Carbon Footprint
Your Carbon Footprint - Understanding Your Impact
Before thinking about what we can do, it helps to understand our individual impact. The internationally recognised way of measuring this is the carbon footprint.
My Carbon Calculator
Slide the bars to match your everyday life. Then see your footprint grow!
How far does your family drive in a normal week?
Greener than the car!
Miles you cycle each week instead of driving.
Cycling = 0 CO₂e - the cleanest way to travel.
Total hours in a plane each year.
Days a week you eat meat.
A typical UK home uses about 55 kWh a week.
Clothes, gadgets, toys, etc.
General waste, not recycling.
Percentage moved to a responsible / sustainable fund.
0% switchedAt 0% switched, your pension and investments are adding about 19 tonnes of CO₂e every year. Switching is up to 21x more effective than stopping flying (Make My Money Matter).
Learn more at makemymoneymatter.co.uk. Rob will update this saving figure once confirmed.
Your footprint over a...
In one year you'd release about
19 tonnes
of CO₂e 🌳
Higher than the UK average. Lots of room to shrink it!
That's like the work of 908 mature trees soaking up CO₂ for a year. 🌳
Where it comes from
- Car0 kg
- Bus/Train0 kg
- Cycling0 kg
- Flights0 kg
- Food0 kg
- Home energy0 kg
- Shopping0 kg
- Waste0 kg
- Pension / investments19 tonnes
Estimates based on Carbon Trust and WWF Footprint Calculator methodology, cross-checked with Mike Berners-Lee's “How Bad Are Bananas?”. UK average is around 7.7 tonnes CO₂e per adult per year. Real footprints vary, but small changes add up to big ones!
What Is a Carbon Footprint?
- The average UK adult carbon footprint is around 7.7 tonnes CO₂e per year (UK Government figures).
- CO₂e = Carbon Dioxide Equivalent - the standard way of measuring all greenhouse gases together.
Where Do UK Emissions Come From?
UK
GHG sources
- Domestic Transport31%
- Buildings & Product Uses22%
- Agriculture13%
- Industry11%
- Electricity Supply10%
- Fuel Supply7%
- WasteLearn more6%
- LULUCF0.1%
- For more on cutting household waste, see Resource Demand & Waste or the UK Government's UK waste data.
Source: HM Government DESNZ 2025 provisional greenhouse gas emissions.
Key insight
Transport and Buildings combined account for over 53% of UK emissions. These are the sectors where you and I have the most direct influence.
International Transport
- UK Domestic Transport GHGs (2025): 112,900,000 tonnes
- International Aviation & Shipping (2025): 36,000,000 tonnes
- Total UK Transport GHGs: 148,900,000 tonnes - 36.56% of all UK emissions
Now that you know where the emissions come from, here's what you can do about it.