Building a Personal Environmental Impact Report from Scratch

Last week Jeff Burke of UCLA pointed me in the direction of PEIR, a unique collaboration of cell phones and environmental software that allows individuals to create their own Personal Environmental Impact Reports (PEIR). It is really a revolutionary idea and allows participants to take ownership and responsibility for their everyday decision-making.

Now, I don't have a Nokia N95 with built in GPS therefore I am unable to participate in PEIR. But I do really want find ways of thinking about and analyzing my personal environmental impact. I also have some exams coming up, which means I have lots of time for procrastination!

So, I've decided to try to cobble together my very own personal environmental impact report. As I browsed company environmental impact reports I found that a really enthusiastic cover page with lots of pictures and really credible-looking environmental logos is a necessary first step in creating an environmental report. Doing this was the easy part, as you can see below. But beyond the cover, I really am not sure how to put this report together. I've decided that starting today I will keep all my receipts, record all my travel, write down each time I fill up the trash or recycling bin, and record shower times.

The hope is that I can make some sense of these numbers after a week or two, and then that I can work on improving them. I'll, of course share my results as I go. Obviously it is going to be a pretty crude exercise. But, do you have any other ideas?