Introduction
The following calculator will allow you to work out a meaningful estimate of your Carbon Footprint. It was developed by TECs but is available for anyone to use. You will need to collect some information on what you use and spend. The more complete this is the more representative the results will be. Enter your data in the fields using the units/measures indicated, you can work out what these are from your bills or other records. Some entry fields have a down arrow when selected, you will need to select from a number of options.
The resulting Annual CO2 emission under each heading is based on your inputs and mainly government data for the year specified. The areas are arranged in order of accuracy, starting with Building as being the most accurate ans Stuff as the least accurate. Nevertheless, we believe these provide an acceptable estimate of your Carbon Footprint for the amount of effort to input your consumption.
Note that the emissions calculated here are consumption-based, so include emissions of net imports. (Production-based emissions measure only the emissions produced in the country.)
In Teignbridge, we need to reduce our Carbon emissions by ~14.4% year on year, if we are to stay below 2 deg C increase, the point at which we are likely to get runaway Climate Change! Please refer to the Budget Tracking tab.
Try to be as accurate as possible, if you don't have the exact data you can usually estimate this in other ways, contact TECs for help.
All feedback is welcome.
Notes about the app.The TECs Carbon Footprint Tracker app is part of the TECs E-Pack programme - see TECs Energy-Assessment Introduction. for more details. The CFT is available to everyone as a starting point to find out where they are and where they need to get to in terms of Climate Change. This app has been designed to be as simple to use as possible yet provide meaningful information. It is particularly useful for anyone who wants to find out more about their Energy use and associated GHG emissions. It is, however, only the start of the journey which we hope will raise questions about what to do next. Questions the rest of the E-Pack should help answer.
Although part of the E-Pack, the CFT can be used independently by anyone. It is only available as an on-line app hosted on the TECs website. The user’s personal data is stored in a file on their personal device. Only the user has access to this, The app will only process this data within the private file. TECs will never copy, use or access any personal data for any purpose.
The app is accessible through an internet browser. Browsers tested are:
Google Chrome ; Microsoft Edge ; Mozilla Firefox
Other browsers not fully tested by TECs but used by members include:
Apple Safari
There are very many Carbon Footprint Calculators available on the internet and elsewhere. These can be free to use or, for those that provide a greater degree of analysis, require a fee/subscription. The majority of the more accessible calculators tend to be based on generic information (e.g. national averages or ‘typical’ examples). To make their use as simple as possible, i.e. with minimal effort from the user. The information entered would be readily available (e.g. number of bedrooms or type of diet). Some of the more sophisticated calculators require the user to input £ spent, miles driven, and kWh consumed. These can become over complicated for most users and are intended more for professionals to assess carbon emissions for organisations.
The CFT attempts to strike a balance between ease of use and a meaningful, personalised footprint calculation. This means that in some areas we’ve had to compromise on accuracy to achieve ease of use. Nevertheless, we believe it provides sufficient accuracy for a first order assessment while remaining accessible to the vast majority who want to calculate their footprint.
It is not aimed at making people aware that Climate Change is a serious issue, an emergency. The target users of the CFT are those who have a good degree of appreciation of the challenge. They are interested in doing something about this, something different to what they have been doing already. They may also want to talk to others about this but need to get an understanding of their own GHG emissions as well as the app and possibly the E-Pack programme itself.
The app is therefore available to anyone, but it only represents an initial assessment. For those users who wish to access further details of their energy consumption and GHG emissions in the different areas identified, this is provided by further elements of the E-Pack and/or support to TECs Members. This process, tools, apps and support are there to help them achieve the best assessment of their Energy use for the level of input and skill they want to put into it. The main differences between this app and most others offered commercially or free on the web are:
- it is completely personalised, in other words it is based on the user’s consumption data making as accurate as possible for the amount of user effort needed;
- it is comprehensive covering every aspect of consumption and GHG emissions;
- It is largely based on UK government published data for GHG intensities as well as other UK and European sources in some areas;
- It includes a target tracking facility based on the 2018 IPCC report as implemented by the Tyndell Centre.
