This year's carbon footprint calculation

So, has a year of trying to live a better life made a difference?

Yes!

In all, my carbon footprint is a whopping 64% lower than last year at 6.9 tonnes, (or 15.9 tonnes without adjustment for flight offsetting and switching to green electricity)

The main positive changes are:

• Lower secondary footprint (-24%) due to lifestyle changes (less red meat, more recycling)
• Lower gas bill (-53%) even though we live in a bigger house - the boiler is quite new, and this seems to have made a huge difference. We have also turned down the thermostat, and turned off radiators in rooms we don't use.
• Less driving - 4,000 fewer miles, due to (a) moving so we don't have to drive so far to see people, and (b) our low-carbon holiday
• ... but this was more than made up for by 3,000 kms in a Toyata Hiace around New Zealand :(
  
• Offsetting all flights
• Moving to a green energy provider

On the downside, our trip to NZ made my personal flight contribution look pretty bad. Combined with two business trips to the US, this means that flights made up 54% of my footprint (before offsetting). This seems to be the main problem: how to reduce the impact from flying, without compromising on the need to see family and friends, and to fulfill the requirements of my job?




I used the Carbon Footprint site again, which now proudly claims to be the "webs leading carbon footprint calculator" (having seen the Government's attempt, this is not too ambitious a claim - more on this later). It has evolved to so that you can get a more accurate quote for your secondary footprint based on your lifestyle (I particularly enjoyed the wording of some of these options: "I enjoy carbon intensive leisure pusuits...").


The Carbon Footprint site reports that the UK average footprint has also reduced 11% to 9.8 tonnes, which is great news, but unfortunately the worldwide average needs to reduce to 2 tonnes per head to combat climate change. So we still have our work cut out...