Karen Kirk and John Thomas devised a rubric for calculating an individual's food, energy, water, and waste footprint in a web available document entitled, "LIFESTYLE PROJECT" (https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/enviroprojects/lifestyle.html). I modified the calculations a bit to include public transportation, water use in food, and more detailed food energy values. I recorded as much food and energy usage as I could remember over a two day period. This is the third year that I calculated by FEWW footprint. I am disappointed that my energy use has increased each year. This year, it was 300,000 BTU/day. Although disappointing, it is not too surprising. Because of my frequent trips to NIST this year and the COVID-19 pandemic, I am driving this year instead of using the metro. As a result, transportation accounted for 40% of my energy use. I was successful at reducing my water and waste footprint. I used 10% less water by replacing some of my meat with vegetable and milk proteins. I am still surprised that food represents 80% of my water use! Looking to the future, I do plan to return to public transportation. With the other energy cutting measures I have taken previously, I think reaching 200,00 BTU/day is within reach. For comparisons, the U.S. Energy Information Administration provides some data on residential energy use (https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=85&t=1), which ranges between 181,000 BTU/day (Hawaii) and 274,000 BTU/day (North Dakota).
