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.

According to that quiz I'm below UK average but above go back average - so exactly where I thought I'd be!

Below average for UK based on calculator linked, work local and sometimes from home, vegetarian with 1 dc, (despite living in larger house). I have only flown 6 times in 42 years and only within Europe so good from that pov

*global average

www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx

A much more in depth quiz here

I’m average which is surprising considering we don’t fly.

Mine is high. Mainly travel as my work requires it but as a family we eat meat, I have a long commute and we waste some food. I am working on reducing it but not prepared to quit my job or move so limited in what I can do.

I care very much and am really disappointed that some people feel this is the duty of climate activists only.

If everyone make a bit of an effort, that has a much bigger overall effect than a small few making a big effort.

I've done the WWF calculator, it's quite crude but still useful. My footprint is above (11.2T) due to the amount I travel (on public transport) for work. Have recently gone vegetarian, we don't fly, and will see what else we can do as a household.

Below here, one 2nd hand, economic car that does less than 30 miles a week. Small, well insulated house and we recycle 90% of our waste, as its mandatory here. I've never flown anywhere and neither have my children. We buy everything we can second hand. We do eat meat though.

I'm almost double the average - this is because I fly a LOT for work.

According to the quiz, work travel should be your employer's footprint but I'm self-employed so don't even have that excuse.

I do feel bad about it but I can't afford to stop working so there's not much I can do!

For decades ours was far less than average and would have been less than 9T. We offset DHs car as it was a works vehicle. His employer does all it can, given the industry they are in.

Now I am self employed, use my car a lot and have no way of using an electric or hybrid (nearest charger is half an hour away with a 1 hour max and our house has nowhere to fit one). So our footprint is highwe, about 12T.

So I care? Nope! We have no way to lower it further until we no longer need to work. I am aware, we do all that we can in other areas and I think that is enough for now.

Slightly below uk average according to WWF. We're a frugal household though so I was surprised. My results were pretty evenly split between the 4 categories.

Interesting that more in depth carbon calculator doesn't take what you eat into account.

Mine was 109%. I find that quite concerning, yes I drive a big car but don’t do many miles in it regularly, yes I eat meat but most of our food is produced locally. We actively avoid plastic, and are a minimal waste household.

I'm 9.4 tonnes/yr compared to (that one quiz says) 10.5 tonnes/yr. it's not right, though, some of the categories were too simplistic. Like it says "use public transport for all my journeys" vs. using a motorbike/car. So what should I have answered if I do 90% of my miles on public transport or cycling? Pffft.

I care, but the actions to get it down much further feel like too extreme a sacrifice.

Don't believe that any home with > 1 person has 0 food waste.

On the WWF one I was slightly below average, although the "stuff" took me quite high. We bought our first home in May so of course I have bought a fridge freezer/sofa/whatever else was on the list.
I am a bit of a shopper to be fair but like to support small businesses so buy things I probably don't need but very much like the look of!
We have a small 2 bed terrace, one cat no kids and will not be having any, I've been on one holiday in 10 years, we don't have a car, try to recycle and eat a few veggie/vegan meals a week, have been switching to plastic free for bathroom products.
I do think large corporations need to do more, but especially those with children I think we have a responsibility to make sure the world lasts for them.

Above but I’m not bothered. Most activists are hypocrites anyway

I'm not too sure about the more in depth calculator. I can't find my car model on it, all the Focuses listed seem to be 1.6 engines, when mine's a 1 litre eco-tech version which are pretty standard.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

I am hugely over (258%) due to flying short and long haul for work ~8 x per year. This will likely reduce as virtual meetings become more popular.

Mine said 70% which seems a lot but some say they got over 100% so it doesn't
seem that bad now. TBF I was surprised it was that much as we Holiday in this country, I drive a small car and only do local journeys but also walk / cycle too but no option for that. Eat less meat than average and never red but could only pick one, don't buy new stuff hardly at all and have solar panels, energy saving lightbulbs etc and live in a small semi house.

So is 70% below average then?

Less than uk average. Did the quiz.

Stuff I do:
-almost all cleaning products refillable

• period pants
• glass milk bottles
• don't fly
• rarely drive
• don't eat much meat and given up beef and lamb completely
• buy lots of second hand clothes
• minimal toiletries
• try to avoid plastic when buying food e.g bringing pots to green food shops
• try to be careful with water e.g don't bathe my child every day
• reusable wipes for baby
• I breastfed my baby and never fed him pouches so no waste there
• try not to buy something unless I really need it

I think our 2 main downfalls are heating our home - we've yet to switch to green energy - and we have a family car.

Tbh until world leaders take drastic action what's the point in any of us doing anything? Sad but true

Here are my results from that wwf thing. I'm a supply teacher so although travel was the biggest section, I said I drive 5-15 hours a week but that's because I chose the worst case for me. Some weeks I do less than 5. I feel like I can't not have a car though because of the type of work I do.

I don't go on foreign holidays and the last UK holiday I had was 2 years ago. The last time I flew was 12 years ago.

I deliberately didn't upgrade my phone last year because my current one works fine.

We recycle as much as possible and waste as little as possible but we do chuck out a lot of food. I'm not a vegetarian but I don't eat meat (I don't avoid animal products in food items).

We have a cool house in that the heating is only set to 17°C at most; also, we don't have daily showers and don't wash all clothes after their first wear. We wash 1x a day at 30°C.

We don't have pets but I do have 2 children.

I was above average which surprised me as i dont fly and grow a fair bit of my own food. However i do drive my son to an SEN school far from home as its the only available school. There isnt public transport there.

I couldn't care less.

Just did this link that someone posted and it says above average.
I'm surprised really because we don't fly, don't eat much meat, don't buy that many new things but according to that my footprint is above average because we drive alot. Don't have the opportunity to reduce this because of work unfortunatley.
footprint.wwf.org.uk/#/