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.

I was puzzled by the question about the cost of broadband/tv/telephone and also thought that there should be a question about how much television you watch to get an idea of consumption, also how often you have a bath for the same reason and how you dry your laundry.

We have a new television but have had the old one for >10 years so it's done it's job. Ditto washing machine and we have no tumble drier so it's all line dried.

@schoolcats most of the carbon footprint of phones netflix (85%) etc comes from the network not your household electric bill ( that would have been covered in another question) so someone with a £40 a month phone contract and £50 Sky tv plus netflix or amazon prime is doing a lot of streaming or overpaying also mobile phone calls usethree times more carbon than a landline
I gave a link upthread to a guardian article about why the carbon footprint is higher

mobile phone calls usethree times more carbon than a landline
I gave a link upthread to a guardian article about why the carbon footprint is higher

Oh, I didn't know that. I use my mobile for all calls (not that I make many) because it's convenient so I'll go back to using my landline as both have inclusive calls. Thanks.

We don't stream a lot of tv fortunately, we've only got Netflix and Prime because there are no tv aerials allowed here and there is no cable tv either.

Below average..mostly as I dont have kids, am a vegi and rarely fly...but I know theres still a lot more I could do eg. Buy clothes and toliteries I dont really need and could possibly walk a bit more (although somewhat limited by health)

I just took the wwf survey for accuracy, though I’m not sure it was entirely fair in its results as I marked down I didn’t offset my flights after stating I take no flights, and that answer increased my footprint a little

Lower than average, but not by as much as I thought I would be. I drive electric, recycle/compost everything possible and only eat a little meat each week, renewable energy provider etc. Below the UK’s target figure for 2020 though.

I did the wwf survey and it came out as below average.
I thought I would be average as even though I compost and recycle everything I do have a large detached house that I heat at over 21 but maybe this is offset by the fact that 5 adults live here.

way below. simply don't have too much money to spend on "niceties", however, i do like a holiday abroad, and i'm not going to give it up no matter of any patronising.

Even when I am totally honest (use the tumble dryer, have taken a number of flights in the past 2 years (mostly work), don't have green energy tariff electricity, ...etc), it's well below the average for this country.

If I fudge it slightly (we actually use the clothes horse indoors and clothes line outdoors as much as dryer, so said no dryer, we intend getting a solar panel this year, intend changing to greener tariff energy, was the slightly more ecofriendly side of the shopping question as I am more in the middle than allowed (1st version I put the slightly less ecofriendly version option - which is still not the least version), and while I don't cycle locally I do walk locally, etc) - it drops from just under 10 tonnes (the conservative answers above) to about 8.5 tonnes per annum. Average being 17.5 tonnes.

We grow some of our own veg, I do shop locally, I use public transport, we keep the heating low, we don't use the car that much and combine trips as much as possible, I do dry clothes naturally, we use low energy appliance and bulbs, I have the heating set to only come on when needed, and tend to cook from scratch rather than pre-prepared a lot. But we are meat-eaters, and consume a lot of dairy, I need to travel abroad for work by air, we do use the car, and have well stocked wardrobes and pantry (including convenience foods) to allow for times when our hectic lives get on top of us sometimes.

Below average as reduce, reuse, recycle, buy new off ebay from people who no longer want the item, do not do fast fashion, fly but not too much, drive when required but no commute, always been vegetarian and for years didn't own a car at all but rode my bike.

Also compost, buy low waste/packaging items, keep my gas and electric bills low, have showers not baths, turn appliances off when not in use, use eco bulbs, low flush toilet, lots of insulation, triple glazed windows, draft excluders, eco boiler etc and have done for at least 20 years. I also cut out diary except cheese.

Going forward I'm going to buy less off Amazon as their packaging is too wasteful and they are putting smaller retailers out of business all over the world and in the near future we will have no choices but for Amazon. I also plan to continue to cut down on plastic.

Being frugal means I'm also quite economical aware. Saving money often means helping the environment.

Above. Our holiday flights apparently knocked out everything positive we do including walking pretty much everywhere. I'm not intending to give up my holidays but we are taking the ferry for one of them this year but of course that entails more driving.

Eco aware not economical aware.

I find the number of people who say they don't care really quite shocking. I thought most people were on board with trying to improve the situation. Really quite sad.

I come out as below UK average but I work from home, don't drive much and we have biomass heating. I'm pretty sure that if DH did the quiz for himself he would be above average since he travels more for work and he buys lunch each day etc.

