How Can You Measure Your Environmental Impact?

Why Measure Environmental Impact

Before discussing how to measure environmental impact, it is essential to understand why. Why would we want to improve our environmental impact, and why do our homes matter?

To be blunt: the expanding population places an increased demand on the Earth's resources. Humanity is not living within the means of the Earth. The evidence is growing that humans are quickly using the available resources on Earth, and our demand for the natural ecosystem is consistently increasing. If everyone lived like the average American, we would require almost five Earths to sustain the resource consumption rates. Deforestation, ecosystem fragmentation, and waterway impairments are just a few examples of how human demand exceeds the availability of resources on Earth and negatively impacts the environment.

Sustainable, responsible development is one way we can mitigate these negative environmental impacts. Sustainable development was officially defined in 1987 as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Ideally, sustainability serves both short-term and long-term goals while advancing environmental protection, social responsibility, and economic practices while promoting public environmental awareness and action.

How Do Buildings Impact the Environment

Sustainability applies to a variety of contexts, particularly within the building industry. Buildings account for 40 percent of carbon dioxide emissions and 70 percent of the electricity load in the United States, which is more than any other sector. Incredulously, three-quarters of total energy consumption in buildings is from residential uses.

The greenhouse gas emissions that homes produce are due to the energy used for heating and cooling, lighting, appliances, and other electric equipment. A majority of that energy comes from burning fossil fuels—primarily natural gas and coal. And if you include the greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacture and transportation of building materials, demolition, and other building activities, the environmental impacts from buildings are even higher.

In recent decades, the building trend has been to "go big," which has caused many detrimental environmental impacts, including loss of land, worse air pollution, higher energy consumption, and ecosystem fragmentation. This current building trend can have significant negative implications for the environment since building size is one of the most significant predictors of energy consumption for a building. In addition to building size, occupant behavior greatly influences energy consumption in a building. 

Need for Environmental Impact Metrics

Many different metrics have been developed to show our demand imposed on the Earth and the availability of resources to meet demand. Some metrics assess an individual's perception of their environmental impacts. The New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale, for example, measures the ecological concerns of individuals by providing fifteen statements and asking individuals to indicate the strength of their agreement/disagreement with each. Responses are then used to develop statistical measures of their environmental views. 

In contrast, other tools exist that assess the actual environmental impacts of individuals. Some studies have found that there is little correlation between these two types of metrics. Often, those who perceive themselves as having a low environmental impact do not have a reduced impact when a footprint calculator measures it. Why? The explanations range from a lack of awareness of the ecological effects of behaviors, social desirability, and limited memory and knowledge for those individuals who self-assess their environmental impacts. Therefore, to assess our environmental impact accurately, it is essential to use a footprint tool to identify actual behaviors rather than viewpoints.