Each year you should enter your data for the preceding year. You cannot select a year for which there isn't government data (carbon factors).
Select Year
| Enter year to which calculation relates: |
The reference year for Budget Tracking is 2019. If you have not entered previous years back to and including 2019, the app will extrapolate your first entry year back to 2019. This will be done on the basis of government historic changes to GHG emissions for Teignbridge. Please refer to the notes in Budget Tracking for further explanations or contact TECs.
If you wish to remove data for the current year press
If you wish to clear out all saved footprint data and start again press
If you have saved your data to file and wish to restore it press
Now select the file containing the results you want to restore.
People
| Enter the number of people in household, building or organisation: |
Buildings
Enter usage for each energy source available to you, using meter readings and bills where these are available.
The first cell is a dropdown list which allows you to select each of your energy sources.
As you enter each source the table automatically expands for you to include more.
Private Transport
Enter data for all vehicles used. Start entering vehicles by Selecting Fuel Type. As you enter each source the table automatically expands for you to include more.
For Battery-EV and Plug-in-Hybrids, only enter mileage from charging away from home. For Plug-in-Hybrids make two entries:
- One for electricity from charging away from home.
- One for petrol/diesel used.
You will need to calculate/estimate the mileage for each seperately, please ask TECs for help if you are unsure how to do this.
You can use your MOT certificate for your annual mileage, you can find it here: https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history
If you do not have your actual fuel consumption, select the 'calculate' option for consumption. You can measure this for a representative trial period. Record the fuel used in the period and the mileage covered. To enter figures from the trial period, press the additional calculate button. Make sure you have selected correct units to match those of the trial period.
| ID: | |||
| Fuel purchased in period: | Litres | ||
| Mileage in period | Miles | ||
Public Transport
Enter all modes of transport that you've used. As you enter each mode the table automatically expands for you to include more. Enter the total distance travelled by each.
You should enter the total distance travelled by each individual. So if 2 people travel 100 miles by bus you should enter 200 miles. You can either add up all your journeys by a mode of transport together and enter one figure, or enter individual trips.
Food
Enter your diet type (or nearest approximation). You can enter several diets for occupants with different diets. As you enter each diet the table automatically expands for you to include more.
Enter data for all food/drink purchases for your household, include own preparation, restaurants and takeaways.
If unsure of annual expenditure, you can use the annual UK average of £5050 based on average expenditure per person of £2525
Stuff
Enter your annual spend on products. This covers all new items you purchase other than food, drink and fuels, so including clothing & footwear, appliances, vehicles, consumables, tools, etc.
If you are unsure of your annual product expenditure, you can use the annual UK average used as default £7587 based on average expenditure per person of £3793
Services are fixed based on a set amount per person in the UK multiplied by the number of people you ave entered. This covers public expenditure (e.g. Health, education, etc), finance, legal and other service sectors.
New build or new/leased vehicles can be entered separately in the next tabs. This is because conversion factors for these are different.
New buildings
New Buildings and extensionsUse this section for:
- New buildings bought
- Custom built new buildings
- Extensions to an existing building
Retrofitting and refurbishment should be included under your total for goods.
GHG emissions from building are more closely related to the floor area of the building than its cost, which often includes a significant amount for land.
The method of construction will also have some effect, select the type of your new building/extenstion from:
- Concrete frame
- Traditional brick
- Timber frame
If you know the embedded emissions from your building's construction you can also enter these manually, this is likely to be the case if you have commissioned a building using sustainable materials.
By default new buildings built in 2019 are included in your baseline and all buildings are included in cumulative figures. As the embedded emissions in buildings can dwarf other emissions this can lead to an unachievable budget or a very generous one. You can use the include options to determine if a building is included in:
- Baseline & Cumulative
- Cumulative only
- Neither
New Vehicles
Use this section for any vehicle bought or leased/rented under 2 years old. Please refer to the notes for more details.
