Tracking Your Progress!

It's sometimes hard to see that you're making progress toward a less carbon-intensive lifestyle. To keep track of what you are, or have, or will do, here are a few rough guidelines.

Start with transportation--it's the easiest.

• For every mile you drive annually (combustion engine vehicles), multiply by .77 pounds Green House Gas emissions.

• For every mile you fly annually, multiply by .24 (Unless you're flying your own plane with just you in it -- that's a much bigger number.)

• For every mile you travel by train, multiply by .09

Add those numbers, both the miles travelled and the GHG emissions.

Here are the national average for miles travelled broken down by mode:

Vehicle	Miles (National Annual Averages)
Motor Vehicle (Non-Electric)	14,489
Plane	18,000
Train	192

For the average American, that's an emissions total of 15,494 pounds of GHG emissions per person per year for personal travel. (This number doesn't, of course, account for the GHG emissions of any non-local food or other products that you buy.)

Laurence and I are assuming we will make at least one trip to Puerto Rico this year, and are estimating a total non-bicycle mileage of 7,969 miles in 2025, bringing us to a total GHG 2025 emissions total of 3,408 pounds, about 22% of the average American.

Maybe we can bring it down even further next year!