Meat-Less

Before I delve into what sustainable life change I am going to make, I will first explain to you my current carbon footprint, or what has come to be known as my day to day life.

Reflecting on my life at Lafayette, I do not categorize myself as someone who would leave a footprint significantly larger than anyone else: I turn off my lights when I’m not in the room, I recycle my empty water bottles, I do not use paper plates, and I drive when it’s necessary. Nevertheless, one opinion, especially when there is some sort of bias involved, is never as good as two opinions, so I decided to use http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/ to give me a better understanding of areas I should improve to live a more sustainable life.

After the filling out the survey, I was surprised to find that my typical life at Lafayette uses about 41 tons of greenhouse gases per year. That is about half the normal US resident, who uses about 80 tons per year, and a little more than twice the world average of 17 tons. Out of all my current behaviors, my home energy behavior took up the largest percentage of my carbon footprint at 62.6%. Considering the amount of electric appliances and temperature control I use at school, this high percentage seems feasible; however, at this point in time I do not think I have total control of changing this habit due to two people I share my room with, so when looking at other areas I could change to lessen my carbon footprint, diet was the one that came to mind. Cutting about half the meat I currently eat out of my diet I could lower my carbon footprint by 4 tons. 4 tons may not seem like much in the large scheme of things, but if everybody cut out 4 tons it could go a long way in the fight for sustainability.

In conclusion, for my challenge, I will be cutting one meal of meat a day, everyday. This will lead to about six or seven more meatless meals a week than I currently consume. If all goes well the ultimate goal is to allow me to experience a sustainable change that I can hopefully continue for the remainder of my time at Lafayette.