Annual Carbon Footprint Review (2007)
PRIMARY FOOTPRINT
Gas
Major success here as my energy consumption reduced from 4,500 kwH to 3,800 kwH. My carbon footprint from this source has therefore reduced from 0.93 tonnes to 0.78 tonnes (I've taken these figures from the carboonfootprint.com website, as I did originally so there is a revision from last year. I think I was just careful here to make minimum use of the boiler.
Electricity
My footprint is still very small as I use a 100% renewable supplier. My consumption rose slightly last year from 1,600 kwH to 1,700 kwH so perhaps this is a floor.
Car Mileage
I drove 1,621 miles between MOT certificates (down from 1,788 miles from the previous year). My carbon footprint here has reduced from 0.50 tonnes to 0.44 tonnes.
Public Transport
Looking at my expenditure, I estimate I travelled on buses for about (only!) 10 miles, national rail for about 2,100 miles, and the underground for about 25 miles. This produces a footprint of 0.21 tonnes, down from 0.23 tonnes last year.
Flights
None.
SECONDARY FOOTPRINT
Last year's estimate was 5.71 tonnes. The the carboonfootprint.com website now asks a number of questions and comes out with an estimate of 4.59 tonnes although it's quite sensitive to some of the choices so I think this estimate needs to be +/- 1.00 tonne.
Incidentally, by changing my answers this website helps identify the most effective steps I can take next from where I am now (though some of these may not be practical):
Go vegetarian --> save 1.05 tonnes
Only do zero carbon recreation activities --> save 1.00 tonnes
Live without a car --> save 1.00 tonnes
Only buy local produce --> save 0.94 tonnes
Only buy things with little or no packaging --> save 0.89 tonnes
Adjust waste so that everything is recyclable --> 0.62 tonnes
Only buy second hand furniture and applicances --> save 0.44 tonnes
Make do without a bank account (!) --> 0.40 tonnes
Only buy in season food --> save 0.23 tonnes
Only buy second hand clothes --> save 0.22 tonnes
Only buy organic --> save 0.15 tonnes
There is obviously some overlap here (these total 6.94 tonnes whereas in fact there are only 4.59 tonnes to save).
OFFSETS
I have not made any payments directly to offset my footprint although some of my charitable donations were to Rainforest Concern.
SUMMARY
The total result is a footprint of about 6.0 tonnes, down from 7.3 tonnes last year, although much of that is a revision to the estimate. However, I appear to have cut my direct footprint by about 5%.