You can find the weight of your vehicle in its user manual or on-line, it is also displayed on the body of the vehicle.
Notes on New and Leased vehiclesNew and Leased vehicles
There are two things that make up the embedded emissions from a new or near new vehicle:
- The embedded emissions associated with the manufacture of the vehicle.
- The proportion of emissions associated with the method of finance.
Manufacture emissions
We have considered various studies of embedded emissions over the last few years and considered how these relate to:
- The new price of the vehicle
- The unladen weight of the vehicle
Neither of these is ideal, but unladen weight correlates better than price, so we use that.
Using only weight underestimates the embedded emissions of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) so a constant is added to compensate for this.
Apportionment due to finance
In principle the embedded emissions from having a vehicle arise from its manufacture and so are attributable to when it is first purchased. Leasing and rental models can mean that you have a new or nearly new vehicle without purchasing it. If you didn't take advantage of these methods of finance, the vehicle wouldn't have been made, so you should still be responsible for some of its emissions. We consider the following cases:
| Method | Description | Treatment |
|---|---|---|
| New purchase | Outright purchase of a new vehicle using finance where you end up owning the vehicle. | Responsible for all emissions |
| Long term lease | Lease of a new vehicle for more than 2 years | Responsible for all emissions |
| Short term lease | Lease or rental for less than 2 years. | Responsible for a proportion of emissions equal to length of lease in years divided by 3. |
| Nearly new | Purchase of a vehicle less than 2 years old. | The emissions are reduced by the age of the vehicle in years divided by 3. |
| Second hand | Purchase of a vehicle over 2 years old. | 0 - as emissions have already been accounted for. |
Finance contracts come under a number of different names, not all of which are covered by the table above. Ownership of the vehicle at the end of the finance contract is the critical factor in determining if finance is a lease or purchase.
- Lease - at the end of the contract you do not end up with ownership of the vehicle.
- Purchase - at the end of the contract you end up with ownership of the vehicle.
The embedded emissions from Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) have very different characteristics to Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles.
Where you know the embedded emissions from manufacturer or other sources you can enter these manually.
By default vehicles bought in 2019 are included in your baseline and all buildings are included in cumulative figures. As the embedded emissions in vehicles can be quite large this can lead to an unachievable budget or a generous one. You can use the include options to determine if a vehicle is included in:
- Baseline & Cumulative
- Cumulative only
- Neither
Summary
| Year: |
No year selected
Track your emissions
Your emissions history already entered is summarised on this page. 2019 sets a baseline from which a Paris Agreement targets are calculated for each of the following years. Compare your actuals against the targets below.
Your total budget is shown on the righthand side. As you enter your consumption each year, this budget will 'fill up' as your actual emissions increase year on year.
The targets for Teignbridge residents reduce at 14.4%, which is a figure suggested by the Tyndall Centre local authority reports. You can adjust the reduction rate here % for other districts in the UK.
Total
Individual
The 2018 IPCC report and the Tyndall’s Centre implementation of this for UK ‘lower tier’ planning authorities is essentially a statement of how much more net GHG emissions we can emit before we exceed a limit that will trigger ‘runaway Climate Change’. This total budget has been ‘fairly’ allocated to countries/regions and annual budgets set that would keep us ‘well below 2OC temperature rise’.
Save your Data
Your data is now stored in local storage in your browser.
Now that you have entered all that data it is a good idea to save it to a file. This will enable you to restore it later to either another device or retrieve your data should it be lost for any reason.
Press to save to file now.
Your file will called mycarbonfootprint.json, where this will be saved depends on your browser and browser setting:
- If you do not have prompting before saving enabled, then it will be saved in the downloads folder on your computer.
- If you have prompting before saving enabled, then you will be prompted to choose a folder.
Restore your Data
If you have saved your data to file and wish to restore it press
Now select the file containing the results you want to restore.
Start again from scratch
If you want to discard all your data entered so far and start again press
