Individual Level: Self-help

Now we get to the nitty gritty. We’ve looked at our planet, our nation, our region and our house but now it’s time to look at ourselves.

If we divided our 30 billion tonnes of emissions between our 6 billion population we would come out with a figure of roughly 5 tonnes per person but, as we already know, there are a few inequalities in how the weight is distributed. UN statistics put the UK per capita emissions at 9.4 tonnes but, if we take into account international travel and importing, it is more likely to be around 11 tonnes of CO2 (The Carbon Trust). 

About 3 to 4 tonnes of this are used in the house on heating, washing, cooking and lighting which we have already looked at. However there are other sources in our lives that also have an important impact.

The big T
Transport is a big one in the UK. It may be a far bigger problem in the USA and Australia but that doesn’t give us any reason to relax. Going back to averages, a typical British car carrying a typical 1.2 people (scary in itself that this is the average amount of people in a car) emits 0.18 kg of CO2 per person per kilometre travelled. So a daily commute of say 20 miles to work or 32 km would produce 5.76 kg which over a year would be 1.4 tonnes of CO2. And that’s not taking into account the indirect emissions to make the car or its upkeep.

In comparison the average emissions when you take the train are 0.04g of CO2 per person per kilometre and the same for a coach. For the same daily commute that would be 0.3 tonnes CO2 which is at least a quarter of that of a car.

And now we come to the really big one – flying. Thanks to the abundant cheap flights Britons are one of the worst offenders. However there is no agreed idea what the emissions are per head. The Carbon Trust put them at 0.68 tonnes where as Goodall suggests they are 1.6 tonnes. What’s for certain is that they are still high. We may criticise the Americans for never setting foot outside their backyard, but this is more than double the rate for the average US citizen.

And to give you some idea of how this breaks down in terms of separate flights, a return flight from Europe to Miami weighs in on the scales at 2.5 tonnes of CO2. A return flight to Malaga would represent 0.4 tonnes.

Food for thought
Our fridge may be humming out the CO2 emissions, but what’s inside it isn’t much better. In total food makes up another whopping 1.3 to 1.4 tonnes CO2 of our footprint annually. So-called food miles are a contributor to this: the transportation of out tasty tomatoes or our ‘fresh’ strawberries gives them a carbon footprint before they’ve even reached our mouths. A quarter of the trucks on our roads are carrying food and raw materials for the food industry.

However an even greater problem is the growing and processing of food. Manufacturing fertiliser, heating greenhouses and food processing are all major energy guzzlers. In fact, it is probably better to buy organically grown tomatoes from Spain than those cultivated in a UK greenhouse with lots of fertiliser, despite the food miles attached to our Mediterranean produce.

Carbon footprint of Christmas
An analysis of the carbon footprint of Christmas in the UK shows that consumption of items such as food, travel, lighting and gifts at Christmas produces as much as 650 kg of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per person - equal to 5.5% of the UK annual carbon footprint. Over Christmas, the average person could produce as much as:

• 26 kg of CO2 from Christmas food
• 96 kg of CO2 from Christmas Car travel
• 218 kg of CO2 from extravagant lighting displays
• 310 kg of CO2 on Christmas Shopping
  Source: Stockholm Environmental Institute

Being a vegetarian helps and it’s estimated that vegetarians have a dainty footprint that is half the weight of omnivores (although that’s only if they don’t eat large amounts of dairy). If you can eat organic you could also shed half your tonnage, largely because of the savings in fertiliser.

Of course eating out is another heavy spender. A restaurant meal generates about 8kg of CO2 per diner. Drinks packaging is another area of impact. Making one beer can emits 0.17 kg of CO2 and since the average person gets through 120 cans in a year that adds up to 0.2 tonnes of CO2.

To look at it another way…
Each of the following activities add 1 kg of CO2 to your personal carbon footprint:

• Travel by public transportation (train or bus) a distance of 10 to 12 km (6.5 to 7 miles)
• Drive with your car a distance of 6 km or 3.75 miles (assuming 7.3 litres petrol per 100 km or 39 mpg)
• Fly with a plane a distance of 2.2 km or 1.375 miles
• Operate your computer for 32 hours (60 Watt consumption assumed)
• Production of 5 plastic bags
• Production of 2 plastic bottles
• Production of 1/3 of an American cheeseburger
  Source: www.timeforchange.org

To sum up…
So by looking at the bigger picture and then focusing on ourselves we can see how we contribute to what is happening around us. The next step is to see how we as individuals can remedy the situation through what might seem like relatively small actions.

Just as we divided that huge 30 billion figure down to our everyday actions so our everyday actions can add up to decreasing those 13 zeros of 30,000,000,000,000 tonnes of emissions.

In our ‘What can I do’ pages we offer tips and ideas of what you can do to help. You don’t have to do all of them, but if you choose the ones that seem do-able you can start to build up a repertoire of energy-saving (and often-money-saving) actions that can decrease your footprint significantly.