Welcome to our newest intern, Kayla McGlinchey, a senior and Environmental Studies major at the University of Washington.

Choose your location. Then, proceed to answer the question, “How many planets does it take to support your lifestyle?” Begin.

Perhaps most of you have taken a carbon footprint quiz online. But, were you able to create your own avatar? Were you able to calculate how much area of land and sea is needed to sustain the way you live? The Global Footprint Network has developed an interactive Ecological Footprint Calculator and its calculations encompass more than a standard carbon footprint calculator.

While taking the quiz, some questions popped up that I had never thought of before. For example, ‘what are the materials your house is constructed with?’ ‘How often do you eat dairy products?’ A gauge is provided for you to answer each question. This makes the duration of the quiz a lot shorter, which is convenient for us curious folks who happen to be under daily time constraints.

The thing that really sets this footprint quiz apart from the many others is the visual aspect.  Your designed avatar is placed on an empty plot of land (except for a sidewalk). As you answer each part of the quiz, items such as a produce market come flying down. For me, the design of this quiz really put things into perspective. I may not be the head of an energy company or most frequent flyer in the country, but I still encourage the status quo—even if I do not mean to. After all, most of us are consumers of electricity.

By the end of the quiz, you’re not just told how many earths would be required if everyone lived according to your lifestyle. You’re shown. I saw an astonishing image of 4.1 earths needed to sustain my way of living. But there is a bright side. After completing the quiz, you’re able to click on an option that shows you fairly easy ways to reduce your ecological footprint. There’s a fascinating tip about energy star appliances—but you’ll just have to check out the footprint calculator because that is all that shall be revealed, here. Take the personal ecological footprint calculator quiz and let us know how it goes.