Day 1: Earth Day 2010

What a great day to start this challenge.  I've been contemplating this "project" for a few months, so how fitting that yesterday, the day before Earth Day, I finally decide to launch.

Last night it occurred to me that I should calculate our household footprint on at least two other sites to make sure we are starting with an accurate carbon footprint baseline.  So this morning I used the EPA's Household Emissions Calculator which asked slightly different questions and results determined our household of 4 used 80,893 pounds of CO2 per year.

And then The Berkeley Institute of The Environment CoolClimate Carbon Footprint Calculator determined our household of 4's carbon footprint was 76 metric tons CO2e/year.

So to recap the variances, The Nature Conservancy determined our carbon footprint to be 92 tons of CO2/year, The EPA suggested 80,893 pounds of CO2/year and The Berkeley Institute of The Environment calculated 76 metric tons of CO2/year. I am going to take an average of the high and low calculations and mark our starting baseline to be 84 metric tons of CO2/year for our household of 4.

Besides our challenge to decrease our footprint daily with minimal expenses, it seems appropriate to have a "saved" target. I aiming for 40% saved so 365 days from today, April 22, 2011, our household's footprint will hover around 50.4 metric tons of CO2/year, less than half of US national average for a family of 4 based on reports from the National Conservancy.