Last month about 14 teams of Milton residents signed up for Eco-Team Challenge through Sustainable Milton. Through the program, the teams will meet four different times before March 2011, with a goal to lower their household carbon footprint using a variety of tactics.

Leading up to their signups in late October, I spoke with co-chairs Lauri Webster and Kathy Doyle for a story about the challenge. Just last week, I reached out to Webster to find out how the program was going. She invited me to a meeting on Tuesday night of two teams that were just beginning the process.

With some encouragement from the attendees, I was convinced that the best way to report on the Eco-Team Challenge was to join a team. So here I am, a full-fledged member of a team. This series will now follow the tips and tidbits I pick up over the next few months, while sharing my progress.

The first step in the challenge was to establish a baseline. This challenge will follow David Gershon's workbook, The Low-Carbon Diet. On Gershon's website www.empowermentinstitute.net, all of my new teammates tabulated his CO2 footprint using a simple calculator.

This basic calculator uses information about a household's gas, electric and heating oil usage as well as trash and travel to show how many pounds of carbon a household uses in a year.

Everyone in the library conference room on Tuesday was starting at different places. Some people already have serious home upgrades, while others, like myself, are starting from square one. 

Based on the Empowerment Institute calculator the carbon footprint for my girlfriend and I in our two-bedroom rental with two cars is 47,669 pounds per year. Our number is south of the national average of 54,600 pounds of carbon.

The bulk of the meeting was spent discussing experiences with audits and energy saving tips. The laughs and light-hearted nature of the discussion proved Webster's point when she opened the meeting.

"You can do this on your own, but it's just more fun and you learn more if you do it together," Webster said.

The next meeting of my Eco-Team will be after the New Year. Check back  to learn more about the challenge. To follow in my footsteps as a late addition to the program, email Lauri Webster at lauriwebster1@gmail.com.