Friday, 16 October 2015

Practicing What I Preach

I decided to figure out my own carbon footprint. After looking through a few online calculators, I opted for Carbon Independent. It was comprehensive and transparent with a simple design. I loved how it broke down each item in terms of CO2 used. It also took into account the CO2 that public institutions, such as my university, release on my behalf. After quickly filling in the form based on my time in London since September, I hit 'View/Print Summary' and...



Source: Carbon Independent











 

Yikes! One year in London, living my current lifestyle, would lead to 9.04 tonnes of CO2 released into the atmosphere.

Unfortunately, I live in university housing, so improving the sustainability of my home will be difficult. Instead I must *gulp* change my lifestyle. I will be updating my progress in a month, and we'll see how I am living up to the new standards.

In the meantime, what's your CO2 emissions?

6 comments:

  1. I'll definitely do this when I get home tonight. At least I don't drive!!

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  2. It was a shock for me. Hard to picture cutting back 83% of my emissions! 10% per year is much less intimidating.

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  3. I'm reluctant to say I got 10.34, Darcy- The London lifestyle is something I'm not proud of!!

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  4. Not to worry Helena, you're still well under the national average! I clicked the lowest options for Food, Health and Education, and Miscellaneous and found that 2.58 tonnes is nearly unaviodable. But it's all about small manageable steps.

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  5. 17.5.. Shameful.

    I was doing alright until my Australia flight bumped me up massively.
    I should improve on buying more locally produced food - but then sometimes it's a toss-up between local and expensive, or from afar and cheap (and bad for the environment)..

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  6. Air travel is brutal! If I added in my flight in that would be another 4 tonnes. And I really want to home for Christmas which will be 8 more tonnes.

    I know what you mean by expense vs enviorment. I figured I'd work my way up to proper shopping habits by buying the enivormentally friendly option when it's on sale. Small steps.

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