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 expect it's below average as we have a small house and never go abroad, but I honestly couldn't care less.

I just did the WWF calculator and apparently slightly above average, which was a surprise! I'm a vegetarian, don't drive, don't fly (haven't been abroad for 5 years), recycle... But according to the survey my main areas that contribute to my carbon footprint are Stuff (i.e. shopping) and Home. Probably because I live alone (and therefore in a "too big" of a home) and said I spend over £150 a month on shopping (excluding food)...

These quizzes don’t seem to ask if you have children, they just ask how many people are living in your house.

just done the quiz - and my travel consumption tells me it's equal to 3 medium haul flights. It then, rather smugly, I thought, tells me I can cycle or use public transport. Well - no. It's too far to cycle and there is no public transport in the hours that I need. So that's not going to work. I can't see how it works things out .

Below, I'd say. 38, no kids, fly maybe once every 10yrs. Try to live really economically, work close to home.
Quiet home based hobby....

I am a meat eater though.

God my life sounds depressing.

Above, and that's down to travel.

But where I live, there's no public transport so I have to drive to get to work. I drive fifty miles minimum a day just in commuting.

The same journey by public transport would be impossible.

I don’t honestly know but I’d prefer to be below average because it does matter and I do look for ways to reduce my carbon footprint. most people in the uk are likely to be well above the global average though.

Mine is above but some of the questions I couldn't answer entirely accurately; the one about travel was either car OR public transport, whereas mine is more 50:50 use (depending where I am). I expect my flights pushed up my total too.

People shouldn’t feel bad about flying. There are certain places we can only reach by flying there. I can’t swim to Jamaica or Thailand can I?
Though I condemn people who fly abroad with small kids who don’t even understand the concept of “abroad”. At such a young age they won’t remember the place and a 4-year-old simply doesn’t care if the beach he is on is in nearby Cornwall or far away Portugal. Till the age of 10 there’s no need to fly with kids unless they are visiting family.

I did the wwf test posted above, and turns out I’m above average. I wasn’t expecting that tbh!

I think I was bumped up because of flights, and because of heating my home. The flights thing didn’t look very accurate though, and my commute is tiny. I’m a bit gutted that I came out above average, but I’m not about to stop flying to visit family and friends, nor am I prepared to freeze in my own home.

I suspect I'm above average. I do care. I vote Green mostly and know tackling climate change will be costly, I need a government willing to force us to do that.

Small house, don’t drive, haven’t flown since 2005 (and only ever a handful of times, short haul), vegan, so i’d say probably below. I do care and i still try and watch what i do. There’s a lot of people who seem to have the attitude that because they can’t do everything then they shouldn’t do anything but that’s bollocks. We can change our individual behaviour as well as using our spending power to force big business to change, and using our votes and voices to force politicians to address this properly. Being imperfectly vegan/plastic free is better than doing nothing because it creates a climate where being mindful of this stuff is just the norm.

I would drive less if public transport was better outside of big cities. My current job is 20 miles away, 45 mins or so by car or 2+ hours by 3 trains and lots of walking in between stations....

Mine is above average, mostly because of flying. I do enjoy travel and went abroad 4 times last year.

I don't have much choice about making my home greener as I rent so that's down to my landlord. I do eat meat but I recycle everything and I do not own a car, I walk to work and only get the bus or train when DS and I go on a day out further afield.

I tried the WWF calculator and we came out at 72% (ie our carbon footprint is well below the 2020 government target).

However, I really didn't like the way a lot of the questions were phrased.

For example, it did not ask how many cars my household has, or give me an option of cycle to work sometimes, drive others, it seemed to assume that if you don't use walking/cycling/public transport all the time, you must use a car/motorbike all the time which isn't the case for me, I drive in winter, cycle when it gets light enough.

I also didn't like the question about solar panels etc. I've enquired about solar panels and was told our property isn't suitable.

It's fine as a very rough guide, but that's all it is.

I came out as above average which I find really disheartening as we do try hard. I suspect it was the car use that bumped is over but living rurally we have no other option. It is unrealistic to have a zero spend on clothing or toiletries etc and we had no choice but to buy a new washing machine last year. Feel very disheartened.

I was interested to do that wwf quiz to find I am slightly above average. I’m vegan and live in a small flat, rarely drive. I wonder if others are underestimating their carbon footprint!

Above. But a lot of that is my car mileage - commute plus need for car at work.

Slightly then lowered as we don't fly.

According to that link I’m above average. I’m sure this is down to the fact that we have a gas boiler and single glazing etc (period property, sash windows). Other than that I don’t think I’m that bad... used to go on holiday abroad 2x a year, now down to every other year. We use the car once a week or so, public transport and walking otherwise.
Baby in cloth nappies. I’m a vegetarian. Don’t buy milk and I’ve stopped using it in tea and things.
I try to source plastic toys second hand but obviously we get given some but not much I can do about that. My council is pretty good at recycling and we fill less than 1 black bin every fortnight.

Yes I do care. I don’t care where I am vs other people but will keep trying to reduce my own footprint vs what it currently is.

I wonder how much the result depends on the number of people in your household?

We have four adults in a 3 bed mid terrace, but if my children were under 18 they would not have been counted which seems silly to me. We had as much need of three bedrooms when they were 12 and 15 as we do now they're 21 and 24!

Below average. One dd, shop mainly at local market and waste free shop, don’t use any plastics in cleaning/storage/toys. Buy most clothing secondhand and donate all our old clothes. Don’t drive/fly. Don’t have a wood burner! Eat no meat and very little dairy. Use public transport or walk. I’m below average in the WWF quiz thankfully, or I’d be wondering what else I could do!

I think the link I posted is a very blunt tool. I come out as just under (87%)
There's one from carbon footprint.com that requires you enter the exact kWh used for example. Interesting to try different calculators to compare. I find it rather depressing but not really surprising to find there are people posting who don't care, especially if those people have children.

The quiz put me at 102% so slightly above average, I was a bit surprised, I work from home, never fly and don't spend much a month on consumables.

I do have a large detached house though and drive a big car but less than 10 miles a week.

It'd be good to find a more in depth quiz.

I expect I'll come out at above average for the UK. I put in a lot of car miles for work which I have agonised about - I do a job which supports vulnerable people, which I consider to be a worthwhile use of petrol. We looked into an electric car, but it wouldn't have go me toy parents house at the time. I'll consider again.
No everything is individual responsibility - changes are coming now businesses have cottoned on that there is money in it!
I also eat meat (not daily). But, I've not flown since before my 8 year old was born. We are a one car family so use buses and trains. I don't count the kids in my carbon footprint, past the actual birth, as they are individuals with their own footprint.

I'm below average - mainly down to not commuting or flying, I think. I'm a homebird.