My project is about ways that my family and I reduce our carbon footprint. Our carbon footprint is the amount of carbon that we create from the energy that we use. Too much carbon in the air is bad for the environment, so we should try to reduce our carbon footprint.

I made my project as a website to save paper.

Laundry

In the summer we dry our clothes on the line to save electricity.

Composting

We compost all our food scraps. We use the city green bin but we also have our composter in our backyard. We use the composted food as fertilizer for our garden.

Garden

We have a vegetable garden. We grow lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, peas, beans, leeks, zucchini, pumpkins, eggplant, raspberries, strawberries, cucumbers and rhubarb. Plants help to clean the air and we get to eat the food from our garden. We don't use chemicals in our garden.

Push Mower

A push mower is a lawn mower that doesn't use electricity or gas. It is very environmentally friendly.

Bike Riding

I learned to ride my bike. Bike riding is good because a bike doesn't use gas the way a car does, and it is a fast way to get around. Everyone in my family has a bike. I have two bikes, my two wheeler that I ride myself and my trailer bike. My trailer bike attaches to my dad's bike so that I can go on busier roads safely and ride long distances.

Living Downtown

We live downtown. We can walk almost everywhere so we don't have to drive. We can walk to get groceries, to go to the bank, to go to school and to the park. I can even walk to my swimming lessons and church.

Recycling

We recycle everything that is recyclable. We don't use printing paper unless we really need it. We don't even buy wrapping paper or new gift bags anymore.

Fans

We don't have any air conditioning in our house. We use fans instead because they use less electricity.

Reusable Shopping Bags

Plastic shopping bags are bad for the environment. We use reusable shopping bags when we go shopping. When we get plastic bags we reuse them.

Water

We try not to waste water. When we brush our teeth, wash our hands or take a bath we don't leave the water running.

Local Food

We try to buy local food that is grown close to Kingston. Planes, trains, boats and trucks have to use gas to bring food from other countries to Canada. This pollutes the air. In the summer we get vegetables from a local organic farm. Each week we pick them up in our neighborhood.