How big is your Carbon Footprint?

78%,i shall start using the car a little less from today.

I agree the questions are general and some make it impossible to put in an accurate answer. We are totally off grid and there was no option to say that on the tariff question. However, it gave us a rough idea of how close we are to the target.

Essential journey's could have been shown as a separate question but this wouldn't have an impact on the actual footprint.

kittylester. Perhaps try it again and take out or reduce amount of travelling you do that is essential (you and your DH's voluntary work) to give you a personal footprint. I can't remember the exact question.

7.84 75% apparently that's good

So how does someone get 109% ? And someone else 7.6 which they say is the average I don’t understand it some are using percentages some not

92% - is that good?

I don’t understand it-we’re 106%!

83%, apparently on target

Tbh I don’t think it is a scientific exercise but a “nudge” exercise.

Mine was high because I don't use public transport and spend on clothes. I am trying to buy less and ,I must admit, like to see my growing bank balance as a result.

No body is telling me what’s good what’s bad I couldn’t have a lower carbon footprint in my life unless I was dead so am I suppose to be 100% and how does someone then report 109% ?

I m vegi I don’t have a car I don’t have central heating I rarely use planes I cycle or walk I recycle most things including clothes and furniture I grow a lot of my own veg What more can I do ?

I would tell you, Bluebell- if I knew!

I had really hoped that someone would answer your question, because I am puzzled by it too.

My guess is that the percentage (don't know about the non-percentage figures that some people have quoted) shows how far towards the hoped-for 'target' you are.
If that's the case, I suppose 100% would mean that you have reached the target. If so, does 109% mean that person has actually exceded the target?

Came out quite well at 95% but too many variables to mean anything at all.

blue belle. .we're you 96%? its 96% of 2021 target which is 10.5 tonnes per person .so you are under this. However I am surprised you are that high given your lifestyle!

MINE WAS 8.7%

Should I be happy with 89%? It’s not clear to me. It’s very different to Janes 8.7%.

? 11.5? How? You all seem to be much lower.
I don’t use public transport because there is no need or it doesn’t exist. I eat under 100 grams of meat occasionally, I buy local food when I can and very rarely eat out. I have only had one flight this year, to see daughter. I don’t buy stuff except phone/internet fixed price. But they say my main sin is living alone in a flat with no choice of heating, which I only use when very cold and have a small petrol car, which I would change if I had the money.

106%

108%! I am not sure why, probably using gas to heat the house, but there is no allowance for the rooms where the radiators are turned off. I drive a petrol car but my mileage is tiny.

There is also no set-off for the trees and shrubs I have planted and tend dutifully in my garden. Surely any sensible indicator should give you some credit for doing something positive rather than just rapping you over the knuckles for everything else. If you turn your garden into a car park, as many do, surely that is bad for the environment if good for road congestion.

I read that making cement is very bad for the environment but how do we provide houses and update properties without cement? In the end, as we know, this is about us feeling better or worse. If we all lived as monks and nuns in the UK, we would have minimal impact on world CO2 emissions.

silverlining48

Should I be happy with 89%? It’s not clear to me. It’s very different to Janes 8.7%.

I think jane means 8,7 tonnes not the %

it's very rough estimate. ..,it asks how you heat your house. but not how much you use

I think 100% is good, on target, 106% for example, is exceeding target and 95% is well on the way but could do better.

Cunco no, none of this was asked, so it really is not really a scientific test.

9.6 - we bought a new TV last month so I think without that it would have been much lower. Going to make a big effort to improve anyway now.

I bought a new desktop this year (my old one was vintage going on obsolete) and a new mobile (my old Nokia 3410 couldn't take the new SIM Virgin Media forced upon us). So, I am a bad boy this year but next year, will I be good because I won't buy them again?

I have suggested we buy just one present for the grandchildren this Christmas but it didn't go down well. It will be a major task to reverse from consumer society to simple lifestyle with make do and mend, not just here but in the major CO2 producing countries. I am not optimistic but live in hope that technological change will offer a solution.

GagaJo

9.6

Mine includes a flight home this year (so not a round trip, which was the only option), a car that I don't use for the work commute anymore.

It does include meat though. I'm on a low carb, low fat diet so am eating lean meat and veg most of the time.

Mine says 7.17 tonnes - and on target.