Sunday, January 31, 2010



The primary footprint for me is as given per the adjoining graphic. Travel and electricity are the major components of the primary footprint while fuel for generator and cooking are mere toes, accounting for less than 10% of the footprint.
Before going into whether the size itself is good or bad, let us analyse the factors behind the size and identify the big ticket items for improvement.






Travel within City
I use a small car for travel within city and most of my daily kilometres are logged driving to office. On weekends the car is used for the weekly shopping and for fun and leisure. The question for me is whether I can reduce my footprint without having a major impact to my day to day life.
A decision table to help me weigh the alternatives for daily travel looks as follows:

Two days by bus and rest by car help me reduce my footprint due to travel within city by 25%. It gives me the most optimal combination of flexibility, comfort and utility. Public transport increases my travel time, but I’m able to utilise the time which earlier was spent in driving. Had the flexibility in timings not been important criteria, I would have gone for car pool on all days! It is not surprising that the greener choice is also the more economical alternative.

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