My Carbon Footprint

After reading a few other blogs on carbon footprint, I’m a little confused and plan on talking about it tonight on our group conference call. I am surprised the carbon footprint calculator asked for the electric and gas bills in dollars in lieu of KW and therms. Omaha has some of the lowest gas and electric costs in the country as they are public utilities and work hard to keep them low. The dollars I spend are probably less than Jaclyn does in New York or Eddie does in Miami; however the actual amount of fuel used could be the same. The carbon output really has nothing to do with the money.

Per the calculator I am below the national average but could be better. My car miles are killing me. Our house cars drive about 30,000 miles a year.

The calculators suggested turning down the thermostat in the winter and turning it up in the summer, which we already do with a programmable thermostat. Last year I rode my bike to work a couple times a month and this year I want to make it 2-3 times a week, that could save me about 60-90 miles per week and about 5000 calories a week (per a calorie calculator on line)!! Now that saving on the environment and my heart!

I will be ready to purchase a new vehicle in a couple of years and I have already started looking at what hybrid vehicles are available. I'm not interested in a little car, but am looking at other types of hybrids.