My Quest

My initial aim with this blog is to show how it is possible to reduce your carbon footprint. I have called it a quest because I don’t imagine it will all be smooth sailing but I’m determined to get my carbon footprint down to ZERO, in effect making me carbon neutral.

So what is my current footprint?

Well, using the calculator on the direct.gov.uk website I have come up with the following:


my carbon footprint
My footprint is the left hand figure of 8.05 tonnes per year – the figure on the right is that of a typical person living in the same situation as me (2 bedroom flat in an urban setting, built before the 1930s, electricity only, 1 occupant). While my footprint is lower than an average person in the same living conditions, compared to the national average (4.46 tonnes per person) I am a fairly heavy polluter. I put this down mainly to the fact that my flat is old, has single glazing, one room is the top floor and I only have electric heaters but I can see opportunities to reduce my footprint right away.

The rough breakdown according to this calculator is:

Home

  • Heating = 3.36 tonnes
  • Hot Water = 1.34 tonnes
  • Lighting = 0.25 tonnes

Appliances

  • Kitchen = 0.57 tonnes
  • Entertainment = 0.42 tones
  • Study = 0.26 tonnes
  • Other = 1.42 tonnes

Travel

  • Flights = 0.36 tonnes
  • Public Transport = 0.07 tones

Total = 8.05 tonnes of CO2 per year