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Our community garden cut our emissions by 40% in 6 months
I helped start a small community garden in Denver last spring about 3 years ago. We focused on growing our own veggies and composting kitchen scraps. It's not huge, but we tracked our carbon savings and it came out to over 2 tons of CO2 avoided from transport and waste. Has anyone else tried a similar project with measurable results?
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craig.john18d ago
Actually I had a buddy who tried something similar in his backyard in Phoenix and he had to quit after a year because the water usage was way higher than he expected. He ran the numbers and his water bill actually went up so much that the carbon from pumping that water basically canceled out his savings. But he also didn't bother composting right which is probably why his soil got all crusty and nasty. Yours sounds like you got the whole system dialed in though which is way more than most people manage. Did you factor in the carbon cost of the tools and materials you used to build the garden beds and fences? I always wonder if those one time emissions get counted or if people just look at the ongoing stuff.
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carter.casey19d ago
The 2 tons number sounds off for a small garden. Most estimates put a typical home garden at maybe 0.5 to 1 ton per year tops. Composting helps but doesn't add that much weight. You sure you're calculating transport and waste reduction correctly? Might want to double check the math against a carbon calculator.
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Have you checked if your garden's carbon savings include the avoided emissions from store-bought produce spoiling before you eat it? Food waste accounts for a huge chunk of grocery store emissions that home gardens naturally skip.
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