The final weigh-in. The end of the Eight Week Challenge. The time to reflect on one's environmental changes.
The Slate/Treehugger challenge ended last week and now is the time for me to tally up my changes and reflect on the past eight weeks.
By making relatively few changes, I reduced 62.78 percent of the carbon emissions I reported at the start of the challenge. And I've actually reduced 574 percent of the emissions I pledged to cut over the last eight weeks. I have taken the annual equivalent of 1.79 cars off the road which is huge to me.
During last eight weeks I switched out my regular light bulbs to CFLs. I lowered the heat in my room.
I started noticing where I was buying my food, started to lessen the amount of beef I eat and started choosing products with less packaging.
I'm purchasing a new surge protector that monitors when products are turned off and switches power from that plug off all while watching out for those nasty energy vampires.
I've shortened my showers to 5 minutes or less though I still take a bath once a week (a girl has to have her weekly bath!).
Additionally I've started taking the bus at least one time a week (so far this week twice!) and taking my recycling home to be recycled when there are not places to recycle it out in the world. Yes this means I carry trash home from my lunch at work but hey it's not heavy and it feels good!
With all these accomplishments, there are still a few more things I need to do.
I still need to remove myself from some catalog mailing lists to rid myself of all those catalogs that I never shop from anyway!
I need to work on trimming pointless trips in car and maximize my driving time. I need to purchase more recycled paper products and print out less paper items at work.
It's all a daily process but one I have embraced and will continue to embrace for the rest of my life.
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