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 got 68% which is Okay, I guess

Well I thought I was going to be well over but when I took out business trip travel it turns out I am at 87%...

Below UK average, but mostly because I'm vegetarian, very very rarely fly, recycle and don't buy many consumer goods. Still shamefully high on world terms, and I don't do enough to reduce my footprint.

@kalifa I could not disagree more; I go on holiday for me, not just for the children, and I can definitely tell the difference between Cornwall and Thailand

OK the resurgence one has me at 5.6 tonnes with the average as 1k, so I've gone from 90% to less than 60% by using a different quiz!

Below average, though I have a car, it doesn't get used more than twice a week & then only local trips of no more than 3 miles. My car is a new one, I swapped from diesel to petrol, the engine is an EcoBoost type, a small engine that is designed to be powerful. I don't do long journeys, never fly anywhere. I recycle as much as I can, I live in a flat that has communal bins, the amount of items we can recycle is restricted more than if we all had our own bins.

According to the quiz I'm way above average, but that's almost fully down to travel. I travel at least once a month internationally on business and my work base is 41 miles away. I do car share though and wfh when o can (although that means more heat and light used at home)

Mine is below apparently. Which goes to show the average must be a hugely wasteful life.

Mine is below apparently. Which goes to show the average must be a hugely wasteful life. Same here

I would imagine I’m well above (2 children, daily 24 mile driving for school, at least one long haul flight, Australia, per year, old house, tumble dryer, eat a bit of meat). I’m not self centred enough to think that I’m making any difference here so I can’t say I’m particularly bothered about my lifestyle. I do feel a bit guilty that I don’t have more money to invest on the issue though. People like me should be leading the way with investing in geoengineering/renewables/nuclear technology and good quality research. Not in a position to really do that at the moment though. But of course I’d sooner spend whatever money I can spare on the above than on reducing my carbon footprint because I know better.

Slightly above, at 102%.
We have a few holidays per year so the flights must bump it up.
Not prepared to give these up, I'd sooner forgo the car than our hols.

I should think I'm below average. I drive my small car two or three times a week but not during rush hour. I use public transport for most long distance travel and have never been in a plane.

Agree freedom, I was 84% and don't think I live that sustainably. Try, but lots of room to improve.

The second one linked came out at 71%. So I’ve dropped from 108% on WWF.

I guess we’re talking about it, and if everyone tries a little bit it helps rather than one or two people being ‘perfect’

Tbh when 71% of emissions globally come from just 100 companies, I find it audacious that the blame and impetus for change is put onto individuals.

I have 4 DC but we drive less than 5000 miles a year and have flown twice since 2011. We don't each much meat or consume very much and our house is 1100 sq ft so not massive. I guess my carbon footprint is high due to having had the kids, but if you looked at us as.a.family unit the per person emissions would be fairly low. I do a couple of things that I feel offset a bit, too - I help run a cloth nappy library and give breastfeeding support, both of which have wider benefits outwith our family, and we do have solar panels.

I came out 99% on the wwf quiz.
Mostly due to my car travel, which I'm going to try to reduce this year.

We recycle, spend very little on 'stuff', are using bar soap, chemical free cleaning fluids, have turned heating down 1 degree etc. We fly minimally. We have 1 child. Husband commutes by train.
This is the year my family gets as eco-aware as possible.

Mine was smaller than average, which surprises me as I drive (not great distances very often Though), and have flown twice this year (both short-hall).

I don’t buy loads of cosmetics, or tech though. So that’s probably where I make my savings.

According the the wwf calculator, I'm average for the UK.
Our carbon footprint has gone down massively in the past 12 months. 2 medium haul flights/ year to see family, heating for maybe 4/5 months year instead of AC for 10 months of the year, can now recycle, take own bags to the shops, can buy 1l cars, not massive gas guzzlers. Honestly, the UK is pretty good in having the possibilities.
How much difference to the world would it make if cars were forced to have, say 50mpg combined cycle, recycle paper, glass, metal, not hand out bags in supermarkets?
There is still lots we can do, but there are some pretty big returns round the rest of the world. It need to be a global effort, not a local one.

Vegan, adopter not breeder, never ever buy mass produced clothes or underwear, haven't bought a pair of shoes for 11 years, grow most of my own food, fruit is local to where I live in the middle east. I also drive a massive 4x4 which averages 20mpg and fly business or first class at least 5 times a year long haul. But compared to a Primark wearing family of 4 children, I'm an angel. And finally, I'm afraid I don't particularly care about it. It's a non issue to me. I don't want to pay sweatshops or cheap food producers (which is the norm for British people) and I don't want to throw plastic in the sea. But the Greta bollocks? Don't care and WW3 will take us out way before anything else.

Mine was just below average overall. Home was above and travel was below since we don't fly and rarely make long distance journeys.

107% on the WWF calculator, I think it's the heating and recycling that got me. Our council doesn't take food waste, glass or paper, and since I don't have a car I can't get those things to the recycling centre, so in the black bin they go. And we do keep the house warmer than we strictly need to, but both kids kick their covers off at night even with the heating off, then they wake up and complain they're cold. A bit annoyed that we're still above average though, we don't fly, don't drive, hardly buy anything new.

Don't drive. Don't fly. Vegetarian. Holiday in the Lakes by train.

It's low but it's not exactly by choice it's because I am skint. If I had the money I'd buy a car and I'd fly to other countries.

I used the wwf link posted above and I come out as below average at 78%. It is somewhat flawed however as it doesn't take into account things like how many children you have. I have 1 which is below average, though she is now 17y so almost an adult.

Although we flew a lot last year - a bit more than we normally do, though we always take at least 3 holidays abroad flying and at least one of those will be long haul - I do pay to offset.

I drive an electric car and my electricity is 100% from renewable sources according to my tariff. However it doesn't take into account other cars in the household. DH drives a diesel 4x4 - though that will be changed for electric next year when his lease finishes. We also have a third car - DD's which is petrol (as she needed manual for her lessons.) So I assume the household footprint would be increased as a result.

We live in a modern house - new build about 15years ago - so have good insulation, etc. We haven't bought any new appliances or large furniture purchases for over a year which was taken into account, but have in the past.

It is something we care about and we have made changes in various ways. We know that we aren't going to stop travelling by plane - holidays and travelling are a big part of our life, and to be honest, some winter sun does my arthritis the world of good and increases DH's wellbeing in the winter a lot. So we've made other changes - we always offset when paying for flights, I have the electric car and dh will do when his car is replaced, we chose green energy tariffs and we are trying hard to recycle more and to reduce our single use plastics - little things like moving to solid toiletries, etc.

I just took the quiz and got 104% which isn't as high as I thought it would be.

For me, it was commuting time and pets that did it. I have to drive to work everyday and we have three pets as well.

Oh, and I don't eat meat though do have fish approx once a week. Haven't done so since I was a young teen, mainly due to taste/texture. DH and dd are both meat eaters however.