Carbon footprint calculators
It's been a rainy Saturday morning, so instead of going to shop for seed potatoes and planting them, I've spent the morning by reading all magazines and newspapers that piled up during the week. Helsingin Sanomat had an article on their carbon footprint calculator. The newspaper had asked a consultant to analyze the 63.000 answers saved in the survey. The average footprint there is now 9000 kg of CO2 per year per person. The Finnish target is 5500 kg per person by year 2050, this will be 60% of the CO2 emission level in 1990.
The results were analyzed based on age, gender and income. Men have far bigger carbon footprint than women do throughout their lives, because they drive more. The difference is biggest when people are in their 30's, 40's and 50's, and then reduces when they retire. There's a huge peak for men when they turn 18 and get their first driver's license, from 8500 kg to 10.000 kg, which then reduced back to around 9000 kgs when they turn 19 and 20. From there men put on more carbon emissions every year, with peaks around 32 years and 48 years (both around 11.500 kg). For women, the curve from 18 to 68 years old is much lower and without radical peaks. Women's greatest emissions are when they are between 55 and 65. There are probably two reasons for this. This is a Finnish calculator, and unlike many other calculators it asks if you have a summer house. Summer cottages are very common in Finland, there's about 1 million of them in the country of 5 million people, but their typical owners are the baby boomer generation. Hence, people over 55 are driving long distances from home to summer places and back. The other reason is that the young women of today are far more environmentally conscious than the older generation.
Probably no surprise to anyone that the bigger income you have, the more CO2 you produce. With an annual income less than 15.000 euros per year, your carbon footprint is a bit less than 8000 kg, and people with income over 100.000 euros per year produce over 14.000 kg. The rich will want to have their holidays in Thailand and drive those SUV's.
I calculated my own footprint with several different calculators, and got a bit varying results, although all in the same ballpark. All calculators ask for your personal travel, but exclude business travel. The assumption is that a person cannot influence his or her work related travel. I think that's bull. Most people who have a job that requires continental or oversea travel are in a position where they can influence a lot of things, including their own travel if they really want to. I know I can. This is why I calculated two results with each calculator, one without the work travel and one with 1 travel to San Francisco and 5 travels to UK per year. I included one personal flight to Oulu per year, but that can also be for work.
The Helsingin Sanomat calculator gave me 7,9 tonnes without work travel, and 14,1 tonnes with work travel. A WWF calculator says I produce 6,5 tonnes without the work travel. This calculator did not allow me to re-take the test so I could't see what it would have give me with those 6 flights. A third test in carbonfootpring.com gave 5,2 tonnes without business travel and 8,8 with it.
According to all 3 tests I am below my country average, but knowing that I live in a country that is globally among the worst doesn't make me feel good. I'm going ok with food and waste, byuing a lot of organic and local produce, and recycling and composting everything. The bad areas for me are travel and living. Our house is old and ... well ... let's say well ventilated, and we have electric heating. Although I drive a hybrid car, I live 32 km from work and own a summer house 260 km from my home. Doing the tests was a good reminder how much I can save by working from home more, and spending longer periods at the summer house rather than just drive for weekends. And, of course, cut the business travel.
The results were analyzed based on age, gender and income. Men have far bigger carbon footprint than women do throughout their lives, because they drive more. The difference is biggest when people are in their 30's, 40's and 50's, and then reduces when they retire. There's a huge peak for men when they turn 18 and get their first driver's license, from 8500 kg to 10.000 kg, which then reduced back to around 9000 kgs when they turn 19 and 20. From there men put on more carbon emissions every year, with peaks around 32 years and 48 years (both around 11.500 kg). For women, the curve from 18 to 68 years old is much lower and without radical peaks. Women's greatest emissions are when they are between 55 and 65. There are probably two reasons for this. This is a Finnish calculator, and unlike many other calculators it asks if you have a summer house. Summer cottages are very common in Finland, there's about 1 million of them in the country of 5 million people, but their typical owners are the baby boomer generation. Hence, people over 55 are driving long distances from home to summer places and back. The other reason is that the young women of today are far more environmentally conscious than the older generation.
Probably no surprise to anyone that the bigger income you have, the more CO2 you produce. With an annual income less than 15.000 euros per year, your carbon footprint is a bit less than 8000 kg, and people with income over 100.000 euros per year produce over 14.000 kg. The rich will want to have their holidays in Thailand and drive those SUV's.
I calculated my own footprint with several different calculators, and got a bit varying results, although all in the same ballpark. All calculators ask for your personal travel, but exclude business travel. The assumption is that a person cannot influence his or her work related travel. I think that's bull. Most people who have a job that requires continental or oversea travel are in a position where they can influence a lot of things, including their own travel if they really want to. I know I can. This is why I calculated two results with each calculator, one without the work travel and one with 1 travel to San Francisco and 5 travels to UK per year. I included one personal flight to Oulu per year, but that can also be for work.
The Helsingin Sanomat calculator gave me 7,9 tonnes without work travel, and 14,1 tonnes with work travel. A WWF calculator says I produce 6,5 tonnes without the work travel. This calculator did not allow me to re-take the test so I could't see what it would have give me with those 6 flights. A third test in carbonfootpring.com gave 5,2 tonnes without business travel and 8,8 with it.
According to all 3 tests I am below my country average, but knowing that I live in a country that is globally among the worst doesn't make me feel good. I'm going ok with food and waste, byuing a lot of organic and local produce, and recycling and composting everything. The bad areas for me are travel and living. Our house is old and ... well ... let's say well ventilated, and we have electric heating. Although I drive a hybrid car, I live 32 km from work and own a summer house 260 km from my home. Doing the tests was a good reminder how much I can save by working from home more, and spending longer periods at the summer house rather than just drive for weekends. And, of course, cut the business travel.
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