Measure Your Footprint&your Digital Footprint

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Remembering to live green can go further than setting a reminder to put out the recycling, buying organic, and saving all your peelings for compost. Apps for environmentalists, it turns out, are. Calculate your Ecological Footprint. Find out how many planets would be needed if everyone in the world lived like you? What's your water footprint? It's the tap water and the “virtual water” used to produce your food, electricity, gas and home goods.

Activity Details

Time needed: 30 minutes

Materials needed:

  • an adult with a computer or smartphone
  • paper
  • markers, crayons, or colored pencils

Setup: Do you know your carbon footprint? That’s the amount of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas caused by your daily activities, that gets released into the environment. Greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, are one of the main reasons that the climate is changing. The bigger the carbon footprint, the more greenhouse gases are being released into the atmosphere.

Measure Your Footprint&your Digital Footprint

Activity: There are many carbon footprint calculators on the internet but you might try this simple one from Lehigh University or go deeper with calculators from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. A parent or another family member can help you fill in some of the information in order to find your carbon footprint.

Measure Your Footprint&your Digital Footprint Software

Write down how much carbon you and your family are releasing. 

Did your carbon footprint surprise you? What are some ways you might reduce it?

Now, draw an outline of your foot on your paper. Put your foot or shoe down on the piece of paper and trace around it. Inside your foot drawing, draw pictures or write what you will do to make your footprint smaller. For example, you might draw a picture of you and your family members riding your bikes instead of driving in a car. 

Even small changes can help make the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere smaller. Now, imagine if everyone made small changes. What a big difference we all could make!

Reflection: Now, let’s take some time to reflect on the activity and talk about how you can take action for climate change!

  • What additional ways might help you reduce your carbon footprint? 
  • How can you help others to reduce their carbon footprints as well? 

Measure Your Footprint&your Digital Footprint Printer

Talk about your drawing with friends or extended family and encourage them to make changes too! 

Measure Your Footprint&your Digital Footprint Calculator

Go even further! After a few months of actually making the changes you showed in your drawing, calculate your carbon footprint again. You’ll be able to see that it has become smaller. You are making a real difference. Thank you for taking action for climate change!