After a random search on the Internet I’ve found this website: My FootPrint. And being very bored at work, I took the test to see how big is my ecological footprint.

The result: 1.24 Earths (meaning, that if everyone on the planet would live like I do, than we would need another quarter of Earth).

And here I thought that I was a good citizen:

  • I do recycle paper, water bottles and anything that is glass.
  • I don’t have a car, I use only the subway and the power of walking.
  • At home we use energy and water wisely (The lights are turned on only in the evening and just for a few moments, and I don’t even remember the last time I took a real bath, but that’s just because I’m a more shower person).
  • We have our own vegetable garden at the country side and we barely buy food from the supermarket; during winter time we use the local market which has organic products.

But it seems all of this isn’t considered enough. So I’m wondering what else one person should do to become more “green”? And how many people are willing to sacrifice more of what we consider today modern commodities?

Going Green

Transportation:

  • I can’t walk to work (it’s to far away)
  • I can’t ride a bike to work cause I’m to scared of the hectic traffic (that’s the reason I use the subway, it’s more safe)

 

Energy saving features in my home:

  • We already use energy at minimum, since we are barely at home and we do have fluorescent bulbs and thingies that measure how much water we use.
  • We have triple glazing at our windows so we only use the heater during night time and during winter.
  • We have one TV, one computer (I barely use my laptop and when I do it’s just for 20-30 minutes), a washing machine and a refrigerator

 

Energy-saving habits:

  • We don’t have an AC.
  • We turn of everything after we finished using it (and we turned them off from the main switch).
  • We dry our clothes on our balcony (in the winter is harder cause it takes two days for the jeans to dry up).
  • We don’t even have a microwave (well Johnny does but his home is relatively smaller than mine so you could say we use the same amount of energy)
  • As I said before we have a vegetable garden at the country side (and it’s pretty big since my parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on were farmers) and we have a lot of local markets that sell fresh veggies all year round (in fact Bucharest is full of them)
  • We have so many reusable bags we don’t know what to do with them (and we re-use and the plastic bags)
  • Eating out for my parents it’s not an option (my father blames fast foods on the obesity of kids these days and who can argue with that) and when me and Johnny go out he get’s a beer and I get an ice cream
  • Oh, and when we do buy clothes we don’t buy clothes that are in right now, we buy clothes that we know that look good on us, that are durable and not too expensive (cheap clothes usually don’t last more than one season).

Again, how “green” should one person be and what does that even mean? Sincerly, I’m all for going green but I’m just stuck right now. This is harder than I thought and I’m just thinking, are there any other choices one can make without giving up on a normal lifestyle?