Ill be honestuntil a few months ago I thought my eco footprint was just complementary buzzword that marketers toss around to sell reusable tote bags. next I stumbled upon a carbon footprint calculator while procrastinating on a Sunday afternoon, and anything changed. I was shocked to look that my lifestyle was pouring out the equivalent of a little cars worth of CO every year. That moment made me wonder: how can I actually measure, understand, and shrink my eco footprint? That curiosity led me the length of a bunny hole of environmental footprint tools, each promising a clearer picture of the environmental impact we all leave behind.

The phrase my eco footprint sounds personal, and thats exactly the point. Its the savings account of every the online carbon footprint calculators, water, and land resources we consume, and it directly ties into the greater than before narrative of climate change. as soon as I first proverb the numberroughly 16 tons of CO per yearI felt a combination of guilt and curiosity. Guilt because I was allocation of the problem; curiosity because I wanted to know where that number came from and how I could bring it down.

Understanding my eco footprint then helped me see the ripple effects of run of the mill choices.