I was locked out and I couldn't get back in

Hey Friends.  I've been locked out of my blog since April.  I know.....it's September.  Things have been crazy this spring/summer with starting a new job and trying to "win" this Eco-Challenge and all!   But, excuses aside...we "won"!  Well we all "won" the challenge!    Each family did an awesome job.  We each made huge reductions  in our environmental impact and we all learned so much in the process.

Here are our results from the ENACT Greener Faster Challenge:

Natural Gas Usage:

Our 2009 therms/yr- 254

Our therms/yr from August 10’-August 11’- 212

We did 76% better than the Madison average of 856 therms/yr.  Not to mention we did 17% better than 2009 alone.

Electricity Usage:

Our 2009 kwh/yr- 5,934

Our kwh/yr from August 10’-August 11’-4,233

We did 32% better than the Madison average of 7, 200 kwh/yr!  The great part is that we improved by 29% from 2009. 

Average weekly recycling- 8.6lbs

Average weekly trash-5lbs

Miles Driven:

Odometer reading on August 1, 2010-56,888

Odometer reading on August 1, 2011-66,661

This means we drop 9,773 miles a year.  This is 25% better than the average Wisconsin car owner who drives 13,000 miles a year.  Since there are two of us driving this one car we each did 65% better than the average Madisonian.  Not too shabby!

Organic and Local Food:  Our average grocery trip was 85% local and organic

Water:

Our 2009 water total for six months- 28,257gallons/yr

Our water usage based on per person for August 10’-August 11’- 25,586gallons/yr

We improved our water usage by 10% and are now 47% better than the Madison average. ..

Thanks so much to Anne Nardi at ENACT for showing us the way as well as to the other families who participated in the competition.  ENACT  is looking for families to participate in the Challenge next year!  The challenge is to reduce your environmental footprint by 41% of the Madison average. As an incentive, there are great prizes to be won!  This year Mike and I won a gift certificate to Planet Bike and to DreamBikes in Madison!

 Though the Greener Faster Challenge has come to an end, our challenges continue....
 I plan on continuing by posting environmental/health related items as they catch my attention.