CO2 Reduction Challenge

Thank you for participating in the Shir Sustainability CO2 Reduction Challenge.

To take action, please click on this link to the Cool Congregations Household Calculator. 

INSTRUCTIONS:
You will be asked to candidly answer questions regarding your household activity in 4 particular areas:

• TRAVEL
• HOME
• FOOD
• SHOPPING

It takes about 15-20 minutes.

You will also be asked to answer a few start-up questions: your location and your household income. These are kept completely private, however, they are important as you will see. You may also just use the average income if you like.

The calculator is easy to use because it is based on smart default values built from a lot of data collected about households in every location. The assumptions derived will be based on those two pieces of information: where you live and your economic status. Because of this, if you don't want to figure out certain of your usage numbers, or can't get that information, no problem, just use the average numbers pre-entered for you based on your zip code and income.

In fact, for the shopping part, the creators highly recommend that you just use the preset values because they find that they are more accurate than people may realize.

You can choose a simple or advanced form of the questionnaire for each topic, and each question has an icon which will provide a more detailed explanation of what they are asking and why.

Upon completion, you will find yourself on the "Take Action" page where you will see your numbers for each category that add up to your total yearly carbon equivalent emissions.

On the upper left, Interfaith Power and Light Offers, you will have the opportunity to fund tree planting in an amount that will offset your carbon footprint as one action you might take. 

Below that, there is a list of ideas that might help to reduce your footprint. You are encouraged to select those that you might want to implement and mark those that you already have done. Click on the arrows to the left of the task to understand more about what you can do. Click on the status on the right of the task to select whether you will pledge to do that or whether it is already completed.

Once you have completed the calculator, please send us the following information.

Send this back to our Shir Sustainability Committee at the following email address: environment@shirhadash.org and your data will be added to our congregant household tallies. The information will also help us to focus our programming and materials.

We will ask for these same numbers to be updated at a future date so that we can record our progress. 

If you need assistance with the calculator or have questions, please send an email to environment@shirhadash.org.

Many thanks for your cooperation and efforts to mitigate climate change as we strive for a better world (tikkun olam).

Shir Sustainability Committee