Every year I perform a rough Carbon Footprint audit. I’d encourage anyone to do the same so that we can work together to really understand what your outputs are, and really it just focuses the mind, you can’t ‘fool’ yourself. I do yearly working time too!
So let’s summarise 2024 and plan for 2025...
I was going to try and make a record of all my spends which affect my CO2 footprint as in 2023 - I started but that did not happen in the end as it was just too tedious and difficult to keep track of.
I have zero production costs for Housing (over 50 years old), Car (over 11 years old) was changed in May but I didn't record the old mileage so lets say it is the same as last year, Cycle (over 10 years old). So on this basis for 2023
| Type | Sub-Type | CO2 (tonnes) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy Water Food | 0.000 0.120 1.472 | 100% Renewables UK average consumption Flexible Vegan Diet, including 25% Food Waste (reduced from the 33% average) | |
| Travel | Car | 1.155 | Astra 1.8 Design - 04/12/2023 ??,??? miles - 04/12/2024 ??,??? miles = 11058 over 3 years = 3685. All fuel offset. |
| Travel | Public | 0.000 | No Usage - Cycle or Run |
| Travel Clothes Eating Out Online Life | Air | 0.810 0.140 0.000 0.000 | 3 trips to Spain (holidays) with RyanAir at 3600km return at 75g per km = 810kg (0.810) tonnes. All according to https://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx?tab=3 which does not take account of the airline efficiency. All Trips offset. I’ve no clue, but I have limited clothes (my wife would say very limited) so let’s take the UK average of 140kg pa. Included in ‘Food’ above No clue for this year (I didn’t keep a record) - fixed for 2024 |
| Everything | Else | 0.000 | No clue for this year (I didn’t keep a record) - fixed for 2024 |
| Sub-TOTAL Sub-TOTAL | 3.701 1.736 | Total Carbon Offsetting where I can. | |
| Error TOTAL | +10% | 0.370 4.071 | 10% of running total to account for errors in estimations of my personal use. Total Carbon |
Now we can also see the personal targets we should be aiming for and that I need to be at 3.3 tonnes by 2030 and 2.3 by 2040. So the first target is lose 1.3 tonnes in 10 years but let’s try to get to this faster.
So this means that my 2024 consumption is 4.071 or 1.736 offset tonnes of CO2. The current amount a UK citizen consumes is 6 tonnes.
The Plan for 2025
There is no way to record everything (and still keep sane) so that isn't going to happen so I think I can try and look for general figures and look at big purchases.