We watched the recent BBC sustainability of a meat based diet documentary yesterday as a family (DS1 had to watch it for school). We've now resolved not to buy red meat anymore and to significantly reduce the amount of meat we buy as a family. We are also reducing flights and have resolved only 1 overseas holiday a year maximum (when previously we would have had 2 or even sometimes 3). It's still too much but its a start. Interestingly I found myself silently judging a friend the other day who said they had six overseas holidays planned this year.

It's sad but not at all surprising most people don't care. I see the same trend in my neighbourhood and to some extent among my friends too. Most people don't seem to recycle at all, we have 3 bins for different types of waste here and a lot of the bins I see out for collection are just all 3 stuffed full of non-recyclable waste and/or everything mixed in together... People drive everywhere; there was so much anger on the local FB group when a small car park by the high street closed down temporarily for a few months.

That's another good reason why change has to come from the big companies and governments, though. A few individuals making small changes is not going to change much in the grand scheme of things. And many just can't or won't make changes if there's a cheaper or easier option available for them.

I agree about some of the questions. I came out just below average because I’ve bought a fridge freezer this year. But only because my old fridge broke down. It’s the first time I’ve ever bought a fridge freezer. The last one was part of the fitted kitchen when we moved in 8 years ago and was already around 5-6 years old then. When we replace our kitchen the fridge freezer will stay as will the washing machine and tumble drier until they break down beyond repair.

Some of the questions are daft. Yes I did buy a new washing machine. But only because the last one was ancient and totally broken. I couldn't answer the carbon-offset of my flights question either. I haven't flown at all for years, but it wouldn't let you bypass it. Also the transport one - it is all by car because we have no alternative. Trains don't run between where I live and where I work, the buses do but it would take two hours each way going round dozens of villages and there would be 3 changes.

One said my family was above average, two that we were below average. Guess it depends on the questions.

We don't fly, only have one car and I buy round about 90% of my clothes second hand. We don't eat red meat either.

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.

If everyone waits for someone else to do something first we're screwed. Or more screwed than we are already.

Mine came out at 146%.

I don't work so a m often at home. DH often works at home so the heating is on all day.

We have a large house but clearly the fact that we don't fill it up with adults went against me?

I'm pretty careful at switching off lights, tvs on standby and heating in rooms that aren't being used. Have a tumble dryer but use it 9nly for bedding in winter. Otherwise hang laundry outdoors or on an airer.

I fly. Have family in US and will visit them.

But I only have once child and no pets.

Our area isn't great for recycling. Our council will take only (certain) plastics and paper and aluminium cans. We have to take anything else to the tip.

According to WWF, both DH and I are above average due to travel.

I drive to work, he gets the train. There's no way either of us could walk or cycle.
I thought getting public transport was supposed to be better, but must be being complacent.
I suppose the best thing would be to get an electric or hybrid car, but we can't afford to replace it at present.

We both care a lot, try to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible.
We walk whenever we can, I try to buy local food in season, shop in charity shops, used washable nappies and Sanpro. I'm surprised to be above average.

If it wasn't for the fact that I fly to Ireland frequently it would be relatively low by UK standards. I don't drive, am veggie, we have just moved to a 2 bedroom apartment and I generally try to buy my produce in season.

LOL at all the people outraged that they're over target despite having dogs rather than kids - a dog's carbon footprint is higher than a child's.

As a family we're below average but it's entirely wiped out by DH's work.

Above average, for sure, mainly because of flying.
I cycle to work. energy efficient house with municipal heating, eat a lot of vegan meals and practically no red meat so all of that is good.
But I fly a lot. For work and for pleasure because my family is in one country, dh's in another and we live in a third . So a lot of the travel would be difficult to avoid but we are trying to reduce - our last non-family holiday was intentionally by train to reduce footprint.
Also have three kids and pets (but only adopt from rescues so figure I didn;t 'create' the problem).

@timeaftertimeafter how is a dogs carbon footprint bigger than a child's?!

amp.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/12/want-to-fight-climate-change-have-fewer-children

I don’t have kids, use public transport more than I drive (do need to run a car as it’s impossible to get disabled DH to his hospital appointments otherwise), buy clothes second-hand, live in a small house with loft insulation on a green energy tariff, have very low household meat consumption, never fly, recycle and compost everything I can and keep tech etc until it’s on its absolute last legs (my phone is four years old, my laptop is six years old etc). I do care, I’m not going to change the situation single-handed but I need to feel I’m doing what I can.