What is an ECP Score and how do I reduce mine?
ECP stands for Earth Conservation Profile, and your ECP Score is a calculation of your present personal emission, conservation, lifestyle, and intent variables into a single number. The ECP Calculator on Globespotter is from Earthlab and is the same calculator on the Live Earth / SOS site. For more details of how the Carbon Calculator works click here.
The Earthlab ECP calculator is not perfect, but it is a good guide and can help you to track and improve your CO2 emission trend over time.
Once you have completed the ECP Questionnaire it will give you a score. (As an example - our score when we completed the ECP Questionnaire this July was 366 which translates into 15.8 tons of CO2 output per year!)
The cool thing about the Earthlab system is that you can then go back and login to see your results, see how well you are doing over time, as well as seeing how you compare to the average scores for your town or city, your state or province, your country and the rest of the world!
Some tips on how you can work to reduce your ECP score:
1. The more adults that share your residence reduces your overall ECP score. That's sharing of energy - electricity, gas, oil or propane among more people!
2. The type of residence you live in can be more efficient - ex: A Condo Apartment will be more efficient than a single family home.
3. The # of bedrooms makes a difference. Are you one or two people living in a 4 bedroom house? That means less energy efficiency.
4. Your utility bill costs push up your score. Turning off lights and unplugging appliances and changing to CFL bulbs will help.
5. There are utility options that can increase your share of renewable power.
In Canada - check out: Bullfrog Power
In Australia - check out: Green Power
In the U.S. - check out: EPA - GPP
In the U.K. - check out: UKGreenPower
6. The car or cars you drive can make a big difference. Newer, more fuel efficient cars will reduce your score.
7. Think about other forms of transportation - even if only for weekend or local use - ex: Bus, Train, biking or walking instead of driving.
8. Air flights are a big factor in your score. Reduce or eliminate them or purchase carbon offsets.
9. At work, turn off your monitor, use double sided copies when printing or photocopying, and recycle.
10. At home, turn off lights when you leave a room, unplug appliances - use a switchable power bar on things like TV's and computers.
11. Install water efficient shower heads and toilets.
12. Take your own bags to the market.
13. Buy local produce and products.
14. Recycle.
So - go ahead - sign up at Earthlab and find out your ECP score, then work to reduce it. We are not pleased that our ECP score is above the averages for our local area, country and the world, but at least we have a base to improve and measure our impact.
Challenge yourself, your friends, your family and your co-workers and let us know how you are doing! We would be happy to hear from you on by posting comments on our Globespotter Blog or on our MySpace.