Synopsis

We recently received a break-down of how we are doing in the Eco-Challenge.

Here is a brief overview:

Driving- 40% below the Madison average for one person is around 650 miles per month. Our miles per month were 677 mil/month, 879 mil/month, and 670 mil/month is August, September, and October. Now this is above our goal for one person however there are two of us driving the car, so individually we are well below.
Perhaps we can get 40% below the average of one car-driver. That's our new goal! It will be interesting to see if we drive more or less in the winter months. I think a lot of our trips are actually high-mile trips out of town to do different activities like camping and kayaking. So, since we aren't making those trips in the winter, it may drop down. I guess we will see!


Trash- The goal for trash per month should be no more than 82 lbs (40% less than the Madison Average). We keep track of our trash generated for one week of each month. We have generated 2.5lbs/week in August, 3.5lbs/week in September, and 6lbs/week in October. Each month we were well below the 82 lbs/month mark. So we're doing pretty well so far but I would still like to reduce this amount by purchasing more items in bulk from the co-op.

Electricity- Our goal is 360 Kwh a month (40% of Madison average of a 2 person house-hold.) We used 321 Kwh in August, 320 Kwh in September and 233 Kwh in October. I'm hoping to purchase a wall clock - and run it on rechargeable batteries so that we can unplug the microwave when not in use since that is our main source of telling time and it's pulling unnecessary energy. We are continuing to use task-based lighting in the kitchen to help reduce our energy use. Also, two light-bulbs have burned-out in the bathroom and we haven't yet replaced them...so this might help bring it down even further. The goal for a one-person household is 222kwh-it would be awesome to see how close we could get to this number!


Food- We have been eating a lot more than 40% local and organic which is great! Typically we are anywhere between 80-90%. We are also striving to make more conscious decisions when eating out, by going to restaurants that purchase meats, cheeses and vegetables locally. With Willy Street Co-op on the west side of town, I think the amount of local and organic products we are buying will only increase!


I plan on researching some new ways to help reduce our electricity! Also as the temperatures drop (and they've sure dropped today currently 10 degrees, feels like -4) we have turned on the heat. It will be interesting to see in the next few months where we rank in gas-use.

I'm curious how the other families are doing.....