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Dear SmartPlanet, I want to find out the shoe-size of my carbon footprint, but there are so many carbon calculators to choose from. Which is the best one? Lucas, Manchester, UK
Try the government's new Act On CO2 one. Launched in 2007, it's the most user-friendly (broken down into chunks and presented with cute graphics), detailed (right down to TV size and how often you flick it on) and helpful (linking through to green advice appropriate to your answers) that we've used so far.
As you've noticed, there are hundreds of carbon calculators out there -- and because they all do their maths differently, they'll award you wildly different carbon shoe-sizes. For example, we've been told our footprint varies anywhere from 2 to 7.27 tonnes: the average Brit's total carbon emissions are reckoned to be 11.81 tonnes.
Many lack advice on what to do once you've answered the questions (BestFootFoward and NEF, we're looking at you), several are heinously ugly (Resurgence), and some make it hard to work out your total impact (Carbon Neutral Company and Climate Care). Act On CO2 avoids this unholy trinity of problems.
The calculators are also selective as to which bits of your life they use to count towards your footprint. Some just take your gas and electricity bills, plus your flights. Act On CO2's more sophisticated one includes your travel, everything you do at home and the appliances and gadgets you own. It reckons the average UK footprint for those three is 4.48 tonnes.
If the government's calculator doesn't push your buttons, we also like the ones from the WWF and Sky. Unlike many, the WWF's calculator includes food -- good news for local-food-lovers, veggies and anyone who makes meals from scratch -- while Sky's offers handy tips and a choice between a two- and ten-minute version.
Do you have a green shopping dilemma? Want an eco debate settled? Or want to know what a environmental buzzword really means? Email us on green@smartplanet.com and we'll do out best to help out in an upcoming Ask SmartPlanet.
05 August 2008 12:27pm
good review, thanks
you've missed a couple of good ones... MSN and BT
http://environment.uk.msn.com/tools/
you get to see the sky turn purple as you enter your CO2 data on MSN! especially if you have quite big feet!
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