A short review of C02 calculators
WWF - My favourite
footprint.wwf.org.uk
10 mins
Hands down the best, as well as being most relevant and useful for my personal lifestyle. The calculator addresses several points about home, food, travel and what they call ‘stuff’. I loved that it had a very positive, action taking approach to encourage change and was super easy to fill out. This one would be my recommendation.
My Climate - Enables donations to sustainable projects
co2.myclimate.org
2 mins
A very simple and quick calculator that considers seven elements surrounding mobility, food and household emissions. Rather then being specific to exact individual use or consumption, results are based on answering questions with one of 3 choices to see what level you are at. This is a non-profit organisation that enables you to financially compensate your emissions by funding social and environmental projects. It also has more detailed calculators for travel and is also interesting for companies who what to look into, and offset their emissions.
Conservation International - Geared towards Americans
www.conservation.org
6 mins
A calculator created for people living in America with the focus on tree and forest conservation. The results then show you how many trees are needed to offset your carbon footprint. You are also able to give a financial donation to projects. It covers household usage, daily transportation habits as well as flights in more detail. The calculator requests a little more information than myclimate or wwf and also offers quantitative facts of the average usage in America.
Carbon Footprint - The most detailed, but also difficult to complete
www.carbonfootprint.com
25+ mins
This was by far the most in-depth and individualised calculator, and demands a lot of specific information. They also give consideration to country differences to show the local average emissions. The process of filling it out was great at ensuring you give proper thought to your personal consumption habits, but was quite challenging to actually complete. I particularly struggled with stating my energy use in kilowatts, so resorted to googling an average that probably wasn’t so reflective of my lifestyle. My recommendation is to take a look at it and gather the information over a period of 3, 6 or 12 months to get the most accurate and useful results. Visit their C02 Reduction Section too for interesting tips and extras.
CHALLENGE 1 – I never liked my big feet! – Better Me Green
October 9, 2019 @ 7:55 pm
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