisions, computers, printers, and coffeepots when not in use—or plug them into a power strip that you can then turn off. An average household typically wastes 5-10% of their electricity on standby power⁵, equating to as much as 1,479 pounds of carbon per year.⁶

In his own life, Dr. Derocher walks the talk: he lives in a small, well-insulated house near the campus where he teaches; walks to work; uses CFL bulbs; unplugs small appliances when not in use; and keeps the thermostat low.

*We're defining a ton as a long ton, which is 2,240 pounds. The lifestyle changes above add up to savings of 2,962 pounds.

1. Table 2, Travel Choices and Their Relative Contribution to Climate Change: What Behavioral Shifts Will Buy Us, and Opportunities for Household-Level Caps, K.M. Kockelman, Assoc. Prof. Univ. of Texas, Austin.
2. Think Outside the Bottle, Coastal Carolina University, 2010.
3. Table 3, Travel Choices and Their Relative Contribution to Climate Change: What Behavioral Shifts Will Buy Us, and Opportunities for Household-Level Caps
by K.M. Kockelman, Assoc. Prof. Univ. of Texas, Austin.
4. California Greenhouse Gas Reduction, Dennis Silverman, UC Irvine, November 2007.
5. Standby Power, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Energy Analysis Department, 2010.
6. Household Emissions Calculator Assumptions and References, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, last updated March 3, 2010.