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Environment: treading lightly on the Earth
Environment: treading lightly on the Earth

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4.4.2 How can you reduce your carbon footprint?

There are many websites that provide information and inspiration for home eco-refurbishment, lower-carbon transport options, and other green technologies and lifestyle changes. Some give the cost of different actions, available subsidies and the time to pay back any expenditure involved. There are also apps available to download that aim to make it easier and more convenient for users to reduce their impact on the environment – for example, ‘Too Good To Go’, which aims to reduce food waste.

You will now return to the carbon calculator to explore how you might be able to reduce your carbon footprint to a target level.

Activity 8 Reducing your carbon footprint

Timing: Allow about 1 hour 30 minutes

Use the carbon calculator to explore how to reduce your carbon footprint to your chosen target by following the steps below.

  • Open the carbon calculator [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .
  • With the calculator running go to the Summary tab and open your ‘existing’ footprint from Activity 7. ).
  • On the Target screen, select either a Personal OR a Government reduction target.
    • Personal target: first select the ‘Accept footprint’ button to set Your existing footprint value. Your footprint on the bar chart and Summary screen will appear in the box. Then in the box below type in your chosen percentage reduction target.
    • Government targets: select a percentage reduction (50%, 65% or 75%) on the UK Average consumption-based footprint.
  • Use the calculator to explore how your existing footprint might be reduced to your chosen target level. Do this by selecting the calculator’s tabs and changing answers to the questions.
  • When you are satisfied that you have reached – or done your best to reach – your target, save your reduced footprint using a different name (e.g. ReducedFootprint1)
  • FAQs can be found here.
Described image
Figure 15 Target screen: My Existing Footprint 1 saved and a Personal target of a 25% reduction on that existing footprint set
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This figure shows the Target screen of the OU carbon calculator after a student has answered the questions to calculate their existing personal carbon footprint, and then decided on either a Government or a Personal target.

On the far left are the fourteen tabs that access the calculator’s screens. From top to bottom the tabs are Welcome; Your household: Room heating; Water heating; Appliances; Travel; Flying; Food; Income; Goods; Infrastructure; Summary; Target; Decarbonisation.

In the centre of the screen is the main panel with the heading ‘Target’. Under this some text reads: ‘Choose a percentage carbon footprint reduction target. You will try to meet the target by changing your answers to the calculator’s questions. Either choose a Personal target and set a percentage reduction on your existing carbon footprint. Or choose a Government reduction target on the ‘Average UK footprint’ and select from the Government target options.’

Under this text there are three radio buttons labelled: No target; Personal target; Government target. The student has chosen a Personal target to reduce their existing personal footprint by 25%. Under this there are options to set the Government target.

On the right of the screen are two stacked bar charts, the bar charts represent the student’s existing personal footprint (before they have amended the calculator entries to try and meet their reduction target) labelled You, and a footprint for an average UK inhabitant, labelled ‘Average’. The left hand stacked bar, labelled You, shows the student’s existing carbon footprint 12.70 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year and its components, such as Home energy at 1.93 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year; Travel at 2.05 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year; Food at 2.50 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year, and so on. The right hand stacked bar, labelled Average, shows the same information for an average UK inhabitant. There is a red horizontal line to illustrate where the You footprint needs to be for a 25% personal reduction target. The red line also crosses the Average footprint bar chart for comparison.

Figure 15 Target screen: My Existing Footprint 1 saved and a Personal target of a 25% reduction on that existing footprint set

If you haven’t managed to reach your target, you have the option of further reducing your footprint via emission reduction measures that could be paid towards by you but are undertaken by government or others in Activity 13 in Section 5.