3.1 Calculating your carbon footprint
How big is your carbon footprint? And what are the main contributors to your carbon footprint? You will now use the OU carbon calculator to estimate your personal footprint and identify your actions which contribute to it.
Activity 5 Your carbon footprint
a. Following the steps below, use the OU carbon calculator to work out your individual carbon footprint.
- Open the carbon calculator, in a new window or tab, by clicking on this link: OU carbon calculator.
- Click on ‘Next’ on the Welcome screen to start.
- Answer the questions on the calculator’s tabs from ‘Your Household’ to ‘Goods’ for your existing situation. (There are no questions to answer in the ‘Infrastructure’ tab). You’ll find that some questions are fairly general and don’t exactly fit your personal situation and there are options that require estimates (or even ‘guestimates’). So you’ll have to choose answers or values that fit your situation as closely as possible.
- Note that some questions refer to the whole household and some to you personally. If the question asks what do ‘you’ do (e.g. How many minutes do you spend in the shower?) it means you personally, unless it’s clear that all household members are involved (e.g. What main fuel do you use to heat your hot water?).
- For help in using the carbon calculator go to the FAQs page.
- Select ‘Next’ on the Welcome screen to start.
- Answer the questions on the calculator’s tabs from ‘Your Household’ to ‘Goods’ for your existing situation. You’ll find that some questions are fairly general and don’t exactly fit your personal situation and there are options that require estimates (or even ‘guestimates’). So you’ll have to choose answers or values that fit your situation as closely as possible.
- Note that some questions refer to the whole household and some to you personally. If the question asks what do ‘you’ do (e.g. How many minutes do you spend in the shower?) it generally means you personally, unless it’s clear that all household members are involved (e.g. What main fuel do you use to heat your hot water?).
- Additional guidance and FAQs can be found here.
The right-hand panel of the carbon calculator screens includes two bar charts – the ‘You’ and UK ‘Average’ carbon footprints. As you answer the carbon calculator questions, the effect on your footprint will be shown on the ‘You’ bar chart and in the data on Summary screen.
- You can make changes to your answers as many times as you like until you are satisfied you have the best estimate of your footprint. When you are satisfied that you have the best estimate of your existing footprint; go to the Summary tab. Then name (e.g. ExistingFootprint1) and save a record of your footprint
Figure 11 below shows the OU carbon calculator ‘Summary’ footprint screen, with an example existing carbon footprint for a hypothetical student (in the left-hand column of the table and the left-hand bar chart) and the UK average (mean) carbon footprint (in the right-hand column of the table and the right-hand bar chart).
b. The carbon calculator is a simplified computer model of the real world. Why is such a model useful, and what is the implication of it being based on the consumption perspective for measuring carbon footprints?
Answer
The carbon calculator is a useful model because it allows individuals to calculate their carbon footprint and explore options for changing it.
Being a consumption-based model, the calculator assumes that individual and household consumption is ultimately responsible for triggering most GHG emissions, so decisions by individuals could significantly reduce the nation’s footprint.
OpenLearn - Environment: treading lightly on the Earth
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