Title: Analyze the effect of an individual’s carbon, ecological, and water footprint.
Course: Sustainability and Renewable Technologies (21053) > Section: Introducing Sustainability and Renewable Resources

Analysis should include

- considering data that measures an individual’s relationship with and consumption of natural resources in each timeframe (e.g., day, week, lifetime)
- determining what influences drive consumer choices (e.g., housing, transportation, energy use, purchases, leisure activities)
- recording an individual’s daily activity in a journal and using mathematics to determine the amount of carbon footprint emitted by an individual’s activity over a given timeframe
- planning and initiating practices (e.g., recycling program, reduction of energy consumption) and change of consumer habits in the classroom, school, home, or community.

Teacher Resources:

- Carbon Footprint Calculator: Climate Change, (https://www3.epa.gov/carbon-footprint-calculator/)
- Greener Living, (https://www.epa.gov/environmental-topics/greener-living)
- National Geographic Carbon Footprint, (https://www.nationalgeographic.org/activity/our-footprints/)

Process/Skill Questions:

- What effects do motor-boating, tubing, and waterskiing in rivers and lakes have on the water, shoreline, and surrounding ecosystems?
- How does one’s consumption of meat products contribute to carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere?
- When buying a new car, what are the personal, environmental, and economic considerations one would need to analyze?
- How much refuse does the average person create over a one-week period?
- What are the countries of origin for food during one meal at home?
- What will be the easiest change in personal carbon footprint reduction? What will be the most difficult? What will be the most invisible?