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Individual actions to reduce your carbon footprint (Other things that have…
Individual actions to reduce your carbon footprint
ENERGY
SHOWER / BATH
NO-BRAINER - aerated shower head reduces hot water needed with minimal impact on experience (HBAB,, 52)
100% RENEWABLE SUPPLIERS
Some debate about how much switching leads to additional green energy supply in UK system vs. selling ROCs to other providers who then don't need to build their own. Also need to consider the marginal impact of using more energy, which is still provided by gas in the UK. (HBAB, 57-59)
Article on double-counting (
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032114009290
)
Buying green energy 1-2.5T per year in Can, Aus, US. Some debate about UK impact. (Wynes / Nicholas)
Renewable switching site (
https://bigcleanswitch.org/about/
)
EST on why this is no substitute for efficiency (
http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/home-energy-efficiency/switching-utilities/buying-green-electricity
)
APPLIANCES
Dishwashers are good! 770g at 55-degrees vs. as much as 8kg by hand if hot tap is running. (HBAB, 63)
Low-heat wash cycles and avoid driers. 30-degree wash, line dried = 0.6kg. 60-degree wash then dried in combined dryer = 3.5kg. (HBAB, 84)
Estimates for cost/emissions from different household appliances (
https://www.carbonfootprint.com/energyconsumption.html
)
LIGHT BULBS
Light on for a whole year. Low-energy, 90kg. Old incandescent bulb 500kg. (HBAB,100)
1010 Lighting tips (
https://1010uk.org/carbon-crush-content/lighting
)
INSULATION
NO-BRAINER: loft insulation (HBAB, 121)
1010 Heating tips (
https://1010uk.org/carbon-crush-content/heating
)
1010 energy tips (
https://1010uk.org/carbon-crush-content/energy-supply
)
TRAVEL
DRIVING
UK average 710g per mile. Up to 3x more on congested road. (HBAB, 65, 107)
Small cars up to 50% more efficient
60mph rather than 70mph saves c10%
Windows, air con, tire pressures all worth c1-2%
N.B. 25% emissions occur before the fuel pump (HBAB, 87)
London to Glasgow return. Coach, 66kg. Train, 120kg. Small car, 330kg. Plane, 500kg. Large four wheel drive, 1100kg. (HBAB, 117)
Buying a new car. Small, 6,000kg. Medium, 17,000kg. Large, 35,000kg. (HBAB, 143)
Living car free, save c1.5T per year (Wynes / Nicholas)
Electric cars still emit 1.15T per year on average (Wynes / Nicholas)
FLYING
Figures include 1.9x multiplier effect for high altitude emissions.
Could be as high as 4x (HBAB, 3)
Flying from London to Hong Kong return. Economy class, 3,000-5,000kg. First class, 13,500kg. (HBAB, 135)
Economy flight equivalent to 340,000 disposable plastic bags, You would have to go to the supermarket for 10 years and get 93 bags each time to equal this.
1.6T per trans-Atlantic flight (Wynes / Nicholas)
TRAIN
CYCLING
50-200g per mile. Usually 10x more efficient than the most efficient car (HBAB, 24)
But two people cycling along using calories from cheeseburgers is equivalent to the same two people sharing a ride in an efficient car (HBAB, 23)
1010 Transport tips (
https://1010uk.org/carbon-crush-content/transport
)
FOOD/DRINK
FRUIT / VEG
ACTION: Avoid anything grown in hothouses and/or flown to the supermarket. Eat what is in season in the UK. Could reduce food footprint by up to 10% (HBAB, 182)
Out of season strawberries (up to 7.2kg per kilo) have 10x higher footprint than local, in season (HBAB, 39)
Single red rose from Netherlands hot house, 2.1kg (HBAB, 68)
250g Asparagus. 125g if local. Up to 3.5kg for airfreight from Peru.
