Personal carbon footprint calculator (UK)

Simple living, extreme early retirement, becoming and being wealthy, wisdom, praxis, personal growth,...
Post Reply
User avatar
Bankai
Posts: 986
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2014 5:28 am

Personal carbon footprint calculator (UK)

Post by Bankai »

https://bulb.co.uk/carbon-calculator/ (click on 'offset your footprint')

My score: 2.4 tonnes, better than 82% of people in the UK. Not bad but clearly there's some scope for improvement.

chenda
Posts: 3289
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:17 pm
Location: Nether Wallop

Re: Personal carbon footprint calculator (UK)

Post by chenda »

Nice job Bankai.

Green Pimble
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2021 8:16 pm

Re: Personal carbon footprint calculator (UK)

Post by Green Pimble »

5.6 tonnes here. I'm not sure I agree with the calculations though. The website puts gas usage for me at 2.2 tonnes, being the largest contributor, but all I use gas for is cooking- no water or space heating. I suspect it's overestimating based on that?

Neat calculator anyway. It'd be cool to have some sort of accurate carbon leaderboard :).

User avatar
Alphaville
Posts: 3611
Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2019 10:50 am
Location: Quarantined

Re: Personal carbon footprint calculator (UK)

Post by Alphaville »

i put on 4 tons, with the caveat that this past pandemic year i bought a bunch of furniture and electronics because:

-being stuck in my apartment i required furniture (a one-off, i am done)
-my profitable hobby needs to stay current in order to remain profitable and so i upgraded

chenda
Posts: 3289
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:17 pm
Location: Nether Wallop

Re: Personal carbon footprint calculator (UK)

Post by chenda »


take2
Posts: 317
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:32 am

Re: Personal carbon footprint calculator (UK)

Post by take2 »

Interesting. I ran mine two ways - with and without work flights. Without I’m 30% less than average, with I’m 40% more than average. Most of mine without work is still flights, followed by eating meat. Using a bicycle as exclusive means of local transport probably offsets most of that to get me below average.

The 100% renewable energy bit seems like a gimmick to me. All that means is the electricity provider has signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) with renewable sources (wind/solar farms) to offset their use. It doesn’t actually mean the energy going through the grid to your home is 100% renewable the way a home off grid might be.

chenda
Posts: 3289
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:17 pm
Location: Nether Wallop

Re: Personal carbon footprint calculator (UK)

Post by chenda »

take2 wrote:
Sun Jun 04, 2023 4:23 am
The 100% renewable energy bit seems like a gimmick to me.
Yes I'd take it with a large pinch of salt.

It does do a good job though of highlighting just how impactful cars, flights and meat eating (especially beef and lamb) are.

ducknald_don
Posts: 322
Joined: Thu Dec 17, 2020 12:31 pm
Location: Oxford, UK

Re: Personal carbon footprint calculator (UK)

Post by ducknald_don »

It provides a signal. You pay a little more for clean energy and it gives the dirty providers an incentive to move in the right direction.

Regionally though your best bet would be to move to Scotland if you worry about where your electrons are flowing from.

@take2 I always assumed CO2 created during my work is ultimately falling on someone else's personal consumption chart. Not that my work has much impact. This is why I've always been dubious about the criticism of people like Madonna whose shows may have a high impact but per attendee it could be quite low.

chenda
Posts: 3289
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:17 pm
Location: Nether Wallop

Re: Personal carbon footprint calculator (UK)

Post by chenda »

ducknald_don wrote:
Sun Jun 04, 2023 8:00 am
Regionally though your best bet would be to move to Scotland if you worry about where your electrons are flowing from.
Why Scotland ?

The work liability is a moral dilemma. Is it wrong to work as flight crew or beef farmers ? I don't know...

ducknald_don
Posts: 322
Joined: Thu Dec 17, 2020 12:31 pm
Location: Oxford, UK

Re: Personal carbon footprint calculator (UK)

Post by ducknald_don »

Lots of wind turbines up there.

Post Reply