Is your footprint above or below average? And do you care?

[Cam77]

Is your carbon footprint above or below the national average - and if it’s above do you feel bad about it? There are some good calculators online which quiz you on every aspect of you lifestyle. For what it’s worth I’m below average on most metrics - food consumption, energy usage (average sized home with good rating), don’t drive (work from home), only one kid, etc. However, I do fly a fair bit including one long haul every couple of years (12 hour return flight to visit family) - and that alone bumps me right back up to around the national average. I feel kind of bad about it, but there you go.

Footprint below average as don't drive, don't fly and live in a small house.

I've no idea. If you link to a quiz we could all have a go?

I do under average miles in my car, and seem to use the washing machine way less than average. I keep things a long time 'if it ain't broke don't change it' mentality.

However I do a short haul return flight most years, and keep my house warm.

Below average. I don’t drive and haven’t flown in the last four years.

I’m average. I drive a bit for work and fly a bit for work (self employed have to go where the work is). I make savings elsewhere to balance that and come out average.
Wondering now if I can put carbon offsetting as a business expense....

I live rurally so I’m forced to drive places which irritates me a lot but I don’t drive unnecessarily - just to work, food shopping and taking kids places. I don’t fly very often and don’t buy clothes or household goods very often. I also only really eat meat at the weekend so I calculated my footprint as lower than the average. I’d love to live somewhere where I could walk more or use public transport but it’s not feasible to move at the moment

It depends how you're defining average really. Globally I'll be above average (almost everyone who lives in a western nation is) but if you only look at the UK I'd say average to below average.

I base this on the fact that I don't have children (biggest factor), I don't have a car and rarely drive (when I did have a car, it was ab eco model), my commute by train is short and I spend twice the time walking, I rarely fly, I don't have pets (although my parents have dogs which I consider mine ), I don't buy new clothes or shoes often, and I try to cut down on plastic when I can (buying bar soap and shampoo as an example, or going to the local grocers and getting my fruit and vegetables loose).

I'm not perfect but I'm happy I'm doing what I can.

Slightly more due to flights.

I carbon offset our entire household footprint which is not a scalable solution but better than nothing and proven effective

No idea. I do care. Trying not to fuck up the planet within the limits of the totally unsustainable capitalist system.

No idea and couldn’t care less.

We are much lower than average, mainly because we don't have a car and eat vegetarian 6 days a week.

footprint.wwf.org.uk/#/

One of the more straightforward ones to fill in if anyone wants to have a go.

I suspect I'll be just below average. But I've got some big long haul trips planned over the next couple of years which will push me back up.

In reality. This is harsh but I don't care. I will make changes that don't impact me hugely. Such as recycling, insulating my house properly, walking instead of driving of possible etc. But actually until the bigger economies come to the table (China and USA in particular) I feel my impact isn't that huge and I'm not prepared to make the sacrifices of the amazing holidays and things I want to do with my daughter in the immediate future.

I don’t drive or have kids, I use bar shampoo & soaps, eco egg instead of washing powder, reusable sanpro, handkerchiefs instead of tissues. I normally put out one small bag of rubbish per month. I do have one or return flights per year to somewhere in Europe though so that’s going to bump it up a bit.

I'm amazed that mine is smaller than average. I've got 4 dc and we are all meat eaters and I drive.
The only thing that must make a difference is that I've not flown since I was 10 and my dc never have. We do tend to stay local, the furthest I drive is around 15 miles.

Below for sure. One car between us and we barely eat meat. We grow a lot of veg/fruit and keep chickens.

We try not to buy prepacked food full stop.

Probably below. We're a vegetarian household, use cloth nappies, opt for recyclable packaging for anything we buy, rarely fly anywhere (maybe one holiday by plane in 3ish years) and I commute by train and walk 90% of places in my home town.

I do care but without even doing the quiz I know mine is above.
This is down to flying a lot and having 4 children. However, DH and I are vegan and shun plastic.

Don't know and don't care. I will start caring when climate activists stop having children and stop traveling completely.

I’m below average but I’m hoping to travel quite a bit in the next few years, by plane, which will increase it.

Ok. I'm above average rather than below. And that doesn't take into account the flights I'll be making in the next 18 months.

I think ours is well below average. We both walk to work and live close to school, so school runs are always on foot. We haven't flown at all in the last ten years, our car does only about 3-5k a year and we have solar panels with battery storage, so we take nothing from the grid. The thermostat is set at 17.5 max, so our heating isn't on a lot. We are lucky that we are all very warm blooded naturally, we and the kids overheat easily when we go to my mums as she has her heating permanently at 23. It's sweltering! So yeah, overall I think we make as low an impact as we can.

According to that quiz I'm way above average, mainly due to travel. I don't care. As a PP said, until China/USA get their finger out I can't see what difference it makes if I go on holiday a couple of times a year.

Above, mainly due to transport. Public transport is minimal in our village (restricted to school transport mainly).
Stuff and eating were much, much lower.

Below but only just. Entirely vegetarian household, don't take holidays (I have flown twice in last 10 years, once for a close relative's wedding, once for work) and although we drive (semi rural area 20 miles from city where we work) we share car to work at least 4 days a week, and teen/adult children walk and take bus.

Low. Lifelong vegan as are my whole house. Don't drive, never fly.