How To Check Your Carbon Footprint

Climate change has been an ever-growing issue in both importance and public awareness, and whilst many countries and corporations across the world look to adopt more sustainable and eco-friendly practices, the individual person can still help to make a difference by making small and consistent changes in their everyday lives. It can be very confusing to understand what ways in which your lifestyle and choices make an impact on the world, and therefore know how you can best make these small changes. One way to begin is to check and understand your own carbon footprint, and by doing so you may recognise the areas in which you can make small changes to have a positive effect on the planet.

There are many different facets of and issues within the larger umbrella of climate change, such as wildlife protection, deforestation, plastic pollution, sustainability and so forth but one major focus that is brought up time and time again is the notion of a ‘carbon footprint.’ Many companies and countries have made pledges to reduce their carbon footprint over the course of an allotted time. A carbon footprint is the total amount a greenhouse gas (such as carbon dioxide and methane) that an entity or person generates due to their actions and choices.

As greenhouse gasses or carbon emissions are mostly produced via the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, transport, heat and so forth, it creeps into almost every area of our lives. Whilst a person may not deliberately produce carbon emissions, due to how deeply these practices are embedded in our society, simple everyday decisions such as your breakfast food to the way in which you get to work will have a carbon footprint. It includes areas such as the consumption of heat and electricity, which if not generated by renewable energy will be burning fossil fuels. It also ranges to areas such as diet, as the meat industry produces a significantly higher amount of carbon emissions than plant-based diets demand. It also includes travel, air and daily commutes, the clothes and products you buy and the ways in which you live your life.

The Nature Conservancy writes ‘the average carbon footprint for a person in the United States is 16 tons, one of the highest rates in the world. Globally, the average is closer to 4 tons. To have the best chance of avoiding a 2℃ rise in global temperatures, the average global carbon footprint per year needs to drop under 2 tons by 2050.’ The Nature Conservancy has their own carbon footprint calculator.

There are several different places in which you can estimate your carbon footprint output. The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), provides a quick 5-10 minute questionnaire, that asks you questions about your household, diet, product and electricity consumption alongside some facts about how these areas are relevant to your carbon output. Resurgence, offers a more detailed approach to finetune and pinpoint the areas where you can alter your carbon output. In details it covers everything from your specific household energy consumption (renewable, oil, gas, wood etc.), to travel habits, to food intake, to industry. According to their website, their calculator; ‘came first in an independent survey of carbon calculators on-line, is widely recognised as the most user-friendly and accurate on-line carbon calculator and is often the single calculator referred to in articles on carbon footprinting.’

There are several different carbon footprint calculators available online that are free and easy to access. The Carbon Trust offers a guide that explains and helps you measure your carbon footprint yourself. Once you understand and have checked your footprint, from there a person or household can make sustainable changes to their lifestyle to reduce the amount of carbon emissions that they are producing or contributing towards. There are also several apps available on various app stores to help you adjust and track your carbon output, in an easy and manageable way.

Often, changes to reduce your carbon output can be of benefit to your household bills and other areas of your life. Switching off the lights more and making eco-conscious decisions can help you save money, and reducing your meat intake could end up being beneficial to your health. Speaking to Huffington Post, Jo Hand, founder of app Giki Zero, an app to help you understand, track and lighten your carbon footprint, said, “There’s often this feeling that if you’re going to live more sustainably, or be more eco-friendly, it has to cost more, actually, cutting your footprint can often help save money as well, and it can be better for your health and better for nature more generally.” The app, Giki Zero allows you to monitor your carbon footprint output, track your behaviour changes and see how it affects your score.