For one week we have to make one or more changes to reduce our own energy use and greenhouse gas emissions based on the carbon footprint we had calculated before.

I decided my change for the week should be something small because my energy consumption is already at a fairly low amount. So with that in mind coming up with a change I could implement for the week wasn’t that difficult. At first I was going to do turning off the lights and appliances every time I left the room but that’s something I only struggle with at home. Kerrey Hall is very energy efficient in the way that if you’re not in the room the lights and the air conditioning turn off so I had to figure out another way I could conserve energy. Something I still struggle with is unplugging or turning off my electronics when they’re not being used. I always keep my laptop running instead of turning it off and I also charge all my electronics over night which made me realize that energy is being used an extra amount. So for one week I decided to make unplugging unused cords and reducing electronic energy my goal. (Another small thing I decided to implement was to stop drinking bottled water.)

Day 1. First I started with unplugging the cords from sockets I didn’t need. I realized I had a few unused cords just plugged into the wall which I hadn’t even touched since the fall semester. I charged my laptop and phone during the night while I did my homework and once everything was fully charged, I pulled out the plugs and went to sleep. I had a reusable water bottle sitting on my desk for a while now so I cleaned that out and drank water instead of buying bottled water every day.

Day 2. I thought I’d be bothered by the changes I had to make but they were so minuscule and easy to adapt to so I didn’t really have any sort of issue. My laptop and phone were fully charged for the day and nothing was different. Whenever I needed to charge anything during the day I plugged it in for the duration of the charging and plugged it out when I didn’t need it anymore. I also repeated the same process that I did the night before.

Day 3. Same

Day 4. Same

Day 5. Same

Day 6. Same

Conclusion: It’s much easier to make little changes over a long course of time to reduce your energy. I feel as though trying to do a 180 and change your entire lifestyle is fairly hard to do. However implementing small changes like unplugging your cords and drinking out of a reusable bottle can make a collective difference.