Carbon footprint calculators - measuring our impact
This is a great time of year to set aside a few minutes to work out your household’s carbon footprint for the previous year. It really does not take long and if you read on I will introduce you to some free online carbon footprint calculators. Working through any of these is also very likely to show you where you might be able to take some small steps to reduce your carbon footprint in the year to come – and then you can repeat the process next January and see what impact your changes had!
To my mind the quickest and simplest carbon footprint calculator is the WWF one that has been around a few years now. It takes about 5 minutes to complete and only asks for information that you are going to know without needing to think too hard or spending time working out the right figures to enter. Of course, lacking some of the detail of the other carbon footprint calculators its results are only going to be approximate, but if you want to make a start without spending too much time on it then this is the one for you!
The Carbon Independent calculator is similarly quick and simple. It comes with some very helpful and informative notes running down the right hand side of the screen. It lets you put in precise information, if you have it, for example you have the option of entering the actual mpg your car does or instead you can enter an approximate value based on whether the car is small/medium/large or an SUV etc. So, it is possible to use this calculator to give an approximate outcome, or you could choose to spend a little longer on it and work out some more precise inputs to give you a more accurate result. It did not allow for the fact that your car might be electric, which I felt was a bit of an oversight.
Gikizero requires you to sign up before you can proceed, but I have not been inundated with emails since doing so. Their calculator is part of their scheme in which you sign up to do ‘steps’ towards becoming more sustainable in the way you live. Initially you complete a light touch survey which gives a rough estimate of your carbon footprint but then you can go on to complete a much more detailed one to get a more accurate and well informed result, which may be what some of you are wanting to do.
Another more detailed calculator can be found here. It asks you to put a figure for your annual expenditure on a rather long list of things including (to name but a few) food and drink; clothes and shoes; paper based products; banking and finance; insurance. So, to complete this one would need some considerable time spent working out realistic figures for all of these, but it may appeal to the inner-accountant in some of you! For those prepared to do this they would get some interestingly detailed feedback on exactly how much different aspects of their life contribute to their carbon footprint. The calculator is part of a much wider website that seemed particularly keen on getting one to contribute towards one of their carbon offsetting projects.
Having had a go at all of these, in order to write this, I found they all gave a similar figure for my carbon footprint. I had already used the WWF one a couple of years ago and so was particularly pleased to discover we have brought our household carbon footprint down by a third – so it IS possible to have a significant impact over time. I would be really interested in hearing back from anyone that gives any of these calculators a go, or to know if there is a different one that you have found and which you prefer to these ones.
Postscript: Since writing this article we have also become aware of a community level carbon footprint calculator called Impact. This might be of particular interest to Parish Councils wanting to consider their whole parish climate change impact and to then find ways of reducing it.