I have used the method set out in the book 'Carbon Detox' by George Marshall (highly recommended!) to calculate my personal carbon emissions in six main areas: energy for the home, transport (land/international), food, goods and services. Note that this is (necessarily) an estimate, but the purpose is to provide an indication of where my biggest carbon emissions are and opportunities to reduce them.
Energy for the Home: Total emissions = 540kg (UK average = 2900)
Of which gas is 460kg and electricity 620kg, divided by two people.
80% of all energy used in the average UK home goes on heating rooms (~55%) and heating water (25%). I live in a cold, uninsulated house (Energy Performance Certificate rating of about E). Unfortunately, I have not managed to convince my landlord yet of the benefits of sorting this out. On the other hand, I am a low gas user since we rarely put the heating on and the combi boiler is reasonably efficient at producing hot water only when required, so I don't see much opportunity for big wins on space heating while living in my current location.
One obvious way to reduce carbon emissions from my electricity to zero is to switch to a supplier who uses 100% renewables, so I intend to sort that out this month. This will bring my figure for 2014 down to 230kg for gas usage. I will also try putting radiator foil behind our radiators to reduce the amount of heat wasted heating the wall and not the room!
Land transport: Total = 1325kg (UK average = 1490kg)
Car = 195kg (UK average = 1,300kg); Public Transport = 1130kg (UK average = 190kg)
I have based this calculation on mileages for all travel by any mode of transport within the last 3 months (multiplied by four), including visits to Sheffield, Exeter and other places to visit people. I'm rather amused to find that my pattern of consumption is essentially the inverse of most of the UK: I don't own a car (although I hire one occasionally or get lifts), I cycle and take the train everywhere. The fact that this still adds up to a significant amount of carbon is evidence enough that I have work to do to make the railways more sustainable! However, it's worth pointing out that if I had done the same mileage by car, I would have emitted four times as much even allowing for two of us travelling together.
The other thing to note is that last year, I was commuting four days a week from York to Leeds (a 50 mile round trip). This added up to a whopping 9600 miles in a year (1150kg CO2). By changing my working patterns so that I now work only one day a week in Leeds and the rest of the week in our York office, I have reduced that figure to 360kg, which is still one-third of my public transport emissions. So, if you ever thought about working from home one day a week, here's a great reason to do so!
International Transport: Total expected for 2014 = 1500kg, UK average = 1830kg
Flying anywhere is a major source of carbon emissions (approx 500 kg for each return flight from the UK to western Europe, while the same distance on the overnight ferry would be only 100kg). On the other hand, between me and my husband we have one set of parents and two brothers who live abroad, which makes it a bit difficult to avoid international travel altogether. My emissions for the year ahead are based on the assumption that I will make a total of 3 return flights to attend a family wedding in Finland and visit my parents in Holland. A fairly obvious saving would be to reduce this by taking the boat instead (for 1/5 of the carbon!) It's also worth noting that if I consider my average emissions from flying over the last 4 years, I would be way over the UK average at 2,025kg per year, because we visited family in Toronto in 2012 – just one return flight to the east coast of the US/Canada is 4,000kg.
Food: Total = 1840kg, UK average = 2000kg
This is an area where I can easily have a big impact. At the moment, my main saving compared to the average UK person is to avoid throwing away edible food (ie by managing my fridge and eating yummy leftovers) which saves about 200kg per year. Quick wins here would be to adopt organic only produce (reduces total by 50%!), eat a lot less meat and animal products (vegetarians reduce their carbon by 500kg compared to those who eat meat every day, vegans like my brother get theirs down by 1000kg per year!) and buy a compost bin (saving 200kg/year).
Goods and Services: 2000kg (UK average 3310kg)
This is more of an estimate than the other items, based on the assumption that about one third of my disposable income (after rent, bills, food and travel) goes on 'low carbon' spending eg buying 'pre-loved' books and clothes; one third on 'high-carbon' spending such as new electrical items/computers and associated bits like DVDs and one third on everything else (new stuff and savings). Given that the numbers here are hard to calculate, I will just concentrate this year on aiming to buy most things second-hand and ensuring that I keep my electrical appliances until they actually break, given the huge amount of energy which has gone into making them! I will also see if I can get a better calculation method for this aspect.
Government – 1000kg
This figure covers the carbon emitted on my behalf by all the public services I use, from providing clean water, collecting and disposing of waste, and the provision of all kinds of infrastructure (education, healthcare, libraries, government buildings etc). This is something we need to change collectively.
My carbon bottom line is: 7,700kg carbon dioxide equivalent*
This is much better than the national average (12,500kg) but a lot more than the 4,500 to 1,500kg per person per year we need to achieve in the long term. I'll explain in my next post how the target figure has been derived and what I will be doing this year to reduce my bottom line!
* Figures are quoted as “kg of carbon dioxide equivalent” because they include relevantly weighted contributions from other greenhouse gases such as methane (eg from cows and disposing of food waste in landfill sites).
See also:
Storms, Floods and Landslides - how climate change is already affecting us
2014 Challenges
Clearly we need collective action to reduce carbon emissions. This looks like a good place to demand some:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.avaaz.org/en/save_eu_climate_legacy_f/?bUOfmab&v=34364
Clearly we need to do all we can to reduce our personal carbon footprint. A few things I've done for a while now, and which others could do, are:
ReplyDeleteoffer unwanted items on free web sites such as Freegle. I've given away multiple items which would have been sent to land fill. Giving them away allows someone else to use it and thus reducing thier carbon footprint.
Use items on Freegle. Just as effective is taking advantage of free items. I got a nice pair of cycle shoes which I use every day.
Buy second hand. There are many places to get secons hand stuff, charity shops, eBay and gumtree to name a few. Buying used instead of new really reduces your carbon footprint.
If you use a car use an economical one. I commute to the park and ride in a Citroen C1. I know it looks a bit silly, but I don't care. It gets a really good mpg, produces low C02 and because it is petrol has lower particulate emissions than a diesel.
ReplyDeleteI'm not convinced about hybrid vehicles yet. The energy that goes into the production of the batteries is still too much in my opinion. The reason I don't travel by train from home (Malton) is both financial and convenience driven. It is still cheaper to drive than to go by train (or go by bus for that matter).