Ecological Footprint

In my Environmental Issues class I was required to write an ecological footprint on an object of my choosing. I chose a Yankee Candle as my footprint object because I worked in a candle store for about 5 years. In that time I bought and burned many candles. This was a great project and resource to understand the impacts every day items we use and consume can have on the environment. Especially objects that are unnecessary, such as a candle.

The focus of the ecological footprint was on specific materials used and transportation implications. The materials of a candle I discussed were paraffin, cotton and glass. The paraffin is used as the wax of the candle, most wicks are cotton and Yankee Candles are encased in glass. With each material came great environmental impacts that have been discussed throughout my college career. Some of these impacts and issues include: land resource destruction, land and water degradation (pollution), high pesticide and fertilizer usage, heavy water usage and green house gas emissions.
Although I did not receive the grade I would have liked I learned a lot in my research. Improvements to my footprint project could have been made and they were apparent once my professor pointed them out. Some were even small things like properly citing tables and graphs. This ecological footprint was a valuable resource in understanding human impacts on the environment. By analyzing one object, one is forced to look at the bigger picture of where it comes from, what is needed to make it and what happens when the object is consumed and discarded. It made me think critically about each level of production of an object from acquisition of elements needed to what happens when the object is discarded.

A Yankee Luxury - Ecological Footprint (link)

My current ecological footprint via earthday.org: