By ACE Field Correspondent, Elizabeth Ridolfi

In August, I walked through the doors of Mr. G’s room and sat down. It was the first time my high school had offered A.P Environmental Science. There were 22 of us

One of our first assignments was to take a quiz to calculate our ecological footprint. I took the quiz online and was shocked to find out that if everyone on earth lived my lifestyle, we would need 5.17 earths.

I thought I lived a fairly green lifestyle! I recycled, composted, and reused things as much as I could. We ate locally grown, organic produce and not an excessive amount of meat. Even though my foot print was below the class average (6.17 earths), I still thought I could improve.

Over the next two months, I tried to make some subtle changes to my family’s lifestyles.

I began by trying to reduce my dad’s paper towel use. Prior to the quiz, I would usually go out to lunch four or five times each month. Now, I no longer do. I also started hauling my used binder paper to the school’s paper recycling bins. My showers became shorter. Little by little, I made some changes.

In October, I decided to start my own environmentally themed blog. I came up with 10 environmental goals, everything from using less water and electricity to being a more conscious consumer (my DOT) to growing more of my own food.

I decided to take the eco- foot print quiz again. I must have done something right, because my results were 3.99 earths. That encouraged me even more.

Now, we create less trash, our power and water bills have gone down and my dad is using more cotton towels instead of paper towels. I’m trying to make one little change every day. Since October, my lowest earth number has been 3.85 earths.

What I’ve learned is: being eco-conscious doesn’t have to be hard. You don’t have to sell your car, live in a yurt and never eat beef ever again. It’s all about the simple steps.

Find one little thing you could do every day, whether its unplugging something you aren’t using to walking to school. We’re all in this together.

Elizabeth Ridolfi is a student at Placer High School in Auburn, California