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 did the quiz and was above average, which has given me food for thought. I use public transport for work and try to walk to places that are local. I haven't flown anywhere since 2014, but obviously other stuff we do is environmentally unfriendly!!

I came out higher than average, which was a surprise. But maybe it shouldn’t have been.

I live in a draughty Victorian terrace that isn’t very energy efficient.

I bought a sofa and a mobile phone last year.
I haven’t flown for four years and I walk to work everyday, but I take a lot of car trips to relatives’ houses.
I’m vegetarian, but I do waste some food.
I keep my flat warm and love hot baths filled to the brim.

Oh, heating, that's another tricky one to answer. When we're home we keep the house at around 20C (or try to), but we turn it off overnight and when we're out. But I guess if you're doing a simplified quiz rather than a full lifestyle analysis this is what happens.

Just below average. Having a long commute on the bus has much more of an impact than I thought but perhaps my answer was misleading. I travel about an hour each way but its only 11 miles, it should take 25 mins but due to rush hour traffic it takes much longer including a lot of sitting in traffic.

Having 4 pets doesn't help either.

A University of Sheffield study found that eating meat had less than 10% impact to carbon footprint. They analysed diets and found it was eating at restaurants/takeaways, sweets and alcohol that affected family diet carbon footprint the most.

I took to wwf quiz and my footprint is high. I make one long haul flight a year (not a holiday), I eat chicken and fish a few times a week but all other meals are vegetarian. We recycle everything, we have almost no food waste (in the last two weeks the only thing we threw out was a package of brussel sprouts - everything gets folded into a curry or chilli or whatever), we grow a lot of our own food, we have a car but I never use it and OH uses it once a week. We don't have kids. We have dogs but only rescues. We either cycle or bus to work and we walk a lot. I have in the last many years curbed a substantial shopping habit so I buy very little and I recycle what I don't use, I rarely eat out or get takeaways, I've stopped buying take away coffees, we live a simpler lifestyle than most anyone we know.... etc., etc.,

I noticed that on WWF my footprint is high compared to the world average... of course it is. I live in a major western country. My footprint is going to be higher than it would be if I was Mongolian I would be curious to know if my footprint is high compared with others who live like us.

HOWEVER, do I care? The question is worded in a challenging way, needlessly. I'm happy to do these things but I'm aware that I'm a part of a culture that values doing these things, so by doing them I maintain my membership to the club as it were. I don't believe my behaviour is going to save the planet. I believe the responsibility belongs to governments and big business to sort this crap out. Stop producing plastic. Process my recycling properly. Limit choices. We have always been driven by capitalism, so long as we maintain that, as powerful nations, then our footprint as a country will remain higher. I believe that a side effect of very clever capitalism is that governments and big business produce problems and make us feel bad about it. We don't need to be looking to our neighbour. We need to always remember who is responsible, I do not feel guilty.

Bad westerners, even badder white westerners - so say a bunch of unelected neo Marxist trots. Russia - polluter, India polluter, China - polluter, Arabian countries making pretty islands in the gulf- polluter. Third world countries complaining about plastic waste - from third world countries.

I came out well above average on the WWF calculator.
This year we bought a new sofa. We'd had our previous one 10 years and it had been second hand when we got it. So do I feel guilty for getting a new one? No. We also bought a new fridge/freezer as the old one packed up. I feel that is something I can't do without so not replacing it was not an option. I do think the WWF one was a bit simplistic in their view regarding those sorts of items.

However my biggest downfall on the calculator was travel. I work shifts in a rural county in the emergency services. I got posted from a base that was 15 minutes cycle from my house, to one 25+ minutes drive away. I get no say in being moved. The public transport simply isn't set up to meet anywhere remotely near my needs. For example, if I finished at 3am I'd have to wait at the bus stop until half 6, then it's a 2 hour trip with 2 buses. Am I going to be 5 and a half hours late home, when I can use my car and be home in 30 minutes? Clearly not. Am I going to do a 2 hour cycle ride on an unlit dual carriageway in the early hours of the morning? Again no. Driving is my only option.
I also took a long haul flight last year and I've got another one coming up this year. So travel really pushed me up on the WWF calculator.

