What's your footprint on this planet?


Footprint Calculators

There are some fairly complicated carbon calculators around - personally I prefer the simple life.  Here are some calculators you can use to help you work out what impact you’re having on the planet. 

Take them (or one or more of them) now and then in a few months’ time you could repeat the process to see what’s changed.  The range of carbon calculators is growing all the time so you can pick one to suit you and what you want to find out about in your own case.

  • WWF has an Environmental Footprint Questionnaire which covers food, travel, your home (e.g. how it’s powered), the stuff you buy, your pets if you have any, what recycling you do.

  • There’s an Ecological Calculator when you can find out what your personal overshoot day is (i.e. when you’ve used up all the resources earth can provide for you and your life before you expect the planet to go into the red looking after you).  This is with the Global Footprint Network.  It also covers food, travel, your home and you can either do this simply or provide more detail to give a more accurate assessment.  It provides solutions at the end that you might want to do.

  • Stand for Trees has a calculator which is quick and easy to use – I like this one because it’s very simple – and it reminds us of WHY this all matters.

  • National Geographic has water saving tips

  • The Vegan Society has a Carbon Food Calculator – you can calculate the greenhouse gas footprint of your food menu choices.   Join in Plate up for the Planet (it’s free) and you can join all those people who are going vegan for 7 days.

  • And the BBC also has a Climate Change Food Calculator.  Pick one food (they have 34 listed) and say how often you have it and it will give you’re your footprint. 

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  • Omnicalculator also has a Plastic Footprint Calculator and it’s also got lots of interesting information about plastic and how long it’s around for which is well worth a look.  View it here   It also tells you how your compares with the average person around the world.

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Are all these footprint calculators going to be accurate?  I don’t know exactly how accurate they are, but what I do know is that doing them can give you a few pointers into what you’re doing to drive climate change and tips and advice on how you can change that.  I think they make a good starting point to help us all work out what twe need to do differently.