This is A Sustainable Mind, episode 32.

Welcome to A Sustainable Mind, where we delve into the minds behind today's most impactful environmental campaigns, organizations, and startups,

inspiring the environmental change makers of tomorrow.

I'm your host, Marjorie Alexander.

Hey, there's sustainable minds. Happy New Year.

Typically on this show, you will hear interviews with today's most impactful environmental change makers.

I wanted to take this opportunity, however, in the first episode of 2018, to give you some quick tips on minimizing your environmental footprint.

I am a big advocate for making earth-conscious choices each and every day,

and this episode is designed to help you do just that. First, let's talk about exactly what an environmental footprint is. Now, I'm not going to get into reading definitions because those are long

and complex, and you can look them up yourself. Every website and every expert's got their own

version, so we won't get into that. But what I will say is that almost every definition out there

will mention the consumption of natural resources, whether direct in the form of consuming water,

gasoline, natural gas for energy, or things like fresh produce, fruits and veggies, or indirect

consumption in the form of processed foods and products. Those are not natural resources on their

own, but they do require resources in order to be created. What some definitions don't mention

or are less clear about is how our action and consumption

impacts the environment after the fact. For instance, driving a car, one with a traditional

combustion engine, a gasoline vehicle. That gasoline your car requires to run was originally

extracted from the ground as petroleum, right?

Using heavy machinery, whether that's on land or in the ocean along the coastline somewhere.

Then it has to be refined into gasoline. That machinery requires fuel, electricity, people to run it.

And then let's not forget the car itself, which has to be manufactured.

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