Mollie Wood: S00153633

EDST167: Eco Plan

Personal ecological footprint
Beginn
ing of
unit:
End of
unit:
Victorias
average:
Australias
average
The level of what the planet can generate on an
annual basis:

(retrieved from
http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/Ecologicalfootprint/a
usFootprint/default.asp)
Hectare
s:
6.7 8.1 7.8 2.1gha per person per year.
Planets: 3.5 More
than 4
N/A



Breakdown
Beginning
of unit:
Why? Strategies for reduction: End of
unit:
How?
Food: 2.8 Almost everything I eat
has an animal product in
it, whether it is a dairy
product or meat. I eat a
small amount of
packaged or processed
food including biscuits,
chips and chocolate, that
could be avoided.
However I do eat a lot of
fruit and vegetables and
they are often local
products, from the local
fruit shop.
To reduce the global
hectares of my diet
practices I will begin to
eat fewer packaged and
processed food, and
consume more natural
products that do not
require as many
resources to be made. I
will also consume less
animal products, with a
focus on consuming less
dairy.

Shelter: 1.2 We have a double story
house, including four
bedrooms, three living
rooms, one dining room,
a study, two bathrooms,
a laundry and kitchen.
There are no strategies
that I can implement to
reduce the amount of
hectares for shelter, as
it is an inanimate object
that cannot change.
However, we can
implement strategies to
ensure that each room
is managed effectively,
such as turning of the
lights and power
switches when they are
not in use and using
natural ways to manage
temperature, such as
closing and opening
curtains, windows and
doors.

Transport: 0.5 I live in a rural area, and
am often required to
drive my car to get from
A to B. I drive to work, to
the gym and to my
boyfriends house most
frequently as these
destinations are not
I live walking distance to
the town centre and the
train station, and
therefore will begin to
walk to these
destinations, rather
than driving
unnecessarily. I will also

accessible by public
transport. I do, however,
take the train to and from
university which is over
an hour away.
arrange with other
colleges who live near-
by to car pool.
Goods/
Services:
2.2 I buy a fair amount of
things that come in
packaging, and never use
recyclable bags at the
supermarket. I do not
own a large amount of
materialistic items,
however I often by stuff
that is not necessary,
such as updating my
iPhone when my old one
is still functioning.
To reduce the amount o
goods and services that
impact my ecological
footprint I will take
reusable bags to the
supermarket, and cut
down on packaging by
buying non-processed
food, and reusing
containers and zip-lock
bags. In the long term, I
will discontinue to
purchase items that I do
not need, such as
updating my car or
buying new shoes for
the sake of it.




Household Footprint
Number of people in the household: 5
Waste productions:

Type of waste: Beginning of
unit (per
household):
Positive
aspects of
current
practices:
Negative
aspects of
current
practices:
Strategies of
reduction:
End of unit
(per
household):
Recyclable
waste (paper,
plastic,
cardboard,
etc)
Averages of 2
medium sized
rubbish bins
are filled each
week. The
large recycling
Each person
in the house is
dedicated to
recycling, and
we take the
time to
As a
household we
produce a lot
of recyclable
waste each
week which
We can
reduce the
amount of
recyclable
waste we
produce by

bin that is put
out for
collection
takes
approximately
a fortnight to
fill.
effectively
divide
recycling
products with
general
waste.
could be
avoided. We
also do not
take the time
to rinse out
recyclable
items such as
milk cartons
and ice cream
containers.
reusing a lot
of the rubbish
we throw
away, such as
containers,
takeaway
boxes and
jars.
Metal We have not
had any Metal
waste in the
last fortnight.
N/A The fact that I
have not
recorded any
metal waste
from the past
fortnight
could suggest
that we are
not disposing
of it
effectively.

Organic (food) It takes an
average of two
days to fill our
general waste
bin, and a
majority of
that is organic
waste.
We give a
large amount
of our
leftovers to
our dogs. We
also have a
worm farm
for organic
waste such as
vegetable
peels, fruit
scraps and tea
bags.
We have a
high wastage
of food due to
the food going
off or past its
used by date.
We also tend
to cook too
much food for
dinner,
resulting in
money being
wasted and a
large amount
of food going
to the dogs or
getting
thrown into
the rubbish.
A strategy
that we could
implement to
reduce the
amount of
waste we
produce as a
household, is
to check who
is home for
dinner each
night, to allow
us to cook the
correct
quantity of
food.
A strategy to
implement to
reduce the
amount of
food going to
waste due to
it going off,
would be to
only buy
perishable
items as we

require them.
This means
doing multiple
small shops
throughout
the week,
instead of
doing one
large shop at
the beginning
o the week.



Water Usage

Where Used Beginning of unit (per
day)
Strategies for reduction End of unit (per day)
Total household Average of 880L/day Being aware of the amount of
water we use throughout the
day will assist us in addressing
the overall problem. We could
begin by roughly recording how
much water we use in each
room, this will allow us to find
the problematic areas that need
to be addressed.

Bathroom (shower,
basin)
Estimated 340L By placing a timer in the shower
that is set for 4-5 minutes will
dramatically reduce the amount
of water used in the bathroom.
Strategies that can be
implemented to ensure we have
shorter showers could be to
shave our legs before we get in
the shower, and to turn off the
tap as we are rubbing in our
conditioner.

Toilet Estimated 180L Save Water (Retrieved from
http://www.savewater.com.au)
suggest that you buy a gadget
that reduces the volume of
water in each flush. The toilet
only flushes for as long as you

hold down the button, as soon
as you release it, the water
stops running.
Kitchen Estimated 190L A strategy that can be
implemented to reduce the
amount of water usage in the
kitchen would be to ensure that
you only use the dishwasher
when the load is completely full.
We have a tap in our kitchen
that often doesnt turn off
completely, Save Water state
that dripping taps can waste
30200 liters of water per day
(Retrieved from
http://www.savewater.com.au)
therefore it is important that we
address this problem
immediately.

Garden N/A*
Laundry Estimated 160L A strategy to implement in the
laundry would be to only put
the machine on when there is a
full load, to avoid doing multiple
smaller loads. Save Water
(http://www.savewater.com.au)
suggests that if you wash with a
full load and you will save 10
liters of water each wash.


*We live on 2 acres of land; therefore have installed a 15,000 liter rainwater tank for outside purposes.




Energy usage
Energy Source
(gas,
electricity,
wood, solar,
petrol etc)
Beginning of
unit (per day)
Average
electricity
consumption of
houses of
similar size in
the region (per
day)
Strategies for reduction End of unit
Electricity 20.27kwh Summer:
16.4kwh
Winter:
19.5kwh
Turning off appliances at the wall or
using a smart power board can save
you money on your power
bill.(http://www.livinggreener.gov.au)
Each member of my family have
appliances that they have to charge, a
strategy to implement would be to
turn off the charges at the switch
once the battery is at 100%, this will
save hours of unnecessary electricity
use.

Gas 134.65MJ N/A When heating the house, closing the
doors to certain rooms that are not in
use will heat the house quicker, and
therefore reduce the gas usage.
Our showers take a lot to get hot, so
it is a good idea to turn down the cold
water instead of adding hot water to
it, to make it warmer. This will use
less hot water and will in turn reduce
the gas usage.
Another way to reduce the amount of
gas we use, would be to wash our
clothes on a cold cycle, instead on a
hot cycle. This will reduce the amount
of hot water that is being produced in
the house each day.



References:
Save Water, web page; http://www.savewater.com.au
Australian Government; Living Greener, webpage; http://www.livinggreener.gov.au