On the positive side I recycle, my loft is insulated, we've got double glazing ect. We also don't have children or pets. But all these things feel like a drop in the ocean compared with what other countries/industries are doing.

High. I have family in different continents, we drive, take public transport and On top of that both of us travel extensively throughout the world for work. I sometimes take 2 flights a month.

I got 79% on the wwf one so below average.

I’ve stopped flying, am vegetarian and cycle commute. Use a car for occasions longer journeys only.

I’m trying to cut down on stuff. Am trying the no new clothes for a year thing this year. Not sure I’ll be successful but hopefully cut down.

I did two of the quizzes and completed them for the whole household.
I expected it to be high and it was 128% and 17 metric tonnes a year.
I don't care really.
In order to improve I'd have to;

Move house to somewhere with public transport or amenities I could walk to.
Use public transport. There isn't any here and to be perfectly honest I wouldn't use a bus if there was one.
Give up foreign holidays. Not going to happen.
Give up meat. I have reduced family meat consumption by about 30%.

This is not to say I do nothing.
I have refused bags in shops and supermarkets for 30 years (got me some odd looks in the 1980s).
I don't buy out of season imported foods -except for things we don't grow such as oranges. So you won't get tomatoes in this house in winter, let alone air freighted berries from Peru.
I never buy imported meat.
I don't buy imported food that we can produce so no French granny smith apples, no Spanish courgettes etc.
I don't buy single use plastic if it can be avoided.

Very low

Mostly on account of living in London and not going abroad or driving

Not much of a consumer

No kids

It’s not information I need to share with anyone though

@Steamfan

I got the same! I don't fly though so I figure it all balances out.

I was surprised to come out slightly higher than UK average on the WWF one. I commute by train and haven't flown in the last year.

I guess it's because it showed there were 2 adults in a 3 bed semi and I eat meat and am not on a green tariff or use sole panels. I don't spend a lot on clothes, beauty products or tech and the house is well insulated. Dread to think how much higher I would come if I did drive to work or fly!

I guess it has made me think I should turn down the thermostat, eat less meat/more local produce. Especially if I am planning to fly in Europe this summer.

No clue, but I really wouldn't care.

Came out below average on the WWF one at 86%.

44.2 tonnes or 421%

I don't care. I love travel, meat and gadgets

I don't have kids so done my bit.

Seriously, why do people not care?

For those that don’t care, why aren’t you concerned? Is it due to not understanding how it will affect you or people round you?

72% , never fly, don't eat much meat, no pets, only put heating on for a few hours a day but questionnaire didn't allow for that

I'm above average due to transport. There is no public transit from where I live to where I work (can't afford to move and husband's job keeps us here) and my family lives in Canada. Unfortunately, that's life.

Do you not care as you think it doesn't affect you tale

@crankysaurus - I don't think it's that people don't specifically care, it's more they are doing what they can do and often don't have the option to do more.
I've posted above as to why public transport doesn't work out for me. If I gave up my car I'd have to give up my job. If I gave up my job I wouldn't be able to afford my mortgage and so on and so on. In theory I could move into a cave and catch my own food, but that isn't how i want to live my life. But even if I did that, the drop in the ocean of emissions I'd save wouldn't stack up against the waste industry are pumping out.
At the moment I'm doing the best I can and that will have to be enough.

I don't care because I honestly don't believe that any amount of flogging ourselves is going to change it.

I've spent a lot of time working in India over the years - what we do here will have zero impact due to their behaviour. There was one bay that was lovely, until the the locals started going there on holiday. You can no longer walk into the sea because they just chuck empty beer bottles into it and its full of broken glass. That is just one example.

also, I'm sorry. I like holidays and I like travelling.

This last year I've been to the carribean twice, canaries twice, one a med cruise and I'm currently sitting in an airport flying to the south of France. and when its available I fly business because its just more comfy and I can.

I like meat and have no intention of going veggie or vegan - too much like hard work and I like the taste of flesh.

I drive a 3 litre sports car which I enjoy.

Change my phone and laptop most years as I just like tech.

And you know what, I'm happy so I'm not changing it.

ivy "For those that don’t care, why aren’t you concerned?"

I don't like the idea of the world going on forever. I find that terrifying.

I don't know if you are asking people with a low footprint though, but mine is more by accident than design.