STEP-BY-STEP

 

Background

At UCB, through our Green Sanctuary, we have joined the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative and pledged to reduce our church building’s carbon footprint as well as inspire our congregation to reduce our household carbon footprint. This is an important collaboration for us as we recognize the need for all to significantly reduce our carbon footprint in alignment with the Paris Climate Agreement from 2015!

We’ve found a useful calculator, the California Cool Carbon Calculator, to help us. This tool will help each of us to estimate how much greenhouse gas our various activities produce. Our goal is a 25% reduction in CO2 by 2020. Each of us can see if we can meet that goal by working at it one year at a time. Small steps make a big difference for our community and our planet!

Directions

  1. Collect the following information before you start the calculator:
    • Number of people in your household & your zipcode
    • Household heating and cooling sources
    • Annual utility usage from your last 12 months, listed on your bills
  2. Go to California Calculator
    • Enter the tons of CO2 you generate from the four categories: Travel, Home, Food, and Shopping.  As you complete a category, write down your results for that category.  
    • In the Take Action area take the following steps:
      1. Click the Transportation button to the right of Assumptions so that the button turns a darker blue.
      2. Click "Pledge" next to any actions that you plan to take. Click the action title to get detailed information about the action. If the explanation is too low on the page click the Category button with the arrow to reverse the order of items on the page.
      3. Unclick the Transportation button
      4. Repeat Steps 1-3 for Housing, Shopping, and Offsets
      5. Write down your new lower total as a result of your actions

Please log your results using our survey so that they can be included in our entire church community average. Note: you can enter your data anonymously on the survey.


Church Office Hours: Tuesday through Friday mornings • 9:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Ph: 508 362-6381 • P.O. Box 285 • 3330 Main Street • Barnstable, MA • 02630-0285