Shipping is 100x more efficient than air/road per food mile (HBAB, 83)
A kilo of tomatoes. 0.4kg in season. 9.1kg average. Up to to 50kg for specialist grown in UK hothouse. (HBAB, 97)
Bananas are great (480g per kilo). Transported on boats. Keep well. Own packaging! (HBAB, 27)
ACTION: Reduce food waste. Could reduce food footprint by c25% (HBAB, 182)
Buy misshapen products to encourage supply chain not to throw it away (HBAB, 27)
MEAT / DAIRY
Pint of milk, 723g (HBAB, 71)
4oz cheeseburger, 2.5kg (HBAB, 86)
Box of eggs, 1.8kg (HBAB, 96)
250g hard cheese, 3kg (HBAB, 106)
ACTION: Reduce meat/dairy consumption. Could reduce food footprint by c25% (HBAB, 182)
Plant-based diet, 800kg per year (Wynes / Nicholas)
lamb is very bad (worse than beef), 17kg per kilo. (HBAB, 111)
OTHER
Bottled water, 160g on average. 1000x more than tap water (HBAB, 43)
Loaf of bread, 1kg. Fine but so much is wasted (HBAB, 77)
1 kilo rice has 4kg footprint. That's more than burning a litre of diesel (HBAB, 89)
1010 food tips (
https://1010uk.org/carbon-crush-content/eating
)
M Berners Lee article on most impactful diet changes (
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421513009701
)
INDIRECT FOOTPRINT
Have to take into account to avoid only looking at "carbon toeprint" (HBAB, 2)
UK indivudual. 10,000kg direct; 15,000kg including imports, international travel, shipping (HBAB, 141)
POLITICAL INFLUENCING
1010 knowledge sharing tips (
https://1010uk.org/carbon-crush-content/knowledge
)
Sources / numbers
HBAB =
How Bad Are Bananas?
, Mike Berners Lee, 2010
All numbers are CO2 equivalent. They are very imprecise but a good indicator of relative impact
Keep an eye on the scale. 1000g =1kg. 1000kg = 1 tonne. 1,000,000g = 1 tonne
Wynes/Nicholas = "The climate mitigation gap: education and government recommendations miss the most effective individual actions", Seth Wynes and Kimberley A Nicholas, [2017] (
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa7541/meta;jsessionid=27A3DB484AD779A48F920DD37B8268AC.ip-10-40-2-120
)
TECHNOLOGY
EMAIL
Average email has 1/60th footprint of a letter. But rebound effect, do we now send 60x more emails? (HBAB, 16)
Average 135kg a year for incoming emails (HBAB, 15)
20m tonnes globally a year from spam, largely due to electricity cost of looking/deleting them (HBAB, 16)
TV
Could cause 15kg a year on standby (HBAB, 32)
COMPUTER
Before buying, 200-800kg. Usage 60-200g an hour. (HBAB, 124)
PLASTIC
NAPPIES (550kg for a child for 2.5 years). For emissions, not clear-cut that reusable are better. Depends on using for multiple children and/or washing / drying approach (HBAB, 38)
1kg plastic, 1.7kg footprint recycled, 3.5kg not recycled (HBAB, 80)
Reusable plastic bags must by used at least 5 times to have a lower footprint than disposable (HBAB, 19)
When someone in the developed world walks home from the shops with a disposable plastic bag full of food, the bag is typically responsible for 1/1000th of the footprint of the food it contains. (HBAB, 18)
WASTE / RECYCLING
NO-BRAINER: Junk mail catalogue, 1600g (HBAB, 44)
NO-BRAINER: Throwing Sunday paper away (4kg) rather than recycling doubles its footprint (HBAB, 48)
Recycling aluminium, plastics and textiles particularly important from footprint perspective (HBAB, 61-63)
Recycled toilet roll (450g), virgin toilet roll (730g) (HBAB, 64)
Other things that have a big footprint
Desalination of a m3 water, 5-23kg (HBAB, 91)
Christmas! 280-1500kg per adult (HBAB, 120)
Your bank! Mortgages allow banks to exist. £100,000 mortgage at 5%, 800kg. (HBAB, 127)
A heart-bypass, 1,100kg (HBAB, 131)
Building a new 2-up, 2-down house, 80,000kg. (HBAB, 149)
Average child living to 79 with UK lifestyle, adjusted to meet 2050 climate targets, 373,000kg. (HBAB, 151)
58.6T per year (Wynes / Nicholas)
Includes grandchildren. A US family who chose to have one less child would provide the same level of emissions reducations as 684 teenagers who chose to adopt comprehensive recycling for the rest of their lives.
A hectare, 100m x 100m of deforestation, 500,000kg. (HBAB, 154)
CLOTHING
Typically about 2% total footprint for a UK individual (HBAB, 94)
Cotton jeans (6kg) vs nylon trousers (3kg), excluding washing (HBAB, 94)
Leather shoes, 15kg. Synthetic shoes, 8kg. (HBAB